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AUTHOR: 
 
 GREEN, JOHN 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 CONQUEST OF 
 ENGLAND 
 
 M Lj./^. \^^ K.^' m 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DA TE : 
 
 1883 
 
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 Green, John Richard. 18:^7-1883. 
 
 The conquest of England, by John Richard Green ... 
 AVith i>oi trait and maps. New York, Harper & brothers, 
 
 1884: 1883. 
 
 - xxvll p.. 1 I.. 007 p. Incl. luaps. front, (port.) uiaps. 22 cm. 
 Edited by AHc« Stopford Greeo. 
 
 Copy in Barnard. 1883. 
 
 1 (;t Hilt— Hist— Anglo-Saxon period, 44a-106«. I. (ireen. 
 Alice Soi.hlH Amelltt (Stopford) 1*48^1020, ed. n. Title. 
 
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THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 
 
THE 
 
 CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN RICHARD GREEN, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 HONORARY FELLOW OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 AUTHOR OF "history OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE" ** SHORT HISTORY OF THE 
 ENGLISH people" " THE MAKING OF ENGLAND" ETC. 
 
 toitb Portrait anb fltaps 
 
 « 
 
 • t ,• « 
 
 ^;i|vXV' YORK 
 HARPER &■ BROIHERS FRANKLIN SQUARE 
 
 I 884 
 

 4mi^' 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 39 .46 85 5 
 
 
 » , « 
 
 • * 
 
 •' '.• 
 
 • , 
 
 • • 
 
 • * •. . . 
 
 
 » • • » . 
 
 A FEW words of introduction are needed to the 
 following unfinished story of the " Conquest of Eng- 
 land," in which I may explain how far these pages, 
 in their present form, represent the final work and 
 intention of their writer. I cannot do this save by 
 giving some short account of how the book was 
 written, and the tale of the two volumes, the " Mak- 
 ing of England " and the " Conquest of England," 
 forms, in fact, but one story. 
 
 After Mr. Green had closed his fourth volume of 
 his " History of the English People," an apparent 
 pause in the illness against which he had long been 
 struggling made it seem possible that some years 
 of life might yet lie before him. For the first time 
 he could look forward to labor less fettered and 
 hindered than of old by stress of weakness, in 
 which he might gather up the fruit of past years 
 of preparation ; and with the vehement ardor of a 
 new hope he threw himself into schemes of work 
 till then denied him. But he had scarcely begun 
 to shape his plans when they were suddenly cut 
 down. In the early spring of i88i he was seized 
 by a violent attack of illness, and it needed but a 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 little time to show that there could never be any 
 return to hope. The days that might still be left 
 to him must henceforth be conquered day by day 
 from death. In the extremity of ruin and defeat 
 he found a higher fidelity and a perfect strength. 
 The way of success was closed, the way of coura- 
 geous effort still lay open. Touched with the spirit 
 of that impassioned patriotism which animated all 
 his powers, he believed that before he died some 
 faithful work might yet be accomplished for those 
 who should come after him. At the moment of 
 his greatest bodily weakness, when fear had deep- 
 ened into the conviction that he had scarcely a few 
 weeks to live, his decision w^as made. The old 
 plans for work were taken out, and from these a 
 new scheme was rapidly drawn up in such a form 
 that if strength lasted it might be wrought into a 
 continuous narrative, while if life failed some fin- 
 ished part of it might be embodied in the earlier 
 '' History." Thus, under the shadow of death, the 
 *' Making of England " was begun. During the five 
 summer months in which it was written that shadow 
 never lifted. It was the opinion of his doctors that 
 life was only prolonged from day to day throughout 
 that time by the astonishing force of his own will, 
 by the constancy of a resolve that had wholly set 
 aside all personal aims. His courage took no touch 
 of gloom or disappointment ; every moment of com- 
 parative ease was given to his task ; when such mo- 
 ments failed, hours of languor and distress were given 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 vu 
 
 with the same unfaltering patience. As he lay 
 worn with sickness, in his extreme weakness unable 
 to write a line with his own hand, he was forced for 
 the first time to learn how to dictate ; he had not 
 even strength himself to mark the corrections on 
 his printers proofs, and these, too, were dictated 
 by him, while the references for the volume were 
 drawn up as books were carried one by one to his 
 bedside, and the notes from them entered by his 
 directions. With such sustained zeal, such eager 
 conscientiousness was his w^ork done that much 
 of it was wholly rewritten five times, other parts 
 three times ; till as autumn drew on he was driven 
 from England, and it became needful to bring the 
 book rapidly to an end which fell short of his'^orig- 
 inal scheme, and to close the last chapters with less 
 finish and fulness of labor. 
 
 The spring of 1882 found the same frail and suf- 
 fering life still left to him. But sickness had no 
 force to quench the ardor of his spirit. Careful 
 only to save what time might yet remain for his 
 work, he hastened to England in May, and once 
 more all sense of weakness seemed to vanish before 
 the joy of coming again to his own land. He had 
 long eagerly desired to press forward to later pe- 
 riods of English history, in which the more varied 
 forces at work in the national life, and the larger 
 issues that hung on them, might give free play to 
 his own personal sympathies. But the conditions 
 of his life shut out the possibility of choice ; and he 
 
VIU 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 resolutely turned again to the interrupted history 
 of early England, to take up the tale at the period 
 of its greatest obscurity and difficulty. In the 
 scheme which was drawn up at this time the pres- 
 ent volume was to have closed with the "Conquest 
 of England " by the Danes. This plan was, in fact, 
 a return to the division adopted in the " Short His- 
 tory of the English People," where the conquest by 
 Swein was looked on as the turning-point of the 
 story, and a new period in the history of England 
 began from the time when the English people first 
 bowed to the yoke of foreign masters, and " kings 
 from Denmark were succeeded by kings from Nor- 
 mandy, and these by kings from Anjou." The 
 eight chapters which bring the narrative to the 
 Danish Conquest form the work that filled the last 
 months of his life— a work still carried on with the 
 same patient and enduring force, and done with 
 that careful haste which comes of the knowledge 
 that each month's toil may be the last. The book 
 in this earlier form was finished and printed in the 
 autumn, though in the pressing peril of the time the 
 final chapters were so brief as to be scarcely more 
 than outlines. Once more he was forced to leave 
 Endand for the south. In spite of fast-increasing 
 illness, and oppressed by heavy suffering, he there 
 reviewed his whole work with earnest care. It 
 seemed to him still far from his conception of what 
 it mi^>-ht be ; the difficultv of the subject roused in 
 him a fresh desire to bring it home with living in- 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 terest to his readers ; and he believed this mio-ht be 
 done by some added labor on his part. He re- 
 solved to make important chanores in the oric>-inal 
 plan and in its order, to rewrite some portions, and 
 to extend the history beyond the Conquest of Eng- 
 land by the Danes to its Conquest by the Normans. 
 The printed book was at once cancelled. W^ith a 
 last effort of supreme ardor and devotion, he set 
 himself to a task which he was never to finish. A 
 new opening chapter was formed by drawing to- 
 gether the materials he possessed for a sketch of 
 the English people at the opening of their long 
 struggle with the invaders. But as the chapter 
 drew towards its end his strength failed. The 
 pages which now close it were the last words ever 
 written by his hand — words written one morning in 
 haste, for weakness had already drawn on so fast 
 that when in weariness he at last laid down his pen 
 he never again found strength even to read over the 
 words he had set down. ^ 
 
 But even then his work was not over. In this 
 last extremity of weakness his mind still turned 
 constantly to the story of his people. He would 
 still hope, night by night, that on the coming day 
 there might be some brief moment in which he 
 could even yet dictate the thoughts that were shap- 
 ing themselves in his mind — some larger account 
 of the history of the English shires which was now 
 taking form after long thinking, or some completer 
 view of the rule of the Danish kings, or some in- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 sight of a more sure judgment and knowledge into 
 the relations of the Norman Conquest. Many years 
 before, listening to some light talk about the epi- 
 taphs which men might win, he had said, half uncon- 
 sciously, " I know what men will say of me : ' He died 
 learning^ " and he made the passing w^ord into a 
 noble truth. " So long as he lived he strove to live 
 worthily." By patient and laborious work, by rever- 
 ence and singleness of purpose, by a long self-mas- 
 tery, he had "earned diligently" his due reward in 
 experience, knowledge, matured wisdom, a wider out- 
 look, and a deeper insight. It was impossible for 
 him not to know that his powers were only now 
 coming to their full strength, and that his real work 
 lay yet before him. " I have work to do that I know 
 is good," he said when he heard he had only a few- 
 days to live. " I will try to win but one week more 
 to write some part of it down." Another conquest 
 than this, however, lay before him. It was as death 
 drew^ nearer still that for the first time he said, " Now 
 I am weary ; I can w^ork no more." Thus he laid 
 down with uncomplaining patience the task he had 
 taken up with unflinching courage. " God so granted 
 it him." In those last days, as in his latest thoughts, 
 the great love he bore his country was still, as it had 
 ever been, the true inspiration of his life. The sin- 
 gle aim that guided all his work till the end came 
 was the desire to quicken in others that eager sense 
 which he himself had of how rich the inheritance of 
 our fathers is with the promise of the future, and to 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 bring home to every Englishman some part of the 
 beauty that kindled his own enthusiasm in the stor^-, 
 whether old or new, of the English People. 
 
 A very few words will explain the work which was 
 left to me by my husband to do in preparing this 
 volume for publication. In the earlier part of the 
 book I have carried out the alterations in the order 
 of subjects which had been decided on by him, and 
 the first six chapters may be looked on as represent- 
 ing his final plan, save that some alterations would 
 have been made in the first chapter, and some pas- 
 sages, such as the account of the shires, w^ere not re- 
 written as he had intended. Chapters VII. and VIII. 
 were left in a wholly unfinished state, having been 
 laid aside for consideration and revision. The ma- 
 terials for them had not even been drawn into any 
 consecutive order, and I am responsible for the di- 
 vision and naming of these chapters, and in great 
 part for the arrangement of the subjects. 
 
 The closing chapters (IX., X., XL), which have 
 been included in the book according to Mr. Green's 
 later plan, stand on a different footing from the rest. 
 They w^ere written many years ago, I believe in 
 1875, ^^d were then laid aside and never revised 
 in any way. The materials for them existed partly 
 in a printed form and partly in manuscript notes 
 and papers, all alike written some years ago, and 
 consisting merely of very rough and imperfect frag- 
 ments hastily jotted down and then thrown aside. 
 
Xll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 My work has been to draw these various parts to- 
 gether into a connected whole; and in order to 
 carry on the unfinished tale to the Norman Con- 
 quest, I have inserted some pages (pp. 547-55^) 
 from the earlier " History of the English People." 
 These chapters then, wholly unrevised, and dealing 
 with the history of the eleventh century in a partial 
 way only, and under some of its aspects, must be 
 looked on as incomplete outlines. It had been Mr. 
 Green's hope to enrich them by a careful study of 
 the social history of England during this period, and 
 an indication of the kind of work that might have 
 been done in this direction will be found in the pas- 
 sage (pp. 419-447) which describes London and the 
 trading towns. This was part of his latest work 
 last autumn, and has been inserted into the story 
 of the reicrn of Cnut at his desire. 
 
 I have judged it best to print these closing chap- 
 ters without any addition of reference or notes, save 
 the few^ which I have been able to draw up from his 
 own papers. Those who have read the " Making of 
 Encrland " will understand that Mr. Green was ac- 
 customed to base his views on wide and full read- 
 ing, and I have been unwilling to risk any system 
 of notes which must inevitably have seemed to rest 
 his conclusions on a foundation narrower than that 
 of his own thought and reading. I have felt the 
 less difficulty in adopting this course owing to the 
 elaborate system of references for this period which 
 Mr. Freeman has supplied to students. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 XUl 
 
 I have been specially careful throughout the book 
 to preserve the exact words of the writer, even in 
 dealing with the unfinished manuscript notes. The 
 exceptions to this rule are the two paragraphs that 
 open Chapter II., which I myself added at his own 
 request, and the greater part of the paragraph on 
 the custom of the feud at page 267, which was left 
 unfinished, and which I briefly concluded. The 
 materials for the reign of Cnut were very imperfect, 
 and occasionally, as in pages 44 7-450, and again at 
 the close of the chapter, I have been forced to make 
 some expansions and alterations so as to form a con- 
 secutive and intelligible narrative. The character 
 of Godwine, on pages 519-522, I have drawn up 
 from some rough pencilled jottings on the margin 
 of a paper, using the exact words I found, but shap- 
 ing them into continuous sentences and a general 
 order. The few notes which I have added throuo-h- 
 out the book are all marked as my own. 
 
 Two of the maps included in this volume, " Eng- 
 land at the Peace of Wedmore," and " England Un- 
 der the Ealdormen,"are taken from rough unrevised 
 plans made by Mr. Green ; for the rest of the maps 
 I am myself responsible. 
 
 I cannot close without a very earnest expression 
 of sincere gratitude to the friends who, out of their 
 generous affection for his memory, have helped 
 me in my task with constant and ready sympathy ; 
 I have especially to thank Professor Stubbs for 
 the kindness with which he has read through 
 
XIV 
 
 my work, and given 
 sel. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 me the advantage of his coun- 
 Alice Stopford Green. 
 
 14 
 
 Kensington Square, November, 1883. 
 
 P S -I may perhaps add. that, with a view to future editions, it 
 had'been Mr. Green's intention to ask in the preface to this volume 
 ?or suggestions from those who may have any local knowledge wh.ch 
 n.ight telp to throw light on any points either m this book or m 
 the^' Making of England." I should be glad, so far as lay m my 
 power, to carry out his wishes in this matter. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE ENGLAND OF ECGBERIIT. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Political and Social Changes which Followed the Settlement of the Eng- 
 lish in Britain 12 
 
 The Gradual Union of the Conquering and the Conquered Races . . 2, 3 
 The Purely English Form given to the New Society .... 3 
 
 The Gradual Advance of Cultivation 4,5 
 
 Illustrated in the Condition of Dorset 5-7 
 
 The Changes Brought about by the Introduction of Christianity . .8,9 
 
 Its Long Strife with the Older Religions 9-1 1 
 
 Its Bringing in of a New Social Class 12 
 
 And of a Parochial Organization 13 
 
 Results of this New Ecclesiastical System on the Old Organization of 
 
 English Life 14^ 15 
 
 Influence of Christianity in the Growth of Pilgrimages . . . 15,16 
 
 The Pilgrims' Route jy 
 
 The Popularity of Pilgrimages jg 
 
 Influence of Christianity on Law iq 
 
 Character of the First Written Codes of Law 20, 21 
 
 Influence of Christianity on Early English Jurisprudence ... 21 
 Early Development of the Conception of Public Justice ... 22, 23 
 
 Origin of the Judicial Character of Folk-moot and Hundred-moot . 23, 24 
 
 The Extent of the Jurisdiction of the "Folk" 23-25 
 
 The Limitations Introduced in the Right of Private Vengeance . 25-27 
 The Difficulties in Enforcing the "Folks' Justice". ... 28, 29 
 
 Causes which Led to the Development of the " Justice of the King " 29, 30 
 
 The King and his Court -^q 
 
 The King's Progresses 31, ';2 
 
 Their Influence on Public Justice 32 
 
 The Results of the Consolidation of Britain into the Three Kingdoms— 
 
 In the Growing Importance of the King 33 
 
 In the Decline of the /Etheling 34 
 
 In the Elevation of the Thegn 34 
 
 In the Loss of Power of the Folk-moot 35 
 
 In the Change of Character of the Witenagemot . . 35-37 
 Causes which Led to the Overthrow of the Balance of Power among 
 
 the Three Kingdoms ^3 
 
 B 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 my work, and given me the advantage of his coun- 
 sel. 
 
 Alice Stopford Green. 
 
 14 Kensington Square, Noruember, 1883. 
 
 p. S.-I may perhaps add, that, with a view to future editions, it 
 had been Mr. Green's intention to ask in the preface to this volume 
 for suggestions from those who may have any local knowledge which 
 might help to throw light on any points either in this book or in 
 the " Making of England." I should be glad, so far as lay in my 
 power, to carry out his wishes in this matter. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE ENGLAND OF ECGBERHT. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Political and Social Changes which Followed the Settlement of the Eng- 
 lish in Britain . . . . . . . . . . .12 
 
 The Gradual Union of the Conquering and the Conquered Races . . 2, 3 
 The Purely English Form given to the New Society .... 3 
 
 The Gradual Advance of Cultivation 4 c 
 
 Illustrated in the Condition of Dorset c-n 
 
 The Changes Brought about by the Introduction of Christianity . . 8, 9 
 
 Its Long Strife with the Older Religions 9-11 
 
 Its Bringing in of a New Social Class 12 
 
 And of a Parochial Organization j -. 
 
 Results of this New Ecclesiastical System on the Old Organization of 
 
 English Life i^^ i^ 
 
 Influence of Christianity in the Growth of Pilgrimages . . . 15,16 
 
 The Pilgrims' Route j^ 
 
 The PoiJularity of Pilgrimages jg 
 
 Influence of Christianity on Law jg 
 
 Character of the First Written Codes of Law 20, 21 
 
 Influence of Christianity on Early English Jurisprudence ... 21 
 Early Development of the Conception of Public Justice ... 22, 23 
 Origin of the Judicial Character of Folk-moot and Hundred-moot . 23, 24 
 
 The Extent of the Jurisdiction of the "Folk" 23-25 
 
 The Limitations Introduced in the Right of Private Vengeance . 25-27 
 
 The Difficulties in Enforcing the "Folks' Justice". ... 28, 29 
 Causes which Led to the Development of the " Justice of the King " 29! 30 
 
 The King and his Court -q 
 
 The King's Progresses 31 32 
 
 Their Influence on Public Justice ^2 
 
 The Results of the Consolidation of Britain into the Three Kingdoms— 
 
 In the Growing Importance of the King 33 
 
 In the Decline of the yEtheling 34 
 
 In the Elevation of the Thegn 34 
 
 In the Loss of Power of the Folk-moot 35 
 
 In the Change of Character of the Witenagemot . . 35-37 
 Causes which Led to the Overthrow of the Balance of Power among 
 
 the Three Kingdoms ^g 
 
 B 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 AD. 
 
 758-703. 
 
 Internal Condition of Northumbria . 
 Its Religious and Intellectual Life . 
 703-806. Invasion of the Northmen and its Results 
 The Apparent Strength of Mercia . 
 
 Its Real Weakness 
 
 The Superiority of Wessex Derived from the Character 
 From the Varied Composition of the Kingdom 
 
 From its Administrative Order 
 
 The Character of Ecgberht's Supremacy . 
 
 of the Countrv 
 
 PAGB 
 
 39»40 
 
 40,41 
 . 42 
 
 • 43 
 43 
 
 44.45 
 
 • 45 
 45,46 
 
 46,47 
 
 800. 
 810. 
 834. 
 (. 820. 
 832. 
 
 and 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE COMING OF THE WIRINGS. 829-858. 
 
 787. The First Coming of the Pirates 
 703,704. Their Raids on Northumbria . 
 
 The Sicrnificance of their Attack 
 
 Growth of the Scandinavian Peoples 
 
 Conditions of their Life .... 
 
 Character of their Country 
 
 Their Early Customs and Religion . 
 
 The Wikings 
 
 Their Mode of Warfare .... 
 
 The Causes of their Wanderings 
 
 The Two Lines of their Attack on Europe 
 
 Settlement of the Northmen in South Jutland 
 
 Their Attack on the Franks 
 
 The Death of Godfrid and Civil War in South Jutl 
 
 Descent of the Northmen on the Isle of Sheppey 
 
 Their Descent on Ireland 
 
 Thorgil's Settlement in Ireland 
 
 Its Effect in Arousing the West Welsh to Arms 
 
 Effect of the Pirate Attacks in Arresting the Consol 
 
 The Political Relations of Wessex and Kent . 
 
 The Military Resources of Wessex . 
 
 Relation of the Church to the Frankish Kings 
 
 Peculiar Position of the English Bishops . 
 
 National Ch.aracter of the Church . 
 
 Effect upon the Church of the Pirate Invasion. 
 838. Its Alliance with the West-Saxon Kings . 
 830. Death of Ecgberht and Accession of ^thelwulf 
 
 837 ei seq. Extension of the Wiking Settlement in Ireland 
 837-845. The Wikings Attack Wessex .... 
 
 845. Death of Thorgils 
 
 845-848. The Pirates Leave Wessex to Attack Frankland 
 
 Importance of Kent 
 
 838. Pirate-raids on East Anglia and Kent 
 
 851. ^thehvulfs Victory at Aclea .... 
 
 dat 
 
 ion of 
 
 En: 
 
 and 
 
 48,49 
 
 49 
 
 49,50 
 
 51 
 
 51-53 
 
 53,54 
 
 55,56 
 
 56 
 
 56,57 
 
 57,5s 
 
 • 59 
 
 . 60 
 
 60 
 
 61 
 
 62 
 
 • 63 
 
 • 64 
 
 . 64 
 
 • 65 
 
 . 66 
 
 66,67 
 
 • 67 
 
 . 68 
 
 . 69 
 
 . 69 
 
 • 70 
 
 . 70 
 
 • 71 
 
 . 72 
 
 • 72 
 
 • 73 
 
 . 74 
 
 • 75 
 
 . 76 
 
 A.D. 
 
 855. 
 
 853. 
 
 854. 
 
 856. 
 856. 
 
 857. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Pirate Settlement in the Isle of Sheppey 
 ^Ethelwulf's Foreign Policy .... 
 
 ^:thelwulf's Conquest of the North Welsh . 
 
 /Ethehvulfs Pilgrim.ige to Rome . 
 
 The Franks under Charles the Bald ...... 
 
 yEthelwulf's Visit to Charles the Bald, and his Marriage with Judill. 
 
 Wessex Rises against /Ethehvulf . 
 
 /Ethelwulf Retires to Kent and is Succeeded in Wessex by /Ethc'lbakl 
 
 xvu 
 
 PAGE 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 77 
 77 
 78 
 78 
 80 
 
 ?0 
 
 858. 
 860. 
 866. 
 
 866. 
 867. 
 
 868. 
 860. 
 870. 
 
 871. 
 840. 
 
 871. 
 
 871. 
 871. 
 874. 
 
 875. 
 876. 
 876. 
 
 877. 
 878. 
 
 S78. 
 
 Sit 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MAKING OF THE DANELAW. 858-878 
 
 Death of i^thehvulf 
 
 /Ethelbald Dies and is Succeeded by /Ethelberht . 
 Death of i^ithelbcrht and Accession of /Ethelred 
 Extent of the Scandinavian Conquests .... 
 The Importance of Britain to the Pirates 
 
 First Appearance of the Danes 
 
 Their Mode of Warfare 
 
 Attack of the Danes on East Anglia under Ivar the Bonclc 
 Their Attack on Northumbria and Conquest of York 
 
 Ruin of the Religious Houses 
 
 Position of the Primate of York 
 
 i-Ethelred drives the Danes back from Mercia 
 
 The Danish Conquest of East Anglia under Ivar an<l Hubba 
 
 Martyrdom cfEadmund of East Anglia . 
 
 Mercia pays Tribute to the Danes 
 
 The Danger of W^essex 
 
 The Danish Attack on Wessex 
 
 The Birth of yElfred --.... 
 
 His Childhood 
 
 His Position as Secundarius . 
 
 • • • 
 
 Political Significance of his Marri.nge .... 
 Danish Victory at Reading and Encampment on Ashdown 
 
 Importance of this Position 
 
 ^tlielred's Victory at Ashdown 
 
 i^lfred becomes King 
 
 v^Ifred buys Peace from the Danes .... 
 
 The Danish Conquest of Mercia 
 
 Halfdene Conquers Bernicia and Ravages Cumbria and Stra 
 The Pirates Gather their Forces for a Final Attack on Wessex 
 Guthrum's Attack on the Southern Coast 
 >Elfred Recovers Exeter from the D.-uies . . 
 
 The Danes Overrun Wessex 
 
 i^ifred Falls back behind Selwood 
 
 His Refuge in Athelney 
 
 Alfred's Victory at Edington . , 
 
 ihclv 
 
 81 
 81 
 81,82 
 82 
 82 
 
 83 
 84 
 86 
 
 87 
 
 88 
 
 89 
 90,91 
 
 91.92 
 92 
 92 
 
 92,93 
 93 
 94 
 95 
 96 
 96 
 
 97 
 98 
 
 98.99 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 lOI 
 lOI, 102 
 102 
 
 103 
 
 104 
 
 104 
 105 
 
 105 
 106 
 
XVlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 878. 
 
 877. 
 
 880. 
 
 The Peace of Wedmore 
 
 Its Political Consequences 
 
 Its Effect on the European Struggle with the Pirates . 
 The Importance of the Danish Settlement in Britain . 
 868-876. The Danish Settlement in Xorthumbria. 
 
 Traces in Yorkshire of this Settlement . 
 
 The Northern Trade 
 
 Traces of their Settlement in York . 
 
 Their Political Organization and the Trithings. 
 The Danish Settlement in Mid-Pritain .... 
 
 The Political Organization in Mid-Britain 
 
 The Distribution of Settlers .... 
 The Danish Settlement in East Anglia .... 
 
 The Character of Guthrum's Kingdom . • , . 
 
 Its English Institutions, and Adoption of Christianity by 
 
 Danes 
 
 Relations of the Danelaw with the Scandinavian Realms 
 
 Relation of the Danelaw to ^Vessex 
 
 Real Significance of the Danish Settlement .... 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 iELFRED. 878-901. 
 
 Results of the Want of Political Organization in the Danelaw 
 
 Danger of .Elfred's Position 
 
 .S78-881. Years of Peace 
 
 Material and Moral Disorganization in Wessex . 
 Military Disorganization and Weakness of the Fyrd 
 Extinction of the Free Ceorls aixl Growth of the Thegns 
 
 about by the War 
 
 .Alfred's Employment of the Thegns for Military Service 
 yElfred's Reconstruction of the Military System . 
 
 897. His Creation of a Navy . 
 
 The Reorganization of Public Justice . . • • 
 The New Relation of the King to Justice 
 
 Importance of English Mercia 
 
 Effect of the Danish Wars on the Kingly Houses of Britain 
 
 iElfred Becomes King of the Mercians .... 
 
 /Elfred's Work in Introducing a Common Law among the E 
 
 Peoples 
 
 &:^-j>84. The Descents of the Danes on Frankland 
 884. Renewal of the Danish Attack on England . 
 
 884. The Rising of East Anglia ...••• 
 
 London Under the Danes of East Anglia 
 886. -Alfred Recovers London from Guthrum 
 886. Frith between iElfred and Guthrum . . • • 
 
 The Division of Essex 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 107 
 
 107, 108 
 loS 
 109 
 no 
 III 
 
 "3 
 114 
 
 115 
 
 16, 117 
 
 117 
 118 
 118 
 the 
 
 119, 120 
 120 
 
 121, 122 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Br 
 
 . 124 
 
 125, 126 
 
 126 
 
 126 
 
 127 
 
 ught 
 
 129 
 
 129, 130 
 
 130. 131 
 
 131. 132 
 
 132, 133 
 
 134, 135 
 . 136 
 
 . 137 
 
 137. 13S 
 
 glish 
 
 • 139 
 141 
 142 
 142 
 
 • 143 
 . 144 
 . 144 
 144, 145 
 
 887. 
 
 890. 
 
 S93. 
 
 893. 
 894. 
 898. 
 
 ^!)G, S97 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Importance of the Recovery of the Thames Valley and of London 
 
 Upgrowth of a New National Sentiment 
 
 1 he Intellectual Ruin Brought about by the Danish W.^rs * ' 
 
 Xc 's"Re:torar"^%'r the Preservation of English Cinhiation 
 /niiieci s Kestoration of Learnuig 
 
 He Draws Men of Learning to liis Court 
 t!!^"!;^^!^^ r\^^y"^^^""» «^ ^"S>-^^ ^-erature: 
 
 '»01. 
 
 Enghsh the First Prose Literature of the Modern Wo, 
 
 /Elfred s 1 ranslations . . . ^ 
 
 The Bishop's Roll of Winchester . . ' ' 
 
 .Elfred's Work on the Chronicle 
 
 The Historical Importance of the Chronicle . 
 
 Death of Guthrum .... 
 
 Growth of the Scandinavian Kingdoms . 
 
 Harold P'airhair .... 
 
 Impulse Given to the Pirate Raids. 
 
 Renewal of the Danish Attack on Southern Britain 
 
 Hastmg Ravages Wessex ... 
 
 The Rising of the Danelaw ... 
 
 Alliance of the Danes and the Welsh 
 
 Hasting's Occupation of Chester 
 
 Defeat of the Danes and Ending of the War ". 
 
 /LIfred's Life ..... 
 
 His Love of Strangers 
 
 Foundation of Athelney 
 
 Othere and Wulfstan ..","' 
 
 The Organization of /Elfreds Court 
 The Royal Revenue ... 
 
 /Elfred's Connection with the Continent. 
 
 His Relations with the Welsh 
 
 His Relations with Bernicia and the Scots 
 
 Growth of the Scot Kingdom . 
 
 Death of yElfred . . . ' * 
 
 Character of /Elfred 
 
 Id 
 
 >01. 
 
 '01. 
 
 '>07. 
 
 MO. 
 
 •II. 
 
 12. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE HOUSE OF ALFRED. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 XIX 
 
 PAGE 
 146 
 . 147 
 148 
 . 149 
 150 
 I5M52 
 '53.154 
 • 155 
 155. 156 
 . 158 
 
 • 159 
 
 160 
 161 
 162 
 162 
 162, 163 
 . 163 
 163 
 164 
 165 
 . 166 
 • 166 
 167, 168 
 168, 169 
 169 
 171, 172 
 ^72, 173 
 173.174 
 • 175 
 175. 176 
 176 
 177 
 . 178 
 178-180 
 
 Eadward the Elder . 
 
 Peace with the Danes 
 
 Eadward Takes the Title* of "King of the Anglo-Saxons " 
 The Weakness of English Mercia . 
 
 Eadward Fortifies Chester ' ' " ' ' 
 
 Outbreak of War with the Danes ""■■■■ 
 
 Kir: .^-tii^ArxLt: ;^:;,;r "■ -' '- •- -- 
 
 Opemng of War with East Anglia. . ' 
 
 ^ • • • ■ . 
 
 181, 182 
 . 183 
 . 184 
 185 
 186 
 . 187 
 . 187 
 188, 189 
 . 189 
 
 185, 
 
XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 913. 
 
 918,919. 
 
 921. 
 921,922. 
 017,918. 
 
 922. 
 
 022. 
 
 924. 
 924. 
 925. 
 
 025. 
 
 92G. 
 
 912. 
 
 Eadwarcl's Conquest of Southern Essex. 
 /Kthelflacd Seizes the Line of the Watling Street 
 
 The Watling Street 
 
 i4*:thelflx(rs Advance on the Upper Trent . 
 
 .'tthelflxd Secures the Line of the Avon 
 
 Eadward's Advance on the Ouse . 
 
 He Conquers Northampton .... 
 
 He Completes the Conquest of East Anglia, Essex, and the V 
 
 /Kthelflaid Attacks the Five Boroughs . 
 
 Death of ^thelflaed 
 
 Eadward Completes the Conquest of Mid-Britain 
 
 Mercia Made Part of the West-Saxon Kingdom 
 
 Political Results of the Conquest of the Danelaw 
 
 The Growth of Commendation 
 
 Growth of the New Territorial Character of the Kingship 
 
 Importance of the Oath of Allegiance . 
 
 Danger of Eadward's Position 
 
 His Fortification of the Northwest Frontier . 
 
 Relation of Wessex to Bernicia and the Kingdom of the Scot 
 
 The Northern League against Eadward. 
 
 SubtTjission of the North to Eadward 
 
 .'Ethelstan Becomes King 
 
 His Policy 
 
 Submission of the Northern League to TEthelstan 
 
 Submission of the Welsh 
 
 /Ethelstan Becomes King of Northumbria 
 
 Fusion of Danes and Englishmen . 
 
 Character of .Ethelstan's Witenagemots. 
 
 The Work of the Witenagemots for Public Order 
 
 The Regulation of Trade and of Coinage 
 
 The Origin of Frith-gilds .... 
 
 Use of the W^ord" Shire" .... 
 
 West-Saxon Origin of the Shire . 
 
 The Early Extension of the Shire System in Wessex 
 
 The Extension of the Shire over Mercia. 
 
 The Extension of the Shire over the Danelaw 
 
 The Position of the Shire-reeve 
 
 Importance of his Financial Work . 
 
 Growth of his Authority 
 
 The Imperial Claims of /Ethelstan. 
 
 The Real Weakness of his Empire. 
 
 Danger from the Northmen of Ireland . 
 
 Danger from the Northmen of Gaul 
 
 Hrolf'3 Settlement in Gaul .... 
 
 The Results of this Settlement on France and on England 
 
 Relations of the Danelaw and Normandy 
 
 The Growth of the Norman Duchy. 
 
 The Effect on the Foreign Policy of the English Kings 
 
 ens 
 
 PACE 
 
 . 189 
 190 
 
 190, 191 
 192 
 
 . 193 
 
 194, 195 
 
 196 
 
 196, 197 
 
 197, 198 
 . 198 
 . 199 
 
 200 
 
 200, 201 
 
 201, 202 
 202 
 203 
 204 
 
 205, 206 
 206 
 207 
 
 2C8 
 
 209 
 
 210 
 
 211 
 
 11,212 
 
 212 
 
 213 
 
 213-215 
 
 216, 217 
 
 . 218 
 
 219, 220 
 
 221, 222 
 
 222, 223 
 224 
 
 niT ftft 
 
 227, 228 
 
 229 
 
 229, 230 
 
 . 230 
 2315 232 
 
 . 232 
 232, 233 
 
 . 233 
 
 • 234 
 
 234, 235 
 
 235, 236 
 
 236, 237 
 238, 239 
 
 A.D. 
 
 026-930. 
 929. 
 933. 
 034. 
 
 937. 
 
 930. 
 93G. 
 
 9 10. 
 
 941. 
 
 943. 
 
 944. 
 944. 
 
 945. 
 
 945. 
 940. 
 
 c. 940. 
 
 Before 040. 
 
 040. 
 
 947. 
 047,948. 
 
 rd to 
 
 Noi 
 
 lan 
 
 dy 
 
 yEthelstan's Alliances with Foreign Powers . 
 
 The Dangers which Threatened William Longsword 
 
 His Successful Alliance with the House of Paris 
 
 Results of his Policy Seen in the Renewal of the Northern League 
 
 agamst /Ethelstan 
 
 The Significance of the League ....!**' 
 
 The Battle of Brunanburh ... ' ^.. 
 
 24j 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WESSEX AND THE DANELAW. 937-955. 
 
 Political Consequences of the Battle of Brunanburh 
 
 Restoration of the Northumbrian Under-kingship 
 
 The Weakness of the Monarchy . 
 
 Political Reorganization of Britain. 
 
 Position of the Ealdormen .... 
 
 The Ealdormanries of East Anglia and Essex 
 
 Eric Bloody- axe 
 
 .Ethelstan Sets Eric as King in Northumbria 
 
 ^thelstan Continues his Former Policy with Rcga 
 
 Lewis from over-sea King of the West Franks 
 
 The Support given to him by /Ethelstan 
 
 The Difficulties of Lewis and Failure of 
 
 Schemes 
 
 Death of yEthelstan and Accession of Eadmund 
 
 Eadmund's Policy 
 
 The Revolt of the Danelaw .... 
 
 The Position of Wulfstan of York . 
 
 The Revival of the English Danelaw 
 
 Growth of the Norman Power. 
 
 Invasion of Normandy by Lewis . 
 
 Reduction of the Danelaw by Eadmund. 
 
 Political Relations of Eadmund with the North 
 
 Cumbria Under the Northumbrian and West-Saxon K 
 
 Norwegian Settlements in Cumbria 
 
 The Grant of Cumbria to the Scottish Kings . 
 
 Eadmund's Reform of the Custom of the Feud 
 
 Normandy Freed from the West Franks 
 
 Death of Eadmund 
 
 The Childhood and Youth of Dunstan . 
 He Becomes a Monk 
 
 • • • • 
 
 He is Made Abbot of Glastonbury . 
 
 Eadred Becomes King 
 
 Dunstan Becomes Counsellor to Eadred 
 Significance of Eadred's Coronation 
 Submission of the North to Eadred 
 The Rising of Northumbria Under Eric Hirin'^ 
 
 XXI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 239, 240 
 
 240, 241 
 241 
 
 242 
 
 243 
 244 
 
 /Ethel 
 
 Stan 
 
 ngs 
 
 Pol 
 
 245 
 246 
 
 it 
 
 246, 247 
 
 • 247 
 
 248, 249 
 
 249, 250 
 251,252 
 
 252 
 
 • 253 
 
 • 254 
 
 254, 25s 
 ical 
 
 255. 256 
 257, 258 
 257. 258 
 
 259 
 260 
 
 261 
 
 261 
 
 262 
 
 262 
 
 262, 263 
 
 264, 265 
 
 265 
 
 266 
 
 267 
 
 268 
 
 269 
 
 70-272 
 
 272 
 
 274 
 
 274 
 
 275 
 
 75. 276 
 
 277 
 27S 
 
XXI 1 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 948. 
 949-95 
 954. 
 954. 
 
 955. 
 
 955. 
 
 Eadied Ravages Northumbria and Eric is Driven Out 
 52. Olaf, Sihtric's Son, Rules in Northumbria 
 Final Submission of the Danelaw . 
 Northumbria Made into an Earldom . 
 Dunstan's School at Glastonbury . 
 /l<:thel wold's School at Abingdon . 
 Their Influence on English Literature . 
 Eadred Claims Imperial Supremacy over the Whole of Bntam 
 Eadred's Death 
 
 055. 
 
 956. 
 
 956. 
 
 956. 
 
 957. 
 
 95T,95 
 
 958. 
 
 959. 
 
 959. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 • 279 
 
 • 279 
 
 -So, 281 
 . 281 
 282, 283 
 . 283 
 284, 285 
 286, 287 
 . 288 
 
 8. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE GREAT EALDORMEN. 955-978- 
 
 Changes in the Political State of England 
 
 Growth of the Royal Power . 
 
 Its Weakness 
 
 Position of the Ealdormcn 
 
 Limitations to their Power 
 
 Accession of Eadwig .... 
 
 Strife of the Three Political Parties in the R 
 
 Coronation of Eadwig .... 
 
 Exile of Dunstan 
 
 MUhere Made Ealdorman of Mercia 
 
 The Significance of this Step . 
 
 Eadwig's Marriage to /Elfgifu. 
 
 The Revolt against Eadwig and Division of 
 
 Eadgar Made King of the Mercians, and Ret 
 
 Death of Eadwig and Accession of Eadgar 
 
 Creation of Two West-Saxon Ealdormanries 
 
 Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury 
 
 The Union of the King and the Primate i 
 Realm 
 
 Character of Eadgar .... 
 
 The Peace and Order of his Government 
 Relations of England with the Surrounding 
 Eadgar's Relations to the Danelaw. 
 His Policy towards the Danish Settlers . 
 The Industrial Condition of England . 
 Customary Rents and Payment of Labor 
 Instances of Hurstbourn and Dyddenham 
 The Rural Society as Shown in the Manor 
 The Class of Slaves .... 
 The Protection Given them by the Church 
 The Inland Trade of the Country . 
 
 The "Chapman" 
 
 The Gleeman 
 
 The Revival of Literature under Dunstan 
 
 ealm 
 
 the Kingdom 
 n of Dunstan 
 
 ur 
 
 the 
 
 States 
 
 of 
 
 Government 
 
 Cranborne 
 
 289, 290 
 
 290, 291 
 291 
 292 
 
 • 293 
 . 293 
 
 294, 295 
 
 295, 296 
 296 
 
 • 297 
 . 297 
 . 298 
 299-301 
 
 . 301 
 
 . 302 
 
 302, 303 
 
 . 304 
 of the 
 
 304, 305 
 306, 307 
 
 308' 309 
 
 309.310 
 310,311 
 
 312-314 
 3^5' 316 
 
 316,317 
 3^7,318 
 
 318,319 
 . 319 
 320,321 
 321,322 
 
 323.324 
 
 • 324 
 
 • 325 
 
 A.D. 
 
 His Revival of Historical Learning. 
 Historical School of Worcester 
 The Decline of Monasticism during the Danish \V 
 964. Its Revival in Middle and Southern England. 
 
 The Influence of the Secular Clergy 
 The Political Position of the Bishops 
 Eadgar and the Ealdormen .... 
 
 The Rule of Eadgar 
 
 His Coronation ...... 
 
 His Death 
 
 Disputed Succession to the Crown . 
 
 Eadward the Martyr 
 
 Growth of the Contest between the Nobles and th 
 
 Murder of Eadward 
 
 Accession of itthelred II 
 
 Death of Dunstan 
 
 073. 
 075. 
 
 075. 
 
 078. 
 078. 
 
 088. 
 
 a IS 
 
 Crown 
 
 000-936. 
 036-965. 
 065-986. 
 986. 
 
 980-991. 
 901. 
 
 99«. 
 
 992. 
 992. 
 
 994. 
 905. 
 907-999. 
 
 ^ 1000. 
 
 1002. 
 
 9^3.096. 
 996-1026. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE DANISH CONQUEST. 988-1016. 
 
 The Breaking-up of the Old Social Organization of the English 
 The Creation of the Danish Monarchy under Gorm the Old 
 Its Extension under Harald Bluetooth ... 
 
 Decline of his Power 
 
 His Death and the Accession of Swein . 
 Swein's Burial-feast for Harald 
 
 • • • 
 
 Swein, Driven from Denmark, Becomes a Wiking 
 
 New Pirate Raids on England 
 
 Battle of Maldon ...... 
 
 Character of A:thelred the Unrc-cdig 
 
 /Ethelred's Policy towards the Ealdormen 
 
 The Dangers which Threatened England 
 
 /Ethelred's Treaties with the Norwegian Host and with 
 
 Breach of the Peace between English and Norwegians 
 
 Olaf Tryggvason 
 
 The Union of Olaf and Swein in an Attack on Englan 
 Their League is Broken up by the English Policy .° 
 Renewed Attacks of the Pirates .... 
 ^:thelred's Vigorous Measures of Defence . 
 Swein Recovers his Danish Kingdom . 
 
 Death of Olaf ... 
 «-. " • • • . 
 
 .-Ethelred's Alliance with the Normans . 
 
 Character of the Norman Duchy 
 
 The Difficulties that Threatened it from Without and Withi 
 
 The Policy of its Dukes 
 
 Condition of Normandy under Richard the Fearless 
 The Reign of Richard the Good . 
 
 Not 
 
 man 
 
 in 
 
 xxiu 
 
 PAGE 
 . 326 
 
 326, 327 
 . 328 
 
 329-331 
 
 332, 333 
 333^ 334 
 334, 335 
 
 • 33^ 
 
 • 337 
 337, 33^ 
 ■ 33^ 
 
 • 339 
 
 • 340 
 341,342 
 
 • 343 
 
 344-346 
 346-34S 
 
 348, 349 
 
 349, 350 
 
 • 351 
 352,353 
 
 • 353 
 
 • 354 
 
 • 354 
 355,356 
 356,357 
 358,359 
 
 • 360 
 361, 362 
 
 • 363 
 
 • 364 
 364, 365 
 
 • 366 
 
 • 367 
 . 368 
 
 369, 370 
 
 • 370 
 
 • 371 
 371,372 
 
 372, 373 
 
 373, 374 
 
 • 375 
 
XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1 002. 
 
 lOOi. 
 
 1003. 
 
 1004. 
 
 1001-1006. 
 
 1 i>Ut>. 
 
 HK)7. 
 
 1007- 1009. 
 
 ! 009, 1010. 
 !012. 
 1013. 
 
 1011. 
 1 014. 
 
 I (Ho. 
 
 t <> i (i. 
 1010 
 1010. 
 1016. 
 
 1016. 
 1017. 
 
 1030. 
 
 Importance of the English Alliance with Normandy 
 Strife between /Ethelred and his Nobles • 
 The Massacre of St. Brice's Day . . • • 
 Swein again Attacks Wessex . . • • 
 And East Anglia . . • • • • • 
 Continued Strife among the Ministers of /Ethelred 
 Changes among the Ealdormen . . . • 
 
 The High-reeve Eadric 
 
 Pirate Raids on Wessex 
 
 /Ethelred's Internal Reforms .... 
 His Military and Naval Reforms. 
 
 The Revenue of the Crown 
 
 National Taxation . • • • • 
 Fresh Attack of the Danes under Thurkill . 
 The Danish Fleet Bought off by Tribute . 
 The Great Invasion under Swein. 
 
 His Conquest of England 
 
 The Flight of ^':thelred and its Results 
 
 The Death of Swein 
 
 Cnut Chosen King by the Danish Host 
 
 His Attack on England 
 
 Political Strife in England, and Treachery of Eadnc 
 Death of /Ethelred and Accession of Eadmund Irons. 
 
 Cnut's Siege of London 
 
 The Battle of Assandun and Division of England 
 Death of Eadmund Ironside 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE REIGN OF CNUT. 1016-1035. 
 
 idc 
 
 Cnut King of England 
 
 His Measures for the Settlement of the Realm . 
 His Marriage with Emma ..•••• 
 The Character of the Danish Conquest 
 Modified by the Political Condition of England . 
 
 And of Scandinavia 
 
 Results of the Conquest 
 
 Character of Cnut's Rule • 
 
 His Government According to National Laws and Custom 
 
 The Rise of Godwine • 
 
 The Local Organization of the Realm under Cnut . 
 His Development of the Administrative System. 
 His Institution of the Royal Chapel .... 
 His Maintenance of the Land-tax . . . • 
 
 His Military System 
 
 His Policy towards the Church 
 
 His Temper towards England 
 
 378, 379 
 380 
 
 3S0 
 
 3S1 
 383 
 
 382 
 
 383. 384 
 384 
 
 385 
 386 
 
 387. 388 
 389 
 
 390-392 
 392 
 
 393 
 394 
 395 
 395 
 396 
 397 
 
 397. 398 
 399 
 399 
 
 400, 401 
 401 
 
 A.D. 
 
 402 
 
 • 403 
 
 . 404 
 
 404, 405 
 
 . 405 
 
 406 
 
 406, 407 
 
 407, 408 
 . 409 
 
 410 
 410,411 
 411,412 
 
 • 413 
 414 
 
 414,415 
 415,416 
 
 415,416 
 
 1025. 
 1027. 
 1028. 
 
 1031. 
 
 lOlG-1035. 
 1027. 
 1035. 
 1035. 
 
 1035. 
 1036. 
 1010. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Peace of his Reign 
 
 His Conception of Governn)ent . 
 
 Development of English Trade , 
 
 Growth of Oxford 
 
 Nottingham 
 
 Gloucester and Worcester ... 
 
 The Seaports. Chester 
 
 Bristol 
 
 The Ports of the Southern Coast. 
 
 The Trade of the Eastern Coast , 
 
 The Ports of the East Coast. 
 
 V'ork .... 
 
 Early London 
 
 Conditions of the English Settlement there 
 
 Settlement round St. Paul's . 
 
 First Settlement of the " Cheap " 
 
 The "East-Cheap" . . , [ 
 
 Growth of London under tiie West-Saxon Rule 
 
 Its Early Municipal Life 
 
 Extension of London to the Northward 
 
 Growth of its Trade under Eadgar 
 
 Extension of Eastern London 
 
 Importance of London under Cnut 
 
 Cnut's Foreign Policy .... 
 
 His Pilgrimage to Rome 
 
 His Conquest of Norway 
 
 His Policy towards the Scot Kings 
 
 Relations of the Scot Kings with the House of /EhVed 
 
 The Political Arrangement between Cnut and Malcolm 
 
 Lothian Becomes Part of the Scottish Realm . 
 
 The Danger which Threatened Cnut from Normandy 
 
 State of Normandy under Robert the Devil 
 
 Birth of William the Conqueror . 
 
 He Becomes Duke of Normandy. 
 
 Death of Cnut 
 
 The Break-up of his Empire 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF GODWINE. 1035-1053, 
 
 The Policy of Cnut Carried on by Godwine. 
 Godwine's Support of Harthacnut in Wessex 
 Harald Harefoot Chosen King at Oxford 
 The Division of England 
 The Murder of the ^Etheling ^^Ifred . 
 Its Results .... 
 
 " • • • » 
 
 Death of Harald Harefoot . 
 
 XXV 
 
 PAGE 
 . 417 
 . 413 
 . 419 
 
 419-421 
 421,422 
 422, 423 
 423-426 
 
 426, 427 
 
 427. 42S 
 429, 430 
 
 430-432 
 432-434 
 
 434, 435 
 
 435, 436 
 
 436, 437 
 438, 439 
 
 • 440 
 441,442 
 442,443 
 
 • 443 
 444, 445 
 445» 446 
 
 • 447 
 448 
 
 • 449 
 
 • 450 
 ■ 450 
 
 451,452 
 
 • 452 
 452, 453 
 
 • 454 
 455. 456 
 
 • 457 
 
 • 457 
 •• 458 
 
 458, 459 
 
 460 
 
 461 
 
 462 
 
 462, 463 
 
 . 464 
 
 464, 465 
 
 . 466 
 
XXVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1040-101*. 
 1042. 
 1043. 
 
 1045. 
 
 1046. 
 1047. 
 
 1047. 
 
 lOIS. 
 
 1049. 
 
 1019. 
 
 1050. 
 1050. 
 
 1051. 
 
 1051. 
 
 1051. 
 
 1051. 
 
 Reign of Ilarthacnut . . • * ' , ' 
 
 The .ttheling Eadward Summoned to England • ^ ^ 
 
 His Coronation •.•■'''... 
 
 Thp Position of Godwine • • • 
 
 The stall of Normandy «ndcrl)uUeW,n,am . • • 
 
 Character of W''";-"; ; ^^ j.^j„;„, .^^ Confes.or . • 
 
 The Norman Svmpainieb ui x^cv^i 
 
 The State of England at his Accession. • • • ' 
 
 The Earldom of Northumbna . • • ' ^ 
 
 The Earldom of Mercia - - ' ' ' 
 The Earldom of Wessex .••••' 
 The Supremacy of Earl Godw.nc . • • • • 
 
 The Jealousies Aroused by it • • • ' 
 
 The ■^•"J'-Yy °f ,^™^;;; r„,;ey towards Scandinavia , ■ 
 
 Opposition to Ooclwine s i ui > 
 
 Effect of Normandy on English Politic. • • 
 
 Lanfranc • ' '. ^r* ' i,. . • 
 
 Revolt against William mNorma.uK . • 
 
 \Villiam's Victory at Val-es-Dunes • • • ' _ 
 
 l^^^S^"^^::::^ Kings to Normandy and'^ • 
 
 ^inir^ Alliance with France ^^^^^^.e o^ Event; in 
 Uesults of William-s Victor.es on the Course 
 
 land and on its Relations with Foreign States . • 
 
 Flanders •••''' 
 
 Its Commercial and Political Importance . • • 
 
 KTl with -the New UeligiousMovemctU. • • 
 
 ^h;^;-:::rr;i:!:Ke,H;iiand,andna;d.. . 
 
 Its Maintenance by Godwine. • • 
 
 His Precautions against William's Policy • • • 
 
 The Council of Kheims. •••••• 
 
 Its Political Significance • • ,"'«•' 
 The Norman Alliance with Flanders llroken oil . • 
 The Alliance of Flanders Secured or England . . 
 
 n , nf T7mii-es Made Archbishop of Canterbury . 
 Si,:glrd« Q--' between Godwine and the K.ng 
 The Outbreak of Open Strife • • • • 
 Sivvard and Leofric Support the Kmg . • • • 
 
 The Flight -f.^"^J,^:^7,^^ and I'reland 
 
 Godwine and his Sons 1 ake KeiUj,c 
 
 Results in England of his Flight . • • • ' 
 
 The Visit of William the Norman . • • • 
 
 PAGE 
 
 466, 467 
 
 . 467 
 
 . 468 
 
 469. 470 
 
 470'47i 
 . 472 
 . 473 
 474, 475 
 476-478 
 479 
 . 480 
 4S0, 4S1 
 . 482 
 . 483 
 483, 484 
 . 484 
 4S5, 486 
 
 486, 487 
 
 4S8 
 
 488 
 
 489 
 490 
 
 Eug 
 
 490, 491 
 491,492 
 493' 494 
 
 494, 495 
 
 495, 496 
 
 496, 497 
 . 497 
 
 497, 498 
 
 498, 499 
 . 499 
 . 500 
 500, 501 
 
 . 501 
 502, 503 
 
 503' 504 
 
 . 505 
 505, 506 
 
 . 506 
 . 507 
 . 508 
 508, 509 
 
 . 510 
 
 • 510 
 
 . 511 
 ^12 
 
 AD. 
 
 1052. 
 
 
 1053. 
 
 I05S. 
 
 1055. 
 1055. 
 
 I05T. 
 1057. 
 
 1060. 
 1066. 
 
 1066. 
 1067. 
 1068. 
 1071. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Godwine's Position in Flanders 
 
 The Return of Godwine 
 
 The Meeting with the King at London! 
 
 Ihe Restoration of Godwine and his House 
 
 The Position Maintained by the King . 
 
 Tlie Position of Siward and Leofric 
 
 Godwine and the Primacy 
 
 Stigand Replaces Robert' as Archbishop 
 
 The Character of Godwine . 
 
 Note on the Growth of the Royal Administration 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 THE NORMAX CONQUEST. 
 
 1053-1071. 
 
 The Attitude of William of Normandy. 
 
 l^u ^T^'i!"',''"' ^''' '"^"'^""^^ of Alliance with* Flanders. 
 
 1 he Difficulties which Followed his Marriage with Matilda. 
 
 His Victory at Mortenier 
 
 Death of Godwine. . . . . 
 
 ILirold becomes Earl of Wessex 
 
 His Character •....' 
 
 His Policy towards the Crown . . [ ] 
 
 And towards the Rival Earls 
 
 Siward and the Scot Kings 
 
 Death of Siward . 
 
 • * • 
 
 Tostig Made Earl of Northumbria 
 Significance of this Step ....'* 
 Alliance between the House of Leofric and Whales 
 Settlement of the Earldoms under Harold 
 Death of the ^Etheling Eadward . . ' .' 
 The Growth of Harolds Ambition . [ [ 
 His Election as King Met by the Claims of William 
 1 he Norwegian Invasion and Battle of Stamford Brid 
 
 The Norman Invasion and Battle of Senlac 
 
 Coronation of William . 
 
 Rising against William . 
 
 National Revolt of the English 
 
 The Close of the Conquest . 
 
 Note on Archbishop Stigand. 
 
 Note on the Character of Harold 
 
 XX VH 
 
 PAGE 
 
 • 513 
 
 514-516 
 
 516,517 
 
 • 517 
 
 • 518 
 
 • 519 
 
 • 519 
 
 520-522 
 
 523-52S 
 
 529, 530 
 530,531 
 
 53i'532 
 
 532, 533 
 
 534 
 
 534 
 
 535 
 536 
 
 537 
 538, 539 
 539 
 540 
 540-543 
 543 
 544 
 
 545 
 546 
 
 547 
 
 548, 549 
 
 549-551 
 
 • 552 
 
 • 553 
 
 • 554 
 555. 556 
 557-560 
 561-563 
 
PORTRAIT 
 
 Engraved by G. J. Stodart//-<7w a chalk draiviiig by F. Sandys. 
 
 LIST OF MAPS. 
 
 I. England, 1883 To/ace page i 
 
 11. Lines of Northern Invasions .... " " 60 
 
 III. England at the Treaty of Wed more ... " " 108 
 
 IV. The Campaigns of Eadward and yEthelflxd . " " 188 
 V. England under the Ealdormen . . u .. ^ 
 
 VI. Early Oxford ^^^ 
 
 VII. Early Chester ... .-. 
 
 VIII. Early York ^ 
 
 IX. Early London To face page 437 
 
ENCrLAJ^D. inB3. 
 
 Lon^uidB Ve«t 4^ from Grcemyicii. 2 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ENGLAND OF ECGBERHT. 
 
 Fe\v periods of our history seem drearier and more 5..,./ 
 unprofi able to one who follows the mere course of tX/" 
 political events than the two hundred years which 
 close w.th the submission of the English states to 
 Ecgberht. The petty and ineffectual strife of the 
 Three Kmgdoms, Northumbria, Mcrcia, and Wessex 
 presents few features of human interest, while we are 
 without the means of explaining the sudden revolu- 
 t.ons which raise and depress their power, or their 
 final subsidence into isolation and inaction. It is 
 only when we view it from within that we see the 
 importance of the time. It was, in fact, an age of 
 revolution-an age in which mighty changes were 
 passing over every phase of the life of Englishmen • 
 an age m which heathendom was passing into 
 Christianity, the tribal king into the national ruler, 
 the jEtheling into the thegn ; an age in which Eng- 
 
 H 
 
 ' See Making of England, chap, viii.— (A. S. G.) 
 
2 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciiAP. I. lish society saw the beginnings of the change which 
 The transformed the noble into a lord, and the free ceorl 
 
 England of. , , . i . , 
 
 Ecgberht. into a dependent or a serf; an age in which new 
 moral conceptions told on the fabric of our early 
 jurisprudence, and in which custom began to harden 
 into written law. Without, the new Enorland as^ain 
 became a member of the European commonwealth ; 
 while within, the very springs of national life were 
 touched by the mingling of new blood with the blood 
 of the nation itself. 
 
 "'ofl!!"' '^'■"^ ethnological character of the country had, in 
 /"/"'"'■""'• fact, changed since the close of the age of conquest. 
 The area of the ground subject to English rule was 
 far greater than in the days of Ceawlin or ^thel- 
 frith, but in the character of its population the por- 
 tion added was very different from the earlier area ; 
 for while the Britons had been wholly driven off 
 from the eastern half of the island, in the western 
 part they remained as subjects of the conquerors. 
 It was thus that in Ecgberht's day Britain had come 
 to consist of three long belts of country, two of which 
 stretched side by side from the utmost north to the 
 utmost south, and the population of each of which 
 was absolutely diverse. Between the eastern coast 
 and a line which we may draw along the Selkirk 
 and Yorkshire moorlands to the Cotswolds and Sel- 
 wood, lay a people of wholly English blood. West- 
 ward again of the Tamar, of the western hills of 
 Herefordshire, and of Offa's Dyke, lay a people 
 whose blood was wholly Celtic. Between them, 
 from the Lune to the coast of Dorset and Devon, 
 ran the lands of the Wealhcyn— of folks, that is, in 
 whose veins British and English blood were already 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 a^wwl^A/^^f-'^'"' /"^ P''^^^s!ng in their mingling 
 a -der blendmg of these elements in the nation a! 
 
 a way to that addition of outer elements to the pure 
 Enghsh stock which has gone on from that day to 
 
 hZI P '• '•"''''• ""''' ^"^ ^-'' Welshman and 
 Irishman, Frisian and Flamand, French Hu^nienot 
 
 and German Palatine, have come successivdy n 
 Hith a hundred smaller streams of foreign bLd 
 The intermmghng of races has nowhere ten less 
 hindered by national antipatl^y; and even the \Z 
 drances interposed by law, such as OfTa's prohibit on 
 o marriage between English and Welsh, or Edwlrd 
 ni.s prohibition of marriage between English a'ad 
 ^.s , av-e met with the same disregard. ^^ 
 ■s, that, .o far as blood goes, few nations are of an 
 origin more mixed than the present English nation 
 for there is no living Englishman who can say ith 
 certainty that the blood of any of the races we have 
 named does not mingle in his veins. As regards 
 he pohtica or social structure of the people indeed 
 ;: '"^r -g'-g °f Wood has had Ett/e or no ! 
 
 The ^2 I 'iM '" ''"'"?^ ^"g"^'^ ^"^ Teutonic, 
 bv tl.! . ^^ "'' §™""d^^o^k which had been laid 
 by the character of the early conquest has nev^ 
 been disturbed. Gathered gradually in.'ibe by 
 tribe, fugitive by fugitive, these outer elements were 
 
 liSlt"'^' *■"''? ^ '"°P'^ ^vhose Ti^l Tnd 
 poll ical form was already fixed. But thoueh it 
 
 wodd be hard to distinguish the changes w'th 
 
 tXTZ ""/T" ''"' ^"^-geslrought by 
 the lapse of time and the different circumstances 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The 
 England of 
 Ecgberht. 
 
 mixture of 
 race. 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Character 
 
 of the 
 country. 
 
 CHAP. I. which surround each generation, there can be no 
 The doubt that it has brought with it moral results in 
 
 ^gberht modifying the character of the nation. It is not 
 without significance that the highest type of the 
 race, the one Englishman who has combined in 
 their largest measure the mobihty and fancy of the 
 Celt with the depth and energy of the Teutonic tem- 
 per, was born on the old Welsh and English border- 
 land, in the forest of Arden. 
 
 Side by side with this change in the character of 
 its population had gone on a change in the character 
 of the country itself. Its outer appearance, indeed, 
 still remained much the same as in earlier days. 
 Not half its soil had as yet been brought under 
 tillage ; as the traveller passed along its roads, vast 
 reaches of forest, of moor, of fen, formed the main 
 landscape before him ; even the open and tilled dis- 
 tricts were broken everywhere by woods and thickets 
 which the farmer needed for his homestead, for his 
 fences, for his house-building, and his fire. But lim- 
 ited as was its cultivation, Britain was no longer the 
 mere sheet of woodland and waste which the English 
 had found it. Population had increased,' and four 
 hundred years of labor had done their work in widen- 
 ing the clearings and thinning the woods. We have 
 already caught glimpses of such a work in the moor- 
 lands of the North, in the fens of the Wash, in the 
 thickets of Arden, as the monk carried his axe into 
 the forest, or the thegn planted tillers over the grants 
 that had been carved for him out of the waste "folk- 
 land." The study of such a tract as the Andreds- 
 
 ' Lingard (Ang.-Sax. Church, i. 185) infers this from the new up- 
 growth of churches. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 weald would show the same ceaseless struggle with chap. i. 
 nature— Sussex-men and Surrey-men mounthig over Th7 
 the South-downs and the North-downs to hew their ^^Trhf 
 way forward to the future meeting of their shire- — 
 bounds in the heart of the Weald, while the vast 
 herds of swine that formed the advance guard of 
 the Cantwara, who were cleaving their way westward 
 along the Medway, pushed into the " dens" or glades 
 in the woodland beyond. 
 
 We can see the general results of this industrial Dorset. 
 warfare in a single district, such as Dorset. When 
 the English landed in Britain no tract was wilder 
 or less civilized; its dense forest- reaches, in fact, 
 checked the westward advance of the conquerors,' 
 and forced them to make their way slowly along the 
 coast from the Stour to the Exe. Even when the 
 Dorsaetan were fairly settled there, the names of 
 their hundreds and of the trysting-places of their 
 courts show the wild state of the land. Th*e hun- 
 dred-moots gather at barrow or den, at burn or ford, 
 in comb or vale, in glade or woodland, here beside 
 some huge boulder or stone, there on the line of a 
 primeval foss-dyke, or beneath some mighty and 
 sacred tree.' But even its hundred names show how 
 soon the winning of the land began. Dorchester 
 tells of the new life growing up on the Roman ruins; 
 
 o ^^' barrow-trj'sts. cf. Albretesberga (afteru-ards Cranbourne). 
 Badbury. Modbur>^ Langeberga, Chalbury, Hunesberga; for "duns " 
 Cancndon (Wimbourne), Faringdon, Glochresdon; for boulders 
 Stane (Cerne Abbas), Golderonestone. some monolith by Burton 
 Bradstock ; for trees, Cuferdstroue, a tree on Culliford Barrow in 
 Whitcomb parish; for foss, Concresdic or Combsditch; for glade 
 comb, burn, ford, wood, Cocden, Uggcscomb. Sherborne. Tollerford' 
 Ayleswood. ' 
 
6 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciiAP. I. Knolton and Gillingham of the new ''tons" and 
 
 EngTandof*'^''''''^" ^''^''''^' '"'''^ ""^'^^'^ ^^^ Settlements of the con- 
 Ecgberht. querors ; while Beaminster, Yetminster, and Christ- 
 church recall the work of the new Christendom that 
 settled at last on the soil. Nowhere, indeed, was the 
 mdustrial work of the Church more energetic; we 
 have seen how Ealdhelm planted centres of agri- 
 culture as well as of religion at Sherborne Tud 
 \\\^reham, and if more than a third of the shire be- 
 longed in later days to the clergy, it was in the main 
 because monk and priest had been foremost in the 
 reclamation of the land.' Much, indeed, remained 
 to be done. As late as the eve of the Norman con- 
 quest, but thirty or forty thousand inhabitants were 
 scattered over the soil;' the king's forest - rights 
 stretched over wild and waste throughout half^he 
 county, and even in the parts that had been won for 
 culture, scrub and brushwood broke the less fruitful 
 ground, while relics of the vanished woodland lin- 
 gered in the copses beside every homestead, the 
 "pannage woods " of beech and oak, and the " barren 
 woods " of other timber that gave no mast to the 
 swineherd. 
 
 But in spite of all, the work of civilization had 
 begun. Little boroughs that, small as they were, 
 already formed centres of social and industrial life 
 were rising beside the harbors of the coast or clus- 
 tering under the shelter of the great abbeys. Even 
 where the bulk of the land lay w aste, pastures 
 
 ' At the Conquest, the Bishop was the largest proprietor in the 
 whole shire ; he held, in fact, a tenth of it, while twice as much was 
 held by religious houses at Shaftesbury. Cerne, Milton, and Abbots- 
 bur)-.— Eyton, Dorset Domesday. 156. 
 
 ' Eyton, Dorset Domesday. 152. 
 
 //s 
 
 industrial 
 
 life. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 
 
 7 
 
 Stretched along the lower slopes of the moorland, chap. ,. 
 whose herbage, though too rough and broken for ^. 
 the scythe gave fair grazing ground to the herds of^^l!^!^' 
 the township, while by stream and river ran the - 
 meadow-lands of homestead after homestead, clear 
 of shrub and thicket, girt m by ditch and fence. 
 About the homestead stretched the broad acres of 
 the corn-land, with gangs of eight oxen, each dra-. 
 ging Its plough through the furrows. All the features 
 of English life, in fact all its characteristic figures 
 vyere already there. We see mills grinding Vlonc: 
 the burns, the hammer rings in the village smithy 
 the thegn's hall rises out of its demesne, the parish 
 priest IS at his mass-book in the little church that 
 forms the centre of every township, reeves are gath- 
 ering their lord s dues, forester and verderer wake 
 the silent woodland with hound and horn, the moot 
 gathers for order and law beneath the sacred oak or 
 by the gray stone on the moor, along the shore the 
 well-to-do saltmen are busy with their salt-pans, and 
 the fishers are washing their nets in the little coast 
 hamlets, and setting apart the due of fish for their 
 lords. 
 
 _ Side by side, however, with this industrial change n.flu... 
 
 l'L^'l!_!!:^!P!Lfl^ij^fp^^^^^^^ going ^-^j;^;f ■ 
 
 th«Tf '" ^"^'^"•.f"'"^ ^'-"P'r wintcr-mills, some on streamlets 
 that have now wholly vanished. Most of the smiths hved in the 
 
 rn^theTant f °"^' "" "'" ^'^'"•^'^^ ''"^ ^^"^ '^e Cheshire 
 mmes, the want of communication forced each district to suddIv 
 
 ■tself as jt could, and we find In Domesday between seventy Tnd 
 
 fnfslht'"'^" ''""*'' '"^ """"^ ^''^^'- -^-'"K-y vilLns but'pay' 
 mg such large rent as to prove their trade a profitable one. Fishers 
 
 too, were found along thecoast. villeins like the saltmen. and like them 
 paymg dues to their lords.-Eyton, Dorset Domesdav, pp. 50, 5 , 
 
'^'♦f 
 
 
 8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. on a far more profound change in its moral life. 
 The We have already noted the more strikinnr and pict- 
 
 England of • i r i i • 
 
 Ecgberht uresque sides of the revolution which had been 
 wrought in the displacement of the old faith and the 
 adoption of the new — the planting of a Church on 
 the soil with its ecclesiastical organization, its bish- 
 ops, its priests, its court, and its councils, its language, 
 its law, above all, the new impulse given to political 
 consolidation by the building up of Britain into a 
 single religious communion. But these results of 
 the new faith were small and unimportant beside 
 the revolution which was wrought by it in individual 
 life. From the cradle to the grave it had forced on 
 the Englishman a new law of conduct, ne\y habits, 
 new conceptions of life and society. It entered 
 above all into that sphere within which the individ- 
 ual will of the freeman had been till now supreme — 
 the sphere of the home; it curtailed his powers over 
 child and wife and slave ; it forbade infanticide, the 
 putting away of wives, or cruelty to the serf. It 
 challenged almost every social conception ; it denied 
 to the king his heritage of the blood of the gods ; it 
 proclaimed slavery an evil, war an evil, manual labor 
 a virtue. It met the feud face to face by denounc- 
 ing revenge. It held up gluttony and drunkenness, 
 the very essence of the old English " feast," as sins. 
 It claimed to control every circumstance of life. It 
 interfered with labor-customs by prohibitions of toil 
 on Sundays and holydays. It forced on a rude 
 community, to which bodily joys were dear, long and 
 painful fasts. Even profounder modifications were 
 brought about by the changes it wrought in the per- 
 sonal history of every Englishman. Ceremonialism 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 hung round every one in those old days from the chap.i. 
 cradle to the grave, and by the contact with Christen- Si 
 dom the whole character of English ceremonialism »rtf 
 was altered. The very babe felt the change. Bap- — ' 
 tism succeeded the "dragging through the earth" 
 for Hertha. A new kin was created for child and 
 parents in the " gossip " of the christening. The 
 next great act of life, marriage, remained an act 
 done before and with assent of the fellow-villagers • 
 but new bonds of affinity limited a man s choice • 
 and while the old hand-plighting and wed survived,' 
 the priest s blessing was added. The burial-rite was 
 as completely altered. The burial-fire was abolished; 
 and instead of resting beneath his mound, like Beo' 
 wulf, on some wind-swept headland or hill, the Chris- 
 tian warrior slept with his fellows in his lowly grave 
 beneath the shade of the village church. 
 
 But if the old faith was bea'ten by the new, it was ^^ss^n/, 
 long in being killed. A hundred years after the u^u. 
 conversion of Kent, King Wihtra^d had still to for- ' 
 bid Kentishmen -offering to devils."' At the very 
 close of the eighth century synods in Mercia and 
 Northumbria were struggling against the heathen 
 practice of eating horse-flesh =" at the feast to Woden. 
 In spite of this resistance, however, Wodenism was 
 so completely vanquished that even the coming of 
 the Danes failed to revive it. The Christian priest 
 had no longer to struggle against the worship of 
 Thunder or of Frigga. But the far older nature- 
 worship, the rude fetichism which dated back to acres 
 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 41. 
 
 'Confess. Ecgberti, Thorpe, Anc. Laws, ii. 163; Haddan and 
 btuDDs, Councils, iii. 459. 
 
 tsm. 
 
lO 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. long before history, had tougher and deeper roots. 
 
 England of ^l^^' "^^^^ religion could turn the nature-deities of 
 Ecgberht. this primeval superstition into devils, its spells into 
 magic, its spaewives into witches, but it could never 
 banish them from the imagination of men ; it had, in 
 the end, even to capitulate to the nature-worship, to 
 adopt its stones and its wells, to turn its spells into 
 exorcisms and benedictions, its charms into prayers. 
 How persistent was the strength of the older belief 
 we see even at a later time than we have reached. 
 " If witches or diviners," says Eadward, "perjurers or 
 morth-workers, or foul, defiled, notorious adulteresses 
 be found anywhere within the land, let them be 
 driven from the country and the people cleansed, 
 or let them wholly perish within the country.'" 
 v^thelstan, Eadmund, and ^thelred' are as vigor- 
 ous in their enactments ; and the Church Councils 
 were fierce in their denunciations of these lower 
 superstitions. "We earnestly forbid all heathen- 
 dom," says a canon of Cnut s day. " Heathendom is 
 that men worship idols ; that is, that they worship 
 heathen gods, and the sun or the moon, fire or rivers, 
 water-wells or stones, or great trees of any kind ; or 
 that they love witchcraft or promote ' morth-work ' 
 in any wise, or by 'blot' or by 'fyrht,' or do any- 
 thing of like illusions.'" "If witches or diviners, 
 morth-workers or adulteresses, be anywhere found 
 in the land, let them be diligently driven out of the 
 country, or let them wholly perish in the country, 
 save that they cease and amend.'" The effort of 
 the kings and the Church was far from limiting it- 
 
 » Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 173. » Ibid. i. 203, 247, 317. 
 
 ' Laws of Cnut.— Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 379. ♦ ibid. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 I I 
 
 self to words. In the tenth century we hear of the 
 first instance of a death in England for heresy, in 
 ^le actual drowning of a witch-wife at London 
 
 But against many a heathen usage even Councils 
 did not struggle. Easter fires, Mayday fires, Mid- 
 sunimcr fires, with their numerous ceremonies, the 
 rubbmg the sacred flame,' the running through the 
 glowing embers, the throwing flowers on the fire the 
 baking m it and di^stributing large loaves and cakes, 
 \Mth the round dance about it, remained village 
 customs. At Christmas the entry of the boar's 
 head decked with laurel and rosemary, recalled the 
 
 'foZl (.f T/?" *° ^^"Sg^ ^t the Midwinter 
 feast of the old heathendom. The autumn feast 
 
 lingered on unchallenged in the village harvest- 
 home, with the sheaf, in old times a symbol of the 
 god, nodding, gay with flowers and ribbons, on the 
 last wagon. As the ploughman took to his plough 
 he still chanted the prayer that, though christened 
 as It were by the new faith, remained in substance a 
 
 Earth mI^ v'^'f'^''' °^ '''' °''^' " ^'''^' E^^h, 
 Earth, Mother Earth, grant thee the Almighty One 
 
 grant thee the Lord, acres waxing, and sp;outs wan: 
 
 vhT^ 'u \ '" '"■"^^ '™P^ °f •^''^^'ey, and the 
 
 uhite wheat-crop, and all crops of earth." So as 
 he drove the first furrow he sang acrain " Hail 
 Mother Earth, thou feeder of folk, be thfu growing 
 by^goodness of God, filled with fodder, the folk to 
 
 J3i.HfChnstian^^ ^^^^ 
 
 ; Cod Dip. 59,. '"k^c, Sax. in Eii^ui^.(~~ ''"^' 
 
 Cockayne, Saxon Leechdoms, etc., i. 402-405 ^ ^ ' 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The 
 England of 
 Ecgberht. 
 
 Survival 
 
 of heathen 
 
 customs. 
 
•^ 
 
 12 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciiAT. I. victory in this strife with the primeval religion, 
 The which the tradition of ages had almost made a part 
 
 agbwht of human thought and feeling, its outer victory over 
 individual and social life was unquestioned. One of 
 its momentous results was the intrusion into the 
 social system of a new class — that of the clergy. 
 The shorn head had its own social rights. Bishop, 
 priest, lesser clerk, had each his legal " wer " as well 
 as king, thegn, ceorl. The churchmen formed a 
 distinct element in the state, an element to which, in 
 numbers, wealth, influence, jurisdiction, character, 
 nothing analogous existed in the older English 
 society ; a class with its own organization, rule, laws, 
 discipline, carefully defined by written documents, in 
 face of a world where all was yet vague, fluctuating, 
 traditional. But this class had hardly taken its 
 place in English society when influences from with- 
 out and from within began to modify its relation to 
 the general body of the state ; and yet more radical 
 modifications were brought about by the Danish 
 wars. The very character of the Church was 
 changed. English Christianity had in its earlier 
 days been specially monastic. But the development 
 of the country was fast changing the relation of 
 monasticism to its relictions needs. The earlier 
 monasteries had been practically mission-stations — 
 centres from which preachers went out to convert 
 the country, and from which, after its conversion, 
 priests were still sent about to conduct its worship. 
 But as the country became Christian the place of 
 these missionaries was taken by the parish priest. 
 The influence of the unmonastic clergy, the seculars, 
 as they were termed, superseded that of the regu- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. j^ 
 
 lars. It was not by monasteries, but by its parochial 
 organization, that the Church was henceforth to pen- 
 etrate into the very heart of English society. 
 
 It was only by slow degrees that the parish, or 
 kirkshire as it was then called, attained a settled 
 form. The three classes of churches which we find 
 noted in the laws mark so many stages in the re- 
 ligious annexation of the land. The minster, or 
 mother church, which levied dues over wide tracts,' 
 recalled the earlier days when the Church still had 
 an exclusively monastic form, and its preachers went 
 forth from mountain centres to evangelize the 
 country. The next stage was represented by the 
 manorial church, the establishment within this wide 
 area by lord after lord of churches on their own 
 estates ' for the service of their dependants, the ex- 
 tent of whose spiritual jurisdiction was at first coin- 
 cident with that of the estate itself. A third class, 
 of small churches without burial-grounds, repre- 
 sented the growing demands of popular religion. 
 From Baeda s letter to Archbishop Ecgberht we see 
 that the establishment of manorial churches, that is, 
 of what we commonly mean by a parochial system,* 
 was still far from complete, at least in Northumbria,' 
 m the middle of the eighth century ; but in the half 
 century that followed, it had probably extended itself 
 fairly over the land. An attempt was also made to 
 provide a settled livelihood for the parish priests in 
 the " tithe," or payment of a tenth of the farm- 
 produce by^eir parishioners;^ but the obligation to 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws. i. 263. 265 ; Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 262. 
 
 See Thorpe, Anc. Laws. i. 191, 263. 
 • "A tithe of young by Pentecost, and of earth-fruits by All Hal- 
 
 CHAP. !. 
 
 The 
 England of 
 Ecgberht. 
 
 IVie 
 jc^icnvt/i of 
 the parish. 
 
14 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAT. I. pay this was still only imperfectly recognized, and 
 The the repeated injunctions of kincrs and synods from 
 
 England of 7r-,t , ^ , , . , . . -^ 
 
 Ecgberht. iT.tneJstan downwards witness, by their repetition, to 
 the general disobedience. It is probable that the 
 priest as yet relied far more for his subsistence on 
 his dues, on the "plough-alms" after Easter, the 
 " church-shot " at Martinmas, and " light-shot " thrice 
 in the year, as well as the " soul-shot " that was paid 
 at the open grave. 
 '^muuhf Nothing is more remarkable in this extension of 
 t(nvnship. tj^g ecclesiastical system than the chancres wrouorht 
 by it in the original unit of English social life. The 
 stages by which the township passed into its modern 
 form of the parish, and by which almost every trace 
 of its civil life successively disappeared, are obscure 
 and hard to follow, but the change began with the 
 first entry of the Christian priest into the township.' 
 The village church seems often to have been built 
 on the very mound that had served till then for the 
 gatherings of the tunsfolk. It is through this that 
 we so often find in later days the tun-moot held in 
 the church-yard or ground about the church ; and the 
 common practice even now of the farmers gathering 
 for conference outside the church porch before 
 morning service may preserve a memory of this 
 freer open-air life of the moot before it became 
 merged in the parish vestry. The church thus be- 
 came the centre of village life ; it was at the church- 
 door as in the moot, that " banns " were proclaimed, 
 marriages or bargains made ; even the " fair," or 
 
 lows mass."— Laws of i^thelred. Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 319. See 
 Laws of Eadward and Guthrum, ibid. p. 171. 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 96, 104, 260. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 15 
 
 market, was held in the church-yard, and the village chap. i. 
 feast, an institution no doubt of immemorial an- Si 
 tiquity, was held on the day of the saint to which ttr^' 
 the church was dedicated; while the priest himself, — ' 
 as Its custodian, displaced more and more the tun- 
 reeve or elder. It was he who preserved the weights 
 and measures of the little coipmunity/ who headed 
 the "beating" of its bounds, who administered its 
 oaths and ordeals,' who led its four chosen men to 
 hundred-moot or folk-moot, and sometimes even to 
 the field. The revolution which was transforming 
 the free township into the manor of a lord aided in 
 giving the priest a public position. Though the 
 lord s court came to absorb the bulk of the work of 
 the older tun-moot, the regulation and apportionment 
 of the land, the enforcement of by-laws, the business 
 of Its police, yet the tun-moot retained the little that 
 grant or custom had not stripped from it; and it is 
 thus that, in its election of village officers, of church- 
 warden and waywarden, as well as in its exercise 
 of the right of taxation within the township for the 
 support of church and poor, we are enabled to recog- 
 nize in the parish vestry, with the priest at its head, 
 the survival of the village-moot which had been the 
 nucleus of our early life.' 
 
 Without, the new faith brought England for the ^'^s>"n- 
 first time, as we have seen, into religious contact '^^"* 
 with the western world through the mission-work of 
 Boniface and his followers in Germany, and into 
 political contact with it thr ough the relations which 
 
 ' Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, i. 171. 
 
 "^ Ibid. ii. 132 ct seq, 
 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 104. 
 
i6 
 
 THE CONgUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. this mission work established with the Empire of 
 Eng^d of *^^ Fi'anks. But a social contact of a far closer and 
 
 Ecgberht. more national kind was brought about by the growth 
 "" of pilgrimages. At the time which we have reached, 
 pilgrimages were among the leading features of Eng- 
 lish life. The spell which the mere name of Rome 
 had thrown over Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop had 
 only wrought the more widely as years went on. 
 From churchman it passed to layman, and the en- 
 thusiasm reached its height when English kings 
 laid down their crowns to become suppliants at the 
 shrine of the apostles. Fresh from his slaughter of 
 the Jutes in the Isle of Wight, the West-Saxon 
 Ceadwalla " went to Rome, being desirous toobtain 
 the peculiar honor of being washed in the font of 
 baptism within the church of the blessed apostles; 
 for he had learned that in baptism alone the entrance 
 of heaven is opened to mankind, and he hoped that 
 laying down his flesh as soon as he was baptized, he, 
 being cleansed, should immediately pass to the eter- 
 nal joys of heaven. Both which things came to pass 
 as he had conceived them in his mind. For com- 
 ing to Rome," in 689, " he was baptized on the holy 
 Saturday before Easter Day, and being still in his 
 white garment he fell sick, was freed from the flesh," 
 on the 20th of April, " and was associated with the 
 blessed in heaven.'" Twenty years later a king of 
 the Mercians and a king of the East Saxons quiUed 
 their thrones to take the tonsure at Rome,' and in 
 725 even Ine of Wessex gave up the strife with the 
 anarchy about him, and made his way to die amidst 
 the sacred memories of the holy city. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 17 
 
 ' Boeda, H. E. lib. v. c. 7. 
 
 ' Ibid. lib. V. c. 19. 
 
 to Jt P'^Snn^ages o the kings gave a new energy c„.p.. 
 to the movement, and from this time the pilgrinVs' Si 
 way was thronged by groups of English folk, ""noble ^^^ ^ 
 and ceorl, layman and clerk, men and w;men " ■ "^-^'"• 
 
 deter tS" T^ '^'^''''''''^^ °^ '^' J°"™^y f'-^^^-'d to <^rs. 
 deter them. The road which the pilgrims followed 
 
 was mamly the same by which En|lish travelTers 
 
 nowadays reach Italy, they landed^nt QuentaWc 
 
 near Boulogne, which was then the chief port of 
 
 the northern coast of Gaul, and, crossing the high 
 
 fhTslo ^ r^""'/c'' ^^"Sres,' journeyed along 
 the Saone valley and Savoy to the passes of Mounf 
 Cenis It was in these Alpine districts that the 
 troubles o the pilgrims reached their height • forTf 
 an Archbishop of Canterbury could beW^ to 
 death in traversing them,' we may conjecture how 
 severe must have been the sufferings of poorer 
 travellers ; but to the natural hardships of the bur 
 ney was added the hostility of their fellow-men. 'To 
 the robber lords of the mountain valleys pilgrims 
 were a natural prey. It was in vain that OfifZ 
 n.^ .^ '°"Sht protection for their subjects from 
 Cha.es he Great and the Emperor Conrad Z 
 perial edicts told little on the greed of these hungry 
 mountain wolves; an archbishop was plundered in 
 Cnuts own day; and soon after the marauders were 
 lucky enough to pillage three bishops as well ' It 
 
 facere. consuerunt." ^ °'""''' '^"='' '=''^"<^'' """ " femins, cmatira 
 '' unf M^'^"'^' ^'"'°'= °' VVearmouth, sec. 2,. 
 
i8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Their 
 popiilaril) 
 
 cifAp. I. panics for mutual protection;' for the country with 
 The its defiles and precipices was itself on the side of 
 
 ^berht. thcir assailants, and in the opening of the tenth 
 century we hear of the surprise and slaughter of two 
 bodies of T^nghsh pilgrims in the mountains. 
 
 But neither the dangers of the journey nor the 
 fever that awaited them at its close checked the rush 
 of pilgrims.' The increase in number, indeed, had 
 been accompanied by a falling off in the character 
 of the travellers. In some cases the exemption from 
 port-dues which was granted to pilgrims seems to 
 have been used as a cover for smuggling; while the 
 custom of enforcing a visit to the shrine of St. Peter 
 as a penance for ecclesiastical crimes must have in- 
 troduced a criminal element into the pilgrim com- 
 panies. The association was the easier, as the un- 
 shorn hair and beard which the law imposed on the 
 " banished " man was also the customary mark of 
 the pilgrim. Poverty, too, told hardly on the virtue 
 of the women devotees ; and Boniface, with a touch 
 of priestly exaggeration, protests that by the middle 
 of the eighth century Englishwomen of evil life 
 could be found in every city in Lombardy.' But the 
 religious impulse never ceased to supply worthier 
 pilgrims than these; there was indeed so constant 
 a stream of Englishmen traversing Rome from 
 shrine to shrine, listening to its wild legends, gather- 
 ing relics, books, gold-work, and embroidery, that it 
 
 * We find eighty Englishmen in the train of Abbot Ceolfrid of 
 Wearmouth. — Baeda, Lives of Abbots of Wearmouth, sec. 21. 
 
 ' " Magna febris fatigatio advenas illic venientes visitare seu 
 gravare solet." — Life of St. Winibald, ap. Canis. p. 126, quoted by 
 Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, ii. 127. 
 
 • Lett. Bonif. (ed, Giles), Ixiii. p. 146 ; cf. xlix. p. 104, 
 
 19 
 
 was necessary by Offa's day to found a distinct cup.,. 
 quarter of the town, called the •' Sa.xon School," for m 
 their reception and shelter. England oj 
 
 It would be hard to trace out the multifold forms ^~^'' 
 in which the new religion impressed itself upon the "'■" 
 social and political organization of the people whom '""Zt' 
 It had won. We have already seen the influence 
 which It exerted on the intellectual development of 
 the country; but if the art of writing, as the mission- 
 aries introduced it, made a revolution in our litera- 
 ture. It made an even greater revolution in our law 
 Law, as all early tribes understood it, was simply the 
 custom of each separate people as uttered 'from 
 memory by its " law-man," under check of his as- 
 sessors and of the gathered folk. Such utterances 
 were looked on as changeless and divine. The au- 
 thority of the past was, in fact, unquestioned ; the 
 people Itself was conscious of no power to change 
 the customs of its fathers ; and it was only by an 
 unconscious adaptation to the varying circumstances 
 of each generation that this oral law was ceaselessly 
 modified. But with the writing down of these cus- 
 toms the whole conception of law was changed 
 Not only was its sacred character, as well as the 
 mystery which veiled its sources in the memory of 
 the law-man, taken from it, but the mere writin<r 
 them down fixed and hardened the customs then> 
 selves and took from them their power of adapta- 
 tion and self-developmcnt ; for change in the laws 
 could henceforth only be wrought consciously, and 
 on grounds of reason or necessity which questioned 
 or set aside the authority they drew from the 
 past. 
 
20 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cifAP.i. What caused this revolution to be so little felt 
 The was the slowness with which it was wrought. Great 
 
 JBcgWht. as was the fame of yEthelberht's code among schol- 
 ^^jy ars like Baeda, it was long before the rival states 
 
 ^codif followed the example of Kent. There is nothing to 
 warrant us in believing that written law reached 
 Wessex before Ine, or Mercia before Offa, or that 
 it ever reached Northumbria at all. The sphere, too, 
 of the written code remained a narrow and partial 
 one ; it restricted itself, for the most part, to such 
 customs as were affected by the new moral concep- 
 tions which Christianity brought in and the new 
 social order it created, or to the changes in police or 
 in land-tenure which sprang from the natural ad- 
 vance of population and wealth.' ^^thelberht s laws 
 are little more than a record of the customary fines 
 for penal offences, with a provision for the legal 
 status of the new Christian priesthood," and in the 
 Kentish codes that follow, it is mainly on the eccle- 
 siastical side that the area of legislation is widened.' 
 Ine found himself forced by the advance of industry, 
 and by a new state of public order, to deal largely 
 
 ^ The earliest codes we possess are those of Kent — the laws of 
 ^2thelberht (ab. 600), those of Hlothere and Eadric (673-685), and 
 those of Wihtraed (ab. 690). Ine's laws (676-705) are our only 
 West- Saxon code. The Mercian code of Offa (755-794), though 
 used by Alfred in his compilation, is now lost. 
 
 '■' Out of ninety clauses, forty-one fix the fines for injury to various 
 parts of the body. Almost all the laws refer to violent attacks on 
 person or property: there is no mention of trade or agriculture. 
 The Church is mentioned in the first provision alone. 
 
 ^ The Church is not mentioned in Hlothere and Eadric's laws, of 
 whose sixteen provisions about half are fines for violence, the rest 
 being, for the most part, regulations as to plaints in a suit, chapmen, 
 and man-stealing ; but those of Wihtraed are almost wholly eccle- 
 siastical. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 21 
 
 Str\^Z^ir?r^f '^ "-^Sulate the position t"^ 
 or ti e Welsh who had submitted to his sword- h„f ^"s"'-'''* 
 •n other ways the bounds of his h^lll-^ZtoT ^-' 
 narrow as those of the Kentish code nor so f^r ^^ 
 
 tTose^o^f &t" ^™- ^'^-^'^ co^'pSS/:; 
 
 and of our land law, remained purely oral '^ 
 
 bv Ch'rr.?' T^^ '.^?' ''^'''^ '^''^ g'^'^^^^'-^ted alike ^-/. 
 oy Uiristianity and by the scttlemf.nf ^r <.i ^-'v'-'A 
 
 munitv itsplf ;1 '"t- settlement of the com->r/W 
 
 „ij .1 ^"■'"-'^ t'lan the peace of the foil- " f-,- 
 older than " the kin<r's ncace " vvK,Vi , °''^' ^^"^ 
 
 it was the " frlf K " ^ 'r ^'' ^'■'''^ ^° succeed 
 
 sa?e Hff iSlSimb" 'u'. it^^rthe^T '''^-^ 
 
 cattle-stealing and maimtn^! t'espas «:.;. 7^'°" "' "^-^^^ 
 relate to acts of violence, butnearly a laZ Jl ll^'l T ^'"^ 
 concerned with theft, while the subirt^?? ^ *" *'""'= ''"'''= *« 
 time prominently forward lI„T' J "^^ ""'""^ '"•■ 'he first 
 ed. Under internal ^ we^ ' ' pTa'ceTh ' "'''"■ '' '^^^<^'y '-«" 
 mining the relations of a man w^th h, 'I'TT'''""' '°^ '^«<^^- 
 q»itting of lands, and the hke Th. ' ^"^ ^-^R^'^'^X the 
 
 cattle, no doubt r;cords of earlvcul-n ^^'""'' •"""'"tion of 
 
 damage done to what was the gen rrmedi,"'""';''""^'^ ''^'""'' 
 
 and fh':"iac: ^^^^Tl t Z'^T ^ ^^^ "^ ->' -e 
 breach," was the violent brea.?n ^in^^ thiT ^ eS' he^^u.^S 
 
22 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAiM. his foe, his right, and even his duty, personally to 
 The exact vengeance for wrong done to him ; and his 
 ^be°rtf kinsmen were bound by their tic of blood to aid 
 — him alike in self-defence and in revenge. Traces of 
 this older state of things, in which every freeman 
 was his own absolute guardian and avenger, ran 
 through the whole structure of our later jurispru- 
 dence and procedure. A man might slay one whom 
 he found in his own house within closed doors with 
 his wife, or daughter, or sister, or mother ; ' he might 
 slay the thief whom he caught red-handed in the 
 actual commission of his theft,' or the accused man 
 who would not come in peacefully to make answer 
 to the charge.' But as a general right, that of un- 
 regulated vengeance had long passed away before 
 Saxon or Engle reached Britain. The conquerors 
 came as " folks ;" and the very existence of a folk 
 implied a " folk-frith " of the community as a whole. 
 Every man of the folk lay in " the folk's hand ;" and, 
 wroncr-doer as he might be, it was only when the 
 " hand " was opened, and its protection withdrawn, 
 that the folk could suffer him to be maimed or slain." 
 The earliest conception, therefore, of public justice 
 
 as atonement for such a " breach of the peace."— Essays in Anglo- 
 Saxon Law (Boston), p. 279. Even in later days we may note that 
 before paying the " wite," or fine for the breach of the " folk-peace." 
 a culprit has to pay the " bot," or atonement to the wronged man 
 for the breach of his own peace. 
 
 » LI. Alfred. 4 ; Thorpe. Anc. Laws. i. 91. 
 
 » LI. Ine. 12, 16,21.28.35; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 111-125. 
 
 3 LI. Eadw. and Guthr. 6 ; Thorpe. Anc. Laws, i. 171. 
 
 ♦ " It was a fundamental rule of German law that vengeance must 
 be authorized by previous permission of the Court, or if it preceded 
 the judgment, it must afterwards be justified before the tribunal." — 
 Essays in Ang.-Sax. Law, p. 264. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 23 
 
 was a solemn waiver on the part of the community chap. r. 
 of Its right and duty of protection in the case of one Se 
 who had wronged his fellow- member of the folk ^""^K^tf 
 
 Ill such a waiver was^ given the wrong-doer re- — 
 mained in the folk s " mund ;" and to ac't against 
 him without such a waiver, or without appeal to the 
 folk, was to act against the folk itself, for it was a 
 breach of the peace or frith to which his " mund " 
 entitled him. It was the demand for such a with- 
 drawal of the public protection that constituted the 
 trial, and the folk were the only judges of the de- 
 mand. Thrice, and before good witness, had the 
 summons to the folk-moot, or court, to be given by 
 the accuser to the man he charged with the crime, 
 and that at his own house, at the sunsetting, and 
 seven days before the moot. Refusal thrice repeated, 
 on the part of the accused, to hearken to the sun> 
 mons to make answer in the folk-moot, or to submit 
 to its doom, was a contempt of the folk ; but only 
 after threefold refusal was the folk's " mund " with- 
 drawn from him ; till then the wronged man who 
 sought his own vengeance for the wrong broke the 
 folk-frith and became a wrong-doer in his turn. 
 
 It was thus that folk-moot and hundred-moot as- 77/./.;,^ 
 sumed a judicial character. Originally they were '7o/t' 
 no courts of justice in the modern sense of the word ; 
 they did not decide on the truth or falsehood of the 
 charge made, still less did they assign a punishment 
 for wrong done. The wrong was still between man 
 and man; its punishment, if punished it was, must 
 be exacted by the wronged man, or his kinsfolk, from 
 the wrong-doer by sheer fighting ; but ere the fight 
 could begin the leave of the folk at large had to be " 
 
24 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 25 
 
 CHAP. I. sought and given. The license ran in words long 
 The preserved in English law, " homini liceat pugnare," 
 
 Ecgberht " you may fight." ' But before such a license could 
 be procured, it was needful that the folk should de- 
 cide that the man had a right to fight; and the ac- 
 cused thus found himself fronted by the oath,' the 
 solemn appeal to heaven. It may be that here again 
 men looked on their fellow-men as beinsf in the 
 " mund," not only of the folk, but, in a higher sense, 
 of the gods they served, and that, as the appearance 
 of the accuser before the moot was a seekinir for the 
 discharge of the wrong-doer from the protection of 
 the folk, so the oath was a seekinc: for his discharere 
 from the protection of his heavenly lord and guar- 
 dian. But whether such a conception, or more dim 
 and vague ideas of awe and dread, as of a vengeance 
 of the gods on men who wronged them by falsehood, 
 gave birth to the oath, it was the soul of the ju- 
 dicial process before the folk-moot. By a fore-oath 
 the accuser stated his charge against the accused ; ' 
 and if the accused met oath with oath the appeal 
 was complete. With the truth or falsehood of the 
 charge the folk had nothing to do: what it had to 
 do was to judge whether the charge was of such a 
 sort, and made in such a way, as to give the accuser 
 fair ground for seeking amends fi'om the accused. 
 If such was its judgment, the folk withdrew its 
 " mund," and suffered the two contending parties to 
 wage their war. 
 
 * Alfred, 42 : Thorpe, Anc. Laws, p. 91. 
 
 ' See the collection of oaths in Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 179-185. 
 ' He might show, without oath, the wound with which he charged 
 him, and this stood in place of the oath. 
 
 But its jurisdiction was not yet exhausted. As a chap.i. 
 people interested in its own peace and order, the Si 
 folk had still the right, as it had the power, to deter- ^^b°lt' 
 mine how this war should be waged. Even in the ~ 
 earliest days custom had thrown its bonds round ^'ounds of 
 the wild right of private war. It had forbidden all '^''^"''^' 
 secret vengeance, such as poisoning, all mutilation 
 or cold-blooded cruelty, all concealment of the deed. 
 Though in vengeance, or self-defence, a man might 
 slay his foe if he met him, yet " If a man slay^n^ 
 other man in revenge, or self-defence," ran a law 
 which, late as the date of its embodiment in writing 
 may be, is clearly a record of primeval usage, " let 
 him take to himself none of the goods of the dead, 
 neither his horse, nor helmet, nor shield, nor any 
 money, but in wonted manner let him arrange the 
 body of the dead man, his head to the west, his feet 
 to the east, upon his shield, if he have it ; and let 
 him drive deep his lance, and hang there his arms, 
 and to it rein in the dead man's steed ; and let him 
 go to the nearest vill and declare his deed to the 
 first man he meets, that he may make proof and 
 have defence against the kindred and friends of the 
 man he has slain." ' The same web of custom threw 
 itself round the wider warfare of the kin. As late 
 as the days of yElfred ' we see the kindred of the 
 slain man gathered, their quick secret ride over the 
 country, the foe's house surrounded and besieged ; 
 but not for seven days, ran law or custom, must at- 
 tack be made ; for seven days the vengeance-seeker 
 and his kinsfolk must watch the house, while the 
 
 ' Hen. L 83, sec. 6 ; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, 1. 591. 
 ' LI. i€lfred. 42 ; Thorpe. Anc. Laws, i. 91. 
 
 i., ! 
 
 E'i 
 
 i\ 
 
 I 
 
26 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. wronsf-doer within takes counsel with them of his 
 The household whether to surrender or to fight. If 
 
 ^bS-htSvithin these days he chose to surrender, for thirty 
 — days more they lay about the house, while the wrong- 
 doer sent about his friends and kinsmen to find 
 men who would aid him in the atonement for his 
 crime ;' and it was not till these were gathered that, 
 taking one of his house as a spokesman, he gave 
 him pledge that he would make full atonement, and 
 with this pledge the spokesman came forth to the 
 kindred of the slain. Again, in their turn, these gave 
 pledge that the slayer might draw near in peace 
 and himself give pledge for the "wer," or atone- 
 ment for his crime. It was only when he stood be- 
 fore them and gave his free pledge for this payment, 
 and strengthened it by giving security for its com- 
 pletion, that the feud was at an end. 
 
 With all these bounds and limitations, however, 
 the feud became more and more incompatible with 
 the growing sense of humanity and public order. 
 " Both I and all of us," said Eadmund, in a proclama- 
 tion to his people,' " hold in horror the unrighteous 
 and manifold fightings that exist among ourselves." 
 It jarred, too, with the conception of personal re- 
 sponsibility that Christianity had introduced, and 
 which was deepening as the bonds of kinship grew 
 ^veaker with the progress of society. Eadmund's 
 law, indeed, struck a heavy blow at the very principle 
 of kinship — " If henceforth any man slay another, 
 let him bear the feud himself (save that by the aid 
 of his friends and within tw^elve months he make 
 
 Ead- 
 
 miittifs re 
 
 forms. 
 
 * LI. Eadmund, ii. 7; Thorpe. Anc. Laws, i. 251. 
 " LI. Eadmund ; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 246. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 27 
 
 amends with the full wer), to be borne as he may. ciur. i. 
 If his kinsmen forsake him and will not pay for Thi 
 him, it is my will that all the kindred be out of feud, ^bJilt' 
 save the actual doer of the deed, provided that they ~ 
 do not give him either food or protection. . 
 Moreover, if any of the other man's kinsmen take 
 vengeance upon any man save the actual doer of 
 the deed, let him be foe to the king and all his 
 friends, and forfeit all that he has." ' It was only 
 slowly that so great a change in custom and feeling 
 as this law implies could be actually brought about, 
 and the feud still remained, however hampered by 
 reforms, the base of our criminal procedure; but its 
 enactment shows that the change had begun, and 
 that two conceptions, from whose union our modern 
 justice was to spring— the conception of personal re- 
 sponsibility for crime, and the conception of crime 
 as committed primarily not against the individual 
 but against the public peace— were from this time 
 to exercise a deepening influence on national senti- 
 ment. 
 
 In the reforms of Eadmund, however, we have ,,^^", 
 passed long beyond the jurisprudence of the time >^^i.'' 
 of Ecgberht. At the opening of the ninth century 
 English thought was still far from our modern con- 
 ceptions of justice or law — from the conception of 
 crime as committed primarily against the public 
 peace, as cognizable only by public authority, and as 
 corrected by public punishment. As yet, and for 
 centuries to come, all that either king or community 
 attempted to do was to bring the right of private 
 vengeance and self-protection within definite and 
 
 ' Ll. Eadmund ; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 249. 
 
 y| 
 
28 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. 1. customary bounds, to subject it to the previous 
 The sanction and permission of the folk in the folk-moot, 
 
 ^berhfto provide means for averting it where no good 
 grounds existed for its exercise by solemn oath or 
 ordeal of innocence on the part of the accused, or, 
 where such grounds really existed, to provide and 
 extend the sphere of a fixed and customary atone- 
 ment in place of actual blood-shedding. Scant, how- 
 ever, as such a justice may seem to modern eyes, 
 it would have been practically effective for the pur- 
 poses of public order had any adequate machinery 
 existed for imposing the will of the folk on accuser 
 and accused. But the folk-moot had no direct means 
 of enforcincf its doom. If a man thrice refused, 
 after due summons, to appear before it, or appeared 
 but refused to bow to its decision, he put himself, 
 indeed, by his very act, out of the folk, and out of its 
 protection ; he became, in a word, an " outlaw," who 
 might be hunted down like a wolf, and knocked on 
 the head by any man who met him.' But beyond 
 this crencral hostilitv the folk had no means of fore- 
 ing such an offender to submit to its judgment. A 
 yet weightier obstacle to efficient justice was often 
 found in the course of procedure itself. Accuser 
 and accused brought kinsmen and friends in their 
 train to the folk-moot, whether to sway its doom or 
 to enforce it, or to guard against vengeance with- 
 out law. With such a crowd of adherents at the 
 moot, it must always have been hard for meaner 
 men to get justice against king's thegn or country 
 thegn, and as the nobles rose to a new height above 
 the people it was easy for them to hold hundred- 
 
 ' Ess. in Ang.-Sax. Law, 27!, 275, 283. 
 
 4 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 29 
 
 moot, and even folk-moot, at bay. Kent was amonjr aun. ,. 
 the most cvihzed and orderly parts of England, but t"^ 
 at an even later time than this we find 'the o-re-it ^'"«"* 
 men of Kent setting the doom of its folk-moot "Si ^-'^ 
 lutely at defiance.' 
 
 It was this difficulty, more than all else, that must th. 
 have led to the passing of the "folks justice" into l^uHi:' 
 
 the jusfce of the king." From the earliest days 
 the knig had been recognized not only as a political 
 and military eader, but as a judge; and he was the 
 one judge whose position gave him the power of 
 enforcing his dooms, for by himself or by his ealdor- 
 man the whole military strength of the kingdom or 
 shire could be called out to bring a culpriito sub- 
 mission It was natural that as the local courts 
 ound themselves more and more helpless against 
 the great lords they should appeal to a force before 
 which the greatest lords must bow ; and that the 
 baffled Witan of Kent should pray ^thelstan that 
 It any man be so rich or of so great kin that he 
 cannot be punished, or will not cease from his 
 wrong-doing, you may settle how he may be carried 
 away into some other part of your kingdom, be the 
 case whose it may, whether of villein or thegn"" 
 The extension, too, of thegnhood, and the grmv'th 
 of private jurisdictions or sokes, exempt from the 
 common jurisdiction of the hundred-moot, gave a 
 new scope to the justice of the king.' As such 
 private jurisdictions grew more and more frequent, 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 217. ' , ih^~~' 
 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 2,4, etc. " It is probable that cxccnt in ^ 
 
 few special cases, the sac and soc thus granted wer' befor the 
 
 thosro7:h:S'°"^ ^^°'" ''■^ •^-'^-'^ '-- only.and^Um 
 
ill 
 
 30 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 3Jf 
 
 The 
 
 kittifs 
 
 court. 
 
 CHAP. I. they not only weakened the older justice of the peo- 
 Thi pie, but forced on the royal court a large develop- 
 
 ^tlit'ment of its judicial activity, if the justice of the 
 — lords was to be hindered from passing into a means 
 of extortion and tyranny. 
 
 Such a development was made easy by the very 
 character of the kings court. The English king 
 was a great landowner, and, like other^ great land- 
 owners, he was driven from one " vill " to another 
 for actual subsistence. He was in constant motion; 
 for payments were made in kind, and it was only by 
 moving from manor to manor that he could eat up 
 his rents. A Northumbrian king had to consume his 
 customary dues in one vill at the foot of the Chevi- 
 ots and in another on the Don. A king of Wessex 
 had no other means of gathering his rents from his 
 demesne on the Exe or on the Thames. The king's 
 court, therefore, was really a moving body, a little 
 army eating its way from demesne to demense, but 
 wnth a home in our modern sense nowhere, encamp- 
 ing at one or another spot only for so long as the 
 rent-in-kind sufficed, and then after a day or two 
 rolling onward. In the stories of the time' we see 
 the king's forerunners pushing ahead of the train, 
 arriving in haste at the spot destined for the next 
 halt, broaching the beer-barrels, setting the board, 
 slaying and cooking the kine, baking the bread ; till 
 the long company come pounding in through the 
 muddy roads— horsemen and spearmen, thegn and 
 noble, bishop and clerk, the string of sumpter horses, 
 
 1 See, for Ine. Will. Malmesbury. Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 49; ^or 
 iEthelstan, the Saxon Life of Dunstan (Memorials of Dunstan, 
 pp. 17, 1 3). 
 
 I 
 
 the big wagons with the royal hoard or the royal chap. i. 
 wardrobe, and at last the heavy standard borne be- i^ 
 fore the king himself. Then follows the rough jus-^^|tfhf 
 tice-court, the hasty council, the huge banquet, the — 
 fires dying down into the darkness of the night, till 
 a fresh dawn wakes the forerunners to seek'a fresh 
 encampment. 
 
 Such was, in greater or less degree, the life of The 
 every great noble, and such, necessarily, was that of 'pXcI's. 
 the kmg. But with the growing consolidation of 
 England into a single realm these movements took 
 a more ceremonious and political form. Custom 
 came to regulate the seeming disorder of the royal 
 progress; each manor, each town, knows and makes 
 its customary payments in kind ; thegn and villein 
 render their customary service ; while the royal clerk 
 reads from the custom-roll and ticks off the dues 
 paid and the service done. " Watching the king," 
 in fact, finding horses for his journey, or boats for 
 his sail, guarding his person, supplying his larder, 
 become the customary tenures by which towns hold 
 their freedom. l^he progresses grow regular and 
 methodical; men know when their king will be 
 among them, they know where to bring their suit, 
 their plea, their gift to him. As the king moves 
 through forest and waste his progress is a chase ; he 
 finds his foresters in waiting with the villeins bound 
 to customary service in driving the deer. As he 
 passes over the "king's highway," landlord and 
 thegn are called to give account for broken road 
 or broken bridge. In his rough justice-court there 
 is the appeal to be heard, the false moneyer to be 
 branded, the outlaw to be hanged at the nearest oak. 
 
32 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. The '' king's peace " is about him as he goes ; his 
 The " grith," the breach of which no fine can atone for/ 
 ^bwiitSpr<-'^<^^^ for a given space around his court : a double 
 — " bot " and fine protects all who are on their way to 
 him ; if a brawler fight over his cups in the king's 
 hall, he may die at the king's will." The court it- 
 self is no longer the mere train of personal attend- 
 ants which followed a provincial king; it is a little 
 army that needs its officers to order and marshal it, 
 its chamberlain to command the household to deck 
 the rough halls with courtly hanging for the king's 
 stay, to issue from the hoard the gold drinking-cups 
 for the king's table, to pay and command the body- 
 guard ; its staller to order its movements, to direct 
 the horses, the sumpter mules, the long string of 
 wagons, as well as to " park " the vast encampment 
 for the night ; its dish-thegn and cup-thegn to pro- 
 vide the beeves and bread, the wines and ale, for its 
 daily consumption. The creation of these great 
 officers of the household, some of whom we find 
 already existing in ^^Ifred's time, was one of the 
 most important results of the royal progresses. But 
 a yet more important result was the impulse they 
 gave to the change in our system of justice ; for at 
 a time when the public needs called for a judicial 
 power which should be strong enough to enforce its 
 doom upon noble and churl, and supreme alike over 
 folk-moot and soke, the progresses of the king car- 
 ried such a power into every corner of the realm. 
 Gra7vi/i xhe development, however, of English justice was 
 i'l»Js/^j>. but one of the influences that were telling through- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 33 
 
 ' iEthelr. iii. ; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 293. 
 » Ine, sec. 6; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 107. 
 
 out the period on the transformation of the English chap. r. 
 kingship. As England drew together into its Three t^ 
 Kingdoms the wider dominion of the king removed Klt°' 
 him further and further from his people, lifting him — 
 higher and higher above the nobles, and clothing him 
 more and more with a mysterious dignity. Every 
 reign raised the sovereign in the social scale. The 
 bishop, once ranked equal with him in value of life, 
 sank to the level of the ealdorman. The ealdor- 
 man himself, in earlier days the hereditary ruler of 
 a smaller state, became a mere delegate of the king. 
 The king, if he was no longer sacred as the son of 
 Woden, became yet more sacred as "the Lord's 
 Anointed." By the very fact of his consecration he 
 was pledged to a religious rule, to justice, mercy, and 
 good government ; but his " hallowing " invested him 
 also with a power drawn not from the will of man or 
 the assent of his subjects, but from the will of God 
 Treason against him thus became the worst of crimes* 
 while personal service at his court was held not to 
 degrade, but to ennoble. The thegns of his house- 
 hold found themselves officers of state ; and the de- 
 velopment of politics, the wider extension of home 
 and foreign affairs, gradually transformed these royal 
 servants into a standing council of ministry for the 
 transaction of ordinary administrative business, and 
 the reception of judicial appeals. 
 
 The rise of the royal power was furthered by the ^^'^ 
 change which passed at this time over the character ^S 
 of the English noble. Not only was the character ^' 
 of this class profoundly affected by the consolidation 
 of the smaller folks into larger realms, but its whole 
 relation to the king was radically changed. The 
 
 3 
 
 li 
 
 thegn. 
 
34 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. superiority of the 3etheling over the ceorl was a tra- 
 Si ditional superiority which reached back to the very 
 ?|belt°*infancv of the race, and which consisted in an actual 
 — difference, as both beheved, of blood and origin. The 
 tribal king was simply the noblest among the aethe- 
 lings. But with the extinction of the smaller king- 
 ships, and the subjection of both classes to one of the 
 greater monarchies, the position of the hereditary 
 noble was changed. He was no longer of the same 
 blood with the king ; while the wider area of the state, 
 and the number of aethelings it necessarily included 
 within it, lowered his individual position and brought 
 him nearer to the ceorl. At the same time he was 
 being displaced from his older position by nobles of 
 a new and distinct class. Service with the kings, as 
 we have seen, begot the class of thegns ; and while 
 the hereditary noble dwindled with the growth of 
 kino-ship, the noble by service necessarily rose with 
 it "^An cetheling of the Middle English inevitably 
 grew less and less important as the Mercian king- 
 dom widened its bounds from sea to sea, while a 
 thegn of the Mercian court grew as inevitably great- 
 er. "" And to the greatness that came of his relation 
 to a greater master the thegn added a correspond- 
 ing slaperiority of wealth. The possessions of the 
 village noble might lift him above his fellow vil- 
 lager, but they could not vie with the wide domains 
 which the kings of the great states carved out of 
 the folkland for their thegns.^ The cethelings thus 
 died down into a social class, while the thegns took 
 
 
 ^ These grants had become so frequent that even by Ine's time, 
 though some gesiths remained landless, this was exceptional.- 
 Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. i8i, note 3. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 35 
 
 mo/. 
 
 their place as a political nobility dependent on the c„.p.. 
 crown. — 
 
 A further development of the royal power sDnno-l^^^^^^'d^^' 
 from the changes wrought in the o'lder natS i^. "f '"• 
 stitutions by the disappearance of the tribal kin-, i^i^t,. 
 ships in the larger monarchies of the Three Kingdoms. "'"' 
 The life of the earlier English state was gathered up 
 in ,ts folk-moot. There, through its representatives 
 chosen in every hundred-moot, the folk expressed and 
 exercised its own sovereignty in matters of justice 
 as of peace and war. But when the folk sank into 
 a portion of a wider state, its folk-moot sank with it- 
 it It still met it was only to exercise one of its older 
 functions, that of supreme justice-court, while political 
 supremacy passed from it to the court of the far-of¥ 
 lord.' And as the folk-moot died down into the later 
 shire-moot or county court the folks influence on 
 government came to an end. Folk-moots of Surrey- 
 men or South Saxons could exercise no control over 
 a king of W essex. Folk-moots of H wiccas or North 
 iingle could bring no check to bear on a king of Mer- 
 cia. Nor was the loss of this influence made up by 
 the control of the nobler class. Beside the folk-moot 
 and acting with it, had stood the Witenagemot the 
 group of acthelings gathered to give rede to the king 
 and through him to propose a course of action to the 
 folk. On these the growth of the monarchies did 
 not tell as directly as on the folk-moot. Nobles could 
 still gather about the king ; and while the folk-moot 
 passes out of political notice, the Witenagemot is 
 heard of more and more as a royal council. But if 
 £!2fi^ameremained, the meeting itself became a vvhol- 
 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 140, 141. 
 
36 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. ly different one. The decline in the class of oethe- 
 Th^ lings, their displacement by the thegn, would alone 
 ^I'fht'Have altered its character. The distance of the king 
 — from the nobles' homes, as the lesser realms were 
 gathered into the Three Kingdoms, altered it yet 
 more. When a West-Saxon king called his Witan 
 to Exeter he probably expected few thegns from Sus- 
 sex or Kent. When he called them to Kent he can 
 hardly have seen many from Cornwall or the Defn- 
 sa-tan. From the opening of the age of consolida- 
 tion, therefore, the Wltenagemot naturally changed 
 into a mere gathering of bishops and great ealdormen, 
 as well as of the royal thegns in service at the court ;* 
 and it retained this form under the kings of a single 
 England, with just such an increase of numbers as 
 necessarily resulted from the welding of the three 
 realms into one. The seventeen bishops of the Eng- 
 lish sees, about an equal number of ealdormen, whom 
 we may again presume to be actual rulers of the va- 
 rious folks and under-kingdoms, a few abbots, and 
 some fifty or sixty nobles and thegns, comprised the 
 list at its fullest. But the usual gatherings hardly 
 exceed in number those of Offa's court; and even 
 under later kings, such as Eadgar, the usual Wite- 
 nagemots number some nine prelates, five ealdor- 
 men, and fifteen thegns.' 
 
 Such a council might in many ways reflect the 
 
 » Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 146. The Witenagemot that gathered 
 round such a king as Offa consisted only of the five bishops of the 
 Mercian kingdom, of the five or six ealdormen who may have ruled 
 over the older kingdoms or folks that were included withm it, and 
 of some ten or a dozen thegns, who probably held high offices m 
 
 the royal household. tt- • 
 
 • See, for the whole of this subject, Stubbs, Const. Hist. 1. cap. vi. 
 
 37 
 
 national temper, but it was in no sense a representa- chap. i. 
 tiye of the nation. On occasions of peculiar solem- ^e 
 nity mdeed, such as that of a coronation or the pro-^^i"lf 
 mulgation of a code of laws, the old theory of a folk- - 
 moot ratifying the decisions of the Witan and the ^^'^'iarr. 
 king rose again into life, and the retinues in the 
 train of noble and prelate represented by their shouts 
 of " Aye, aye," the assent of the collective freemen. 
 But such an assent was a mere survival of the past- 
 in practice it was an empty form, and the occasions 
 on which It was called for were rare and exceptional ' 
 In ordinary times the Witenagemot was little more 
 than a royal council, whose members were named 
 and summoned by the king,^ and which widened now 
 and then into aristocratic assemblies that foreshad- 
 owed the "Great Council " of the later Baronage. 
 
 That the movement towards national consolidation ^^'^ ^^^^^^ 
 should have stopped so long at the creation of the^'"^"'"" 
 rhrec Kingdoms is one of the problems of our early 
 history. But as the eighth century drew to its close 
 the internal conditions of these states, and their re- 
 lations to one another, showed that the long-delayed 
 revolution was near at hand. The most prominent 
 cause^fjhe break-up of the political system of the 
 
 ' The decisions of one of ^thelstan's Witenagemots are made in 
 common with " tota populi generalitate.--Cod. Dip. 364. But 
 that such gatherings shared in any way the constitutional powers 
 of the W .tan. that they were organized in any way corresponding 
 to the machinery of the folk-moot, that they had any representative 
 character, in the modern sense, as having full powers to act on be- 
 half o constituents, that they shared the judicial work, or. except 
 by applause and hooting, influenced the decisions of the chiefs, there 
 IS no evidence whatever."-Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 142. 
 
 ^thelstan speaks of the Witan at his great meetings as " Witan 
 whom the king himself has named."-Thorpe, Anc. Laws. i. 241 
 
38 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAr. I. Three Kingdoms was one that had already told fatally 
 iiTe on the lesser kingships. In the earlier life of the 
 ^bTrhf English peoples, political individuality found its cen- 
 — tre and representative in their royal stocks, and the 
 number of the separate folks was shown in the num- 
 ber of their kings. Kent and Sussex found room for 
 at least two in each realm ; East Anglia and Wessex 
 seem at times to have had many ; there were sepa- 
 rate roval stocks for peoples like the Hecanas and 
 Hwiccas, or the South Mercians and Middle Engle. 
 It was only through the extinction or degradation of 
 these kingly families that national union was possi- 
 ble ; and 'it is as a main step in bringing this about 
 that the formation of the larger states during the 
 seventh and eighth centuries is so important in our 
 history. With the gradual extension of the Three 
 Kingdoms the bulk of the smaller kingships disap- 
 peared.' Some kings lingered on for a time as un- 
 der-kings ; some sank into ealdormen, who drew their 
 power from the appointment of the conquering over- 
 lord ; some, no doubt, perished altogether with the 
 chances of time and of war.' But a new period be- 
 gan from the moment that the extinction of the roy- 
 al stocks told on the Three Kingdoms themselves. 
 Northum- Northumbria was no longer the formidable king- 
 *""■ dom which we have seen carrying its arms to the 
 Clyde in the days of Eadberht. The withdrawal of 
 
 ■ Thus the Lindsey kings were extinct before 678, when their land 
 was disputed between Mercia and Northumbria ; nor do we hear 
 of any Middle-English king after Peada. The stock ot Deira ended 
 with Oswini. The kings of Sussex are not heard of after its con- 
 quest by Ecgberht. nor those of Wight after its conquest by Cead- 
 
 walla. 
 " Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 198, etc. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 39 
 
 that king to a cloister had been the close of its great- chap. i. 
 ness, for after a year's reign his son Oswulf was slain Th^ 
 by the thegns of his household/ and with his death ^1!^/^^'' 
 peace and order seem to have come utterly to an end. ~ 
 Oswulf was, in fact, the last undisputed representative 
 of the royal line of Bernicia. The kingly house fell 
 with him, and from this moment a strife for the crown 
 absorbed the whole energy of Northumbria. The 
 throne was seized by ^thelwold Moll ;' and a vie to- 
 ry over his opponents at the Eildon Hills, near Mel- 
 rose, so strengthened his power that Offa, just settled 
 m Mercia, gave him his daughter to wife. But after 
 six years of rule ^thelwold Moll lost his kingdom 
 in a fight at Winchanheale in 765 ;' and his place 
 was taken by another claimant, Alchred.^ The his- 
 tory of Northumbria became from this hour a mere 
 strife between these rivals and their houses. Al- 
 chred, victorious over two risings under ealdormen,' 
 was driven in 774 to take refuge among the Picts by 
 ^thclred, the son of ^thelwold ; but after four years 
 of strife ^thelred followed his rival into exile, and 
 his successor, Alfwold " the son of Oswulf," interrupts 
 for nine years, from 779 to ^%Z, the rule of the war- 
 ring houses. Alfwold's reign, however, was as stormy 
 as the rest. In one rising an ealdorman was " burnt " 
 by two of his fellow-ealdormen, and in ^%% another 
 ealdorman rose and slew the king.' With his slay- 
 
 ^"Occisus . . . a sua faniilia."-Sim. Durh., Gest. Reg. a. 758. 
 
 ^ S'm. Durh., Gest. Reg. a. 759- =" Sim. Durh., Gest. Reg. a. 765. 
 Alchred claimed descent from Ida through Bleacmann.-FIor 
 Wore. a. 765 ; but Simeon adds " ut quidam dicunt.''— Gest Reg 
 a. 765. ^thehvold's descent was even more doubtful • "of uncer- 
 tain descent." » Sim. Durh., Gest. Reg. a. 774. 
 
 ' Sim. Durh.. Gest. Reg. a. ^^Z. ^ 
 
40 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. ing the two houses again came to the front ; for two 
 
 Tht years Alchred's son, Osred, occupied the throne; 
 
 ^^'^rtf and on his flight/ in face of a revolt of his ealdor- 
 
 ~ men, the son of ^thelwold Moll, ^^thelred, was 
 
 again recalled to the kingdom, after eleven years of 
 
 exile. 
 A/cuift. ^thelred shrank from no blood-shedding to secure 
 
 his throne. The two children of his predecessor were 
 drawn by false oaths from their sanctuary at York 
 to be slain at his bidding,' and Osred, who was drawn 
 by like pledges from Man, found a like doom. For 
 a while this ruthlessness seems to have succeeded in 
 producing some sort of peace ; but the long anarchy 
 of thirty years had left the land a mere chaos of 
 bloodshed and misrule, and all that saved it from 
 utter ruin was the wide extension of its ecclesiasti- 
 cal domains. The waste and bloodshed of its civil 
 wars stopped short at the bounds of the vast posses- 
 sions which had been granted to its churches, the 
 privilege of sanctuary which they enjoyed gave shel- 
 ter to the victims of the strife, and the learning and 
 culture of Bzeda and of Archbishop Ecgberht still 
 found untroubled homes at J arrow or York. Its in- 
 tellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck 
 of its political life; and in the midst of the anarchy 
 a scholar passed from the schools of Northumbria 
 to become the literary centre of the west. Born 
 about 735, within the walls of York, Alcuin had 
 reached early manhood at the retirement of Eadberht 
 from the throne.' He had been intrusted, like other 
 
 » Sim. Durh., Gest. Reg. a. 792. . ' ^^^.^• 
 
 ' For Alcuin, see article on him by Stubbs in Diet. Christ. Biogr. 
 
 vol. i. p 73- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 41 
 
 noble youths, to Archbishop Ecgberht in his boy- 
 hood, and was placed under the schoolmaster ^th- 
 elberht, who followed Ecgberht in his see on his 
 death. In 766, when Alchred had just mounted the 
 throne, he seems to have accompanied ^thelberht 
 on a journey to Rome, and some time after his re- 
 turn himself took charge of the school of York. The 
 years of his teaching there, from 767 to 780, were 
 the age of its greatest fame and influence ;' so strange- 
 ly, in fact, was the Church isolated from the secular 
 fortunes of the realm about it, that amidst the grow- 
 ing anarchy of Northumbria not only scholars from 
 every part of Britain, but even from Germany and 
 Gaul, are said to have crowded to Alcuin's lecture- 
 room, while his friend. Archbishop ^thelberht, was 
 busy in building a new and more sumptuous church 
 at York, as well as in journeys to Rome, in which he 
 could gather books for its library. 
 
 It was on his return from a journey to get the pal- 
 lium for ^thelberht's successor, in 781, that Alcuin, 
 now the most famous of European scholars, met 
 Charles the Great at Parma, and was drawn by him 
 from his work in Britain to the wider work of spread- 
 ing intellectual life among the Franks. But though 
 his home was now in a strange land, Alcuin's heart 
 still clave to his own Northumbria. The news of 
 its fresh disorder, and the slaying of Alfwold in 788, 
 drew from him prayer after prayer to Charles for 
 leave to revisit his country ; and in 790, soon after 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The 
 
 England of 
 Ecgberht. 
 
 N^orthinH' 
 briii and 
 
 the 
 VVikings. 
 
 ' *• Eo tempore in Eboraica civitate famosus merito scholam 
 magister Alchuinus tenebat, undecumque ad se confluentibus de 
 magna sua scientia communicans." — Vit. S. Liudgeri, quoted by 
 Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. ii. p. 203. 
 
42 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciiAP.i. the recall of ^thelred Moll to the throne, he seems 
 The to have returned to the north of Britain. If so, he 
 SBg^^ht. must have witnessed the bloody deeds by which 
 ^thelred strove to secure his crown ; and we cannot 
 wonder at his finding omens of ill in " that rain of 
 blood which," as he wrote after his departure to the 
 king, " we saw in Lent, at a time when the sky was 
 calm and cloudless, fall from the lofty roof of the 
 northern aisle of the church of York.'" But he could 
 hardly have dreamed how fatally the omen was to be 
 fulfilled by the first descent of the Northmen, only a 
 few months after his return to Gaul. Their incursion 
 again roused civil strife. In the spring of 796 King 
 i^thelred was slain, and whatever was now the con- 
 nection of the Northumbrian with the Prankish court, 
 the wrath of Charles against a race whom he de- 
 nounced as " murderers of their lords " was hardly al- 
 layed by Alcuin's intercession." All cause of inter- 
 vention, however, was removed by the accession of 
 Eardwulf, who succeeded in restoring order for the 
 next ten years ; ' but with the death of Eardwulf, 
 in 806, the northern kingdom vanishes from history 
 till its submission to Ecgberht, seventeen years later." 
 
 Mercta. Broken, indeed, by ceaseless strife, Northumbria 
 was ready to fall before a conqueror's sword. But 
 no such doom seemed to threaten Mercia. In Mer- 
 
 * Ale. Op. (Migne), pt. i. epist. xiii. 
 
 ^ Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 498. 
 ^ Sim. Durh., Gest. Reg. a. 796. 
 
 * In his Gesta Regum, Simeon of Durham practically ceases at 
 803 ; there are two ecclesiastical entries in 830 and 846, then from 
 849 the chronicle is for some time wholly drawn from southern 
 sources, and without reference to the north. In his Historia de 
 Dunelmensi Ecclesia, there is a like gap between 793 and 867. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 43 
 
 cia the royal stock went on unchallenged. No civil chap. i. 
 war disturbed the rule of Offa or of Cenwulf. No fh^ 
 foreign ruler dared to threaten the Middle Kingdom ^^i^f^f 
 as Charles had threatened the North. As the eighth ~ 
 century drew to its close, indeed, Mercia seemed 
 destined rather to absorb its fellow states than to be 
 absorbed by either of them. Northumbria was torn 
 by anarchy. Wessex lay almost hidden from sight 
 behind the forest-screen of the Andredsweald. All 
 that the outer world saw of Britain was the realm of 
 the Mercian kings. From Dover to the Ribble, from 
 Bath to the Humber, the great mass of the island 
 submitted to their sway ; and to the Prankish court 
 the lord of this vast domain was already "king of the 
 English." The ability of Offa and Cenwulf as rulers, 
 as well as the length of their reigns, heightened the 
 impression of Mercian strength. But, even at the 
 summit of their power, a close observer might have 
 seen the inherent weakness of the structure they had 
 built up. The kingdom, in fact, was held together 
 simply by the sword. It stretched from sea to sea ; 
 but both on the eastern and the western coast its 
 subject-provinces only waited the hour of trial to turn 
 against it. The Welsh of North Wales were ready 
 to rise at any moment. Kent, a possession essential 
 to the communication of Mercia with the western 
 world, had risen against Offa and again risen against 
 Cenwulf. The East Anglians were now preparinc^- 
 to renew the strife which they had waged for centiT- 
 ries against the western Engle. And within Mercia 
 itself there seems to have been little of that admin- 
 istrative organization which might have compensated 
 for the hostility of its dependencies. The existence 
 
44 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. I. of five great ealdormen seems to point to a perpet- 
 m uation of the purely local government in the prov- 
 ^^l?rh?inces which made up the central realm. It was 
 ~~ characteristic, indeed, of the looseness of its political 
 structure that Mercia had no marked centre of gov- 
 ernment. Northumbria found a centre at York. 
 Wessex recoe^nized its roval town in Winchester. 
 But Tamworth was simply a royal vill at which the 
 Mercian kings dwelt more frequently than elsewhere. 
 Mercia, in fact, owed its greatness wholly to the char- 
 acter of its individual kings. A single defeat under 
 ^thelbald had already revealed its inherent weak- 
 ness ; and the same revelation was to follow its later 
 defeat under Beorhtwulf. 
 ivessex. Wcsscx, ou the othcr hand, smaller as was its area 
 and later as was its development than that of its fel- 
 low-kingdoms, had a vigor and compactness which 
 neither of them possessed. Its military strength was 
 really greater than theirs. From the first moment 
 of their descent upon Britain the Gewissas had seized 
 a region of surpassing military value. The Gwent 
 was a natural fortress, backed by the sea, screened 
 from attack on either side by impassable woodlands, 
 by SeUvood and the Andredsweald, and presenting 
 along its front two parallel lines of heights, whose 
 steep escarpments rose like walls in face of any as- 
 sailants. Their main settlement, Winchester, lay in 
 the centre of this region ; and a series of roads which 
 diverged from it carried forces easily to any threat- 
 ened point of the border. However Wessex might 
 grow, the Gwent remained its heart and centre ; and 
 the inaccessibility of the Gwent was shown by its 
 security from any inroad till the coming of the Danes. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 45 
 
 Northumbrian hosts might pour over Mid-Britain, chap. i. 
 or Mercian hosts carry their ravages over North- Th^ 
 umbria, but neither Mercian nor Northumbrian ever^^^^tt^ 
 appeared before Winchester. The bulk of the West- — 
 Saxon fights were fought in the district over Thames; 
 and if invaders threatened the Gwent itself it was 
 only, like Ceolric, to be thrown back discomfited from 
 the steeps of Wanborough. Even Wulfhere, after a 
 great victory, could penetrate no farther into Wessex 
 than the same steep of Ashdown. The varied com- 
 position of Ecgberht's kingdom, instead of proving 
 a source of weakness, was itself a source of strength. 
 Its centre was the older Wessex we have described, 
 the region between the Andredsweald and the Sel- 
 wood ; a district of purely English blood grouped 
 round a single political and religious centre at Win- 
 chester. To the west lay the newer Wessex, a tract 
 which, indeed, found a single ecclesiastical centre in 
 Sherborne, but where Welsh and English blood min- 
 gled in the veins of the population, and in which 
 the ethnological character varied from the English 
 element dominant along the skirts of Selwood to the 
 wholly Celtic life of the western Dyvnaint. But this 
 newer Wessex was even more West-Saxon in tem- 
 per than the Wessex of the Gwent. The slowness of 
 its conquest, the gradual settlement of the conquer- 
 ors over its soil, had bound it firmly to the house of 
 Cerdic, and utterly obliterated its Celtic traditions. 
 And, besides this, the two portions were knit togeth- 
 er by an administrative order which was hardly known 
 elsewhere. Our ignorance of the early history of 
 Wessex leaves us no means of tracing the origin of 
 this order, but in Ecgberht's day, at least, it was firm- 
 
 
46 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The 
 Wikings 
 
 and 
 Eiiglaitd. 
 
 CHAP. I. ly established. Every folk-district in the realm was 
 m placed in the hands of a single ealdorman, an officer 
 ^bTrh^who, by this time, must have been of royal appoint- 
 — ment, and who was above all the leader of its local 
 force or " fyrd." It is through the mention of these 
 officers that we see that Wessex was, by this time at 
 any rate, parted into the administrative divisions that 
 it still retains, and that the Somer-saetan, the Defn- 
 saetan, and the Dor-seetan had their defined dis- 
 tricts one side the Selwood, as the settlers in the 
 " Bearroc-wood," the Wil-saetan, and the original 
 Gewdssas in their tract about Hampton had on the 
 other. 
 
 It was this political and administrative superiority, 
 even more than its military vigor, which so sudden- 
 ly set Wessex at the head of the English states and 
 crave into its hands the w^ork of consolidating the 
 English peoples. In Ecgberht's day, however, that 
 work had hardly begun. Though every one of its 
 states had submitted to his sway," Ecgberht had not 
 become a King of England. He had not even be- 
 come King of the Mercians, of the East Angles, or 
 of the Northumbrians. It was not till Alfred's day, 
 a hundred years later, that a King of Wessex could 
 call himself also King of the Mercians ; it was not 
 till i^thelstan that the ruler who w^as at once King 
 of the West Saxons and King of the Mercians could 
 add to his title that of King of the Northumbrians. 
 Even then the bond which united the Three King- 
 doms was but the personal bond of their allegiance 
 to the same ruler ; and it w^as not till the close of 
 Eadear's reiscn that the srenius of Dunstan dared to 
 
 ' See Making of England, cap. viii. — (A. S. G.) 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 47 
 
 create an England and to crown the lord of the three cup. ,. 
 realms as its national king. But these things were m 
 far off in Ecgberht's time. His conquests had given ^&if: 
 him a supremacy over his fellow-kings, by which they — 
 and their peoples were bound to pay him tribute and 
 to follow him in war. But their life remained in all 
 other matters as independent as before. In spite 
 of submission and tribute, Northumbria seems to 
 have remained almost wholly detached from its over- 
 lords. Rival claimants for its throne fought on as 
 of old, unhindered by any interference from the south, 
 and the successors of Ecgberht made not a sino-le 
 effort to rescue it from the Dane. East Anglia re- 
 mained under its old line of kings, almost lis iso- 
 lated as Northumbria from Wessex, and equally un- 
 aided by it in the coming struggle. Mercia itself, 
 broken as it was by defeat after defeat, was far from 
 passing into a mere province of the West-Saxon 
 realm ; it retained its old national life as it retained 
 its bounds, and though Ecgberht drove its kincr 
 Wiglaf from his throne, he was forced, after three 
 years of struggle, to replace him on it. Even in later 
 years it was by ties of blood and wedlock, rather 
 than by more direct bonds of subjection, that the 
 policy of Wessex strove to bring the Midland realm 
 beneath its sway. It was, in fact, only by long and 
 patient effort that this vague supremacy of the West- 
 Saxon kings could have been developed into a na- 
 tional sovereignty, and the effort after such a sov- 
 ereignty had hardly begun when it was suddenly 
 broken by the coming of the Danes. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Thefinl 
 Wikings. 
 
 THE COMING OF THE WIRINGS. 
 
 829-858. 
 
 In the days of Beorhtric of Wessex, while Offa 
 was still ruling in Mercia, and Ecgberht an exile at 
 the court of Charles, "in the year 787, came three 
 ships " to the West-Saxon shores, " and then the 
 reeve rode thereto, and would force them to go to 
 the kincr's tun, for that he knew not what they were ; 
 and they slew folk." ' Two hundred years later, in 
 the midst of the long warfare which opened with the 
 landintr of the pirate-band, the memory of that first 
 warnin^g of danger was still fresh in the minds of 
 men " Suddenly," ran the later tradition preserved 
 in the royal West-Saxon house, " there came a Dan- 
 ish fleet, not very alarming, consisting of three long 
 ships, and this w as their first coming. When this 
 
 '. Eng. ChroTlWindU a. 787. which adds, M-hese were the first 
 ships of Danish men that sought land of Engle-folk. Munch, 
 however (Det Norske Folks Historic, German trans, by Claussen. 
 ot iv p 186), points out that this entry dates at earUest from 891, 
 when the Danes were really the assailants of Britam. and that a 
 more contemporary entry may be found in the late Canterbury 
 Chronicle (F). where the ships are called " of Northmen from Here- 
 tha-land," " It is a strong testimony to the age of th,s account that 
 the Wikings are called Northmen, for this name was ost m England 
 earlier than elsewhere." "The so-called Heretha-lantl" he adds, 
 "from which these Northmen came, can be none other than Harde- 
 land or Hardesyssel. in Jutland, for from Hordeland m Norway no 
 descents upon England had taken place at this time. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 49 
 
 came to the ears of the king's reeve, who was then 
 in the tun which is called Dorchester, he mounted 
 his horse and with a few men hastened to the port, 
 thinking they were merchants rather than enemies,' 
 and addressing them with authority ordered them to 
 be carried to the king s tun ; and by them he and 
 those who were with him were there slain. Now 
 the name of this reeve was Beaduheard." ' Soon 
 there were few tun-reeves who knew not what these 
 strangers were, for six years later, in 793, their pirate- 
 boats were ravaging the coast of Northumbria 
 plundering the monastery of Lindisfarnc and mur- 
 dering its monks;' and in 794 they entered the 
 Wear to pillage and burn the hou.ses of Wearmouth 
 and Jarrow. " He who can hear of this calamity," 
 wrote Alcuin, as the news reached him in Gaul of 
 the ruin of the houses which enshrined within them 
 the religious history of Northumbria, the houses of 
 Aldan and Cuthberht, of Benedict Biscop and of 
 Bffida— " he who can hear of this calamity and not 
 cry to God on behalf of his country, has a heart not 
 of flesh, but of stone." ' 
 
 The descent of the three strange .shiixs did, in fact 
 herald a new conquest of Britain. It was but the 
 beginning of a strife which was to last unbroken till 
 the final triumph of the Norman conqueror. For 
 nearly a hundred years to come the shores of En<r. 
 land were harried and its folk slain by successors of 
 these northern pirates, till their scattered plundcr- 
 
 ■ ^thelweard, a. 787. ^thelweard was a descendant of ^thelred' 
 I., and probably the caldorman of the Western Provinces in the 
 re,gn of Athelred II. ' Sim. Durh., Gest. Reg, a. 793, 794 
 
 Alcuin Op. fMigne), pt. i. epist. xi. ^ ^* 
 
 CIIAI'. 11. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 WiUngi. 
 
 829-8U. 
 
 T/t^ COtt' 
 
 qiieit 0/ 
 
H 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 The 
 
 Coining 
 
 of the 
 
 Wikinga. 
 
 829 858. 
 
 I 
 
 The 
 Norther 
 
 peoples 
 
 CQ THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 raids were merged in the more organized attack of 
 the Danish sea-kings. The conquests of Ivar and 
 Guthrum and Halfdene in the days of Alfred were, 
 in their turn, but the prelude to the bowing of all 
 England to a foreign rule under Swein and Cnut. 
 Bufin the end the fruit of the long attack slipped 
 from Danish hands. The harvest, indeed, was reaped, 
 but it was reaped by Northmen who had ceased, even 
 in tongue, to be Northmen at all. Not the Danes of 
 Denmark, but the Danes of Rouen, of Caen, of Bay- 
 eux, became lords of the realm of Alfred and Ead- 
 gar.' It was the sword of the Normans which drove 
 Xox the last time from English shores the fleet of 
 
 the Danes. 
 
 The new assailants announced themselves as men 
 ' of the north, men from the lands beyond the Baltic ; 
 but this told Englishmen nothing. Though the 
 Jutes who had shared in the conquest of Britain 
 had been at least akin in blood with the dwellers on 
 either side the Cattegat, their work had soon come 
 to an end, and with it had ended, for centuries, all 
 contact of the men of the north with Englishmen. 
 It was not till the middle of the eighth century that 
 dim news of heathen nations across the Baltic came 
 from English missionaries who were toiling among 
 the Saxons of the Elbe, and an English poet, it may 
 be an English mission-priest in the older home of 
 his race, wove fragments of northern sagas into his 
 Christianized version of the song of Beowulf. But 
 to the bulk of Englishmen, as to the rest of Christen- 
 dom, these peoples remained almost unknown. Their 
 life had, indeed, till now, been necessarily a home 
 life; for, instead of fighting and mingling with the 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 
 
 stormy seas of the north. While Britain w'snas 
 jng hrough the ages of her conque^h "s t e 
 
 Se :;;,;?;:•" ";' ^""■^■■^''^' -organization t 
 
 forest^ tl t^Sd 'kra T T '^"^^'^ l^'"^" 
 tween tho huT ! ^ ^^^ °^ vvoodland be- 
 
 ratner-Jand the Dane was finding a home in th.^ 
 reaches o b.rch-wood and beech-wood thTt co^e ed 
 
 It was this hard struggle for hfp that h.u v . 
 to the last- nn fi,„ t * . ^' ''-" 'ts stamp 
 
 to he last on the temper of the Scandinavian pec^ 
 P es I he very might of the forces with which thev 
 batt ed gave a grandeur to their resistance It was 
 to the sense of human power that woke as the fislTer 
 boat rode out the storm, as the hunter ploughed ht 
 onely way through the blinding snoS as tt 
 '^^!!'^!:i^:!!i::^^ warf^r/t-th un. 
 
 and is called Klar River Thrr'.h. ! 'l'"'" ""= '^'^""<=^ L'''<e, 
 to and cleared the woods burn.H 1 1 themselves down, turned 
 when it was told of otnn sTetn'ttt h? ""'f "?"" ' ' " N"*' 
 they laughed at his doin^rs "h . i ^ - '">^ ""<= '°''^>*'«- 
 
 Tra.telgia)._Yng, „J""sf„;"^^ 'f'" ?"" ^^c Tree-feller" roia 
 
 Hein,skri„g,a (Se^a K^ngs ofNo^fy)' i hr'so'7"^'"'"" "' '"e 
 Onund, "Sweden is a great for«t li'nH '^ ^ """'''" ■""«• 
 
 uninhabited forests in f thlt it t ' t^ ' "'^ ?'"'' ""^ '"'^ »^^«t 
 them. Onund bestowed ^relt pi ns Z\"r7 , ""f"'"'^' "^ "'^'^ 
 and tilling the cleared la^d Vlnf^ u. '" "^""""^^ the woods 
 
 all Sweden, both over morass^; an^ '"^ '""'' '"^^'^ 'trough 
 
 fore called Onund RoaTmaTer " mrT?r"'; '"'' "' "^'^ ""=^^- 
 <=■ 27. Laing. i. 247. " (Braut-Anund).-Ynglinga Saga, 
 
 CHAP. ir. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 Wi kings. 
 
 829-858. 
 
 T/icir 
 fcnipcr. 
 
52 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 il 
 
 CHAP. II. kindly seasons and barren fields, that these men 
 m owed their indomitable energy, their daring self-reli- 
 Tthf ance, their readiness to face overwhelming odds, 
 wikings. i-j^^ij. slowness to believe themselves beaten. He 
 829-858. who would win good fame, said an old law, must 
 "~ hold his own against two foes and even against 
 three ; it is only from four that he may fly without 
 shame. Courage, indeed, was a heritage of the 
 whole German race, but none felt like the man of the 
 north the glamour and enchantment of war. Fight- 
 ing was the romance that alone broke the stern 
 monotony of his life ; the excitement and emotion 
 which find a hundred spheres among men of our 
 day found but this one sphere with him. As his 
 boat swept out between the dark headlands at the 
 fiord s mouth, the muscles that had been hardened 
 by long strife with thankless toil quivered wdth the 
 joy of The coming onset. A passion of delight rings 
 through war-saga and song ; there are times when 
 the northern poetry is drunk with blood, when it 
 reels with excitement at the crash of sword- edge 
 through helmet and bone, at the warrior's war-shout, 
 at the'^gathering heaps of dead. The fever of fight 
 drove all ruth and pity before it. Within the cir- 
 cle of his own home, indeed, the sternness of the 
 life he lived did gentle work in the W iking s heart.' 
 Long winter and early nightfall gathered the house- 
 
 » For their love of home, see a touching scene in the Njal's Saga 
 (trans, by Dasent. i. 236). Gunnar. doomed by the Thing to exile, 
 coes down to the ship, then "he turned with his face up towards 
 the Lithe and the homestead at Lithend, and said. - Fair is the 
 Lithe so fair that it has never seemed to me so fair ; the corn-fields 
 are white to harvest, and the home-mead is mown ; and now I will 
 ride back home, and not fare over sea at all." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 53 
 
 hold closely together round the common hearth, and cHAr.ir. 
 nowhere did stronger ties bind husband to wife or ^e 
 child to father; nowhere was there a deeper rever- ^onL? 
 ence for womanhood and the sanctities of woman- '^^»' 
 hood. But when fight had once begun, the farmer 829-858. 
 and fisher who loved his own wife and child with so ~" 
 tender a love became a w^arrior who hewed down the 
 priest at his altar, drove mothers to slavery, tossed 
 babes in grim sport from pike to pike.' The na- 
 tions on whom these men were soon to swoop 
 cowered panic-stricken before a pitilessness that 
 seemed to them the work of madmen. " Deliver 
 us," ran the prayer of a litany of the time, '' deliver 
 us, O Lord, from the fi-enzy of the Northmen !" 
 
 What gave their warfare its special character w^as 77/. 
 that its field was the sea. The very nature, indeed, ^^::^'r 
 of their home-land drove these men to the sea, for "^ 
 in all the northern lands society was as yet but a 
 thin fringe of life edging closely the sea-brim. In 
 Sweden or the Danish isles rough forest.edg<3 or 
 dark moor -slope pressed the village fields cfosely 
 to the waters edge. In Norwary^he bulk of the 
 country was a vast and desolate upland of barren 
 moor, broken only by narrow dales that widened 
 as they neared the coasts into inlets of sea; and it 
 w^as in these inlets or fiords, in the dale at the 
 fiord s head, or by the fiord s side, where the cliff- 
 
 Domos vestras combusserunt, res vestras asportarunt. pueros 
 sursum jactatos lancearum acumine susceperunt. conjuges vestras 
 quasdani vi oppresserunt. quasdam secum abduxerunt."-Hen 
 Hunt. lib. V prooem. (ed. Arnold, p. 138). A Wiking named Oelver, 
 in the ninth century, is said to have been nicknamed "Barnakarl" 
 (or child's cnecht). because he would not join in the tossing children 
 on pikes.-Munch. Det Norske Folks Hist. (Germ. trans.), pt. iv. p. 232. 
 
 sea. 
 
54 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. 11. wall now softened into slopes to which his cattle 
 Th^ clung, now drew back to make room for thin slips 
 Tthf of nieadow-land and corivland, that the Norwegian 
 wikingfi. {q^^j^j his home. Inland, where the bare mountain 
 829-858. flats then rose like islands out of a sea of wood, the 
 country was strange and dread to them; for the 
 boldest shrank from the dark holts and pools that 
 broke the desolate moorland, from the huge stones 
 that turned into giants in the mists of nightfall- 
 giants that stalked over the fell till the gray dawn 
 smote them into stone again— from the wolves that 
 stole along the fearsome fen-paths, and from the fell 
 shapes into which their excited fancy framed the 
 mists at eventide— shapes of giant " moor-steppers," 
 of elves and trolls, of Odin with his wind-cloak 
 wrapped round him as he hurried over the waste. 
 But terror and strangeness vanished with a sight of 
 the sea. To the man of the north the sea was road 
 and hunting-ground. It was a "water-street" be- 
 tween the scattered settlements ; for few cared to 
 push overland across the dark belts of moor that 
 parted one fiord from another. Even more than the 
 land about his home it was the dalesmen's harvest- 
 field; for fishers net had often to make up for scanty 
 corn-growth and rotting crops, and quest of whale 
 and s'eal carried them far along their stormy coasts.' 
 Their The life of these northern folk w^as, in its main 
 features, one with the life of the earlier Englishmen.' 
 Their home and home- customs were the same. 
 
 usages. 
 
 » See Othere s stor>- in Alfred's Orosius, at the close of Pauli's 
 
 Life of Alfred, p. 249. ^ ^ ^, 
 
 » See Munch. Det Norske Folks Historic (Germ, trans, by Claus- 
 
 sen), pt. ii. pp. 140-257. for the details of their life. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 55 
 
 The ranks of society differed only in name. Our chap. h. 
 eethehng, ceorl, and slave are found in the oldest m 
 tradition of the north as jar], carl, and thrall ; ' in ^o7Th? 
 later times carl begat the bonder and jarl' the ^^^• 
 king. There was as little difference in their politi- 829 858 
 cal or judicial institutions. The bonders gathered "" 
 to the thing as the ceorls to the moot; we see the 
 httle "folks," who in our own history so soon fuse 
 into larger peoples in the "fylki," each with its jar! 
 or king, eight of which found room for themselves 
 in the district of Trondhjem alone.^ In religion too 
 there was the same kinship. The gods that were 
 common to the Teutonic race were worshipped in 
 the northern lands as elsewhere, though nowhere 
 among the German peoples did their story become 
 clothed with so noble a poetry. The contrast of 
 the warmth and peace within the home of the Scan- 
 dinavian with the sternness and uproar of the win- 
 ter world without it, woke a wild fancy in the groups 
 that clustered through the long eventide round the 
 glowing wood-ashes of the hearth. Thor's mighty 
 hammer was heard smiting in the thunder peal that 
 rolled away over the trackless moors. Odin's 
 mighty war-cry was heard in the wind-blast that 
 rushed howling out to sea. The faint and brief 
 daylight of mid-winter pointed forward to that "twi- 
 light of the gods," when even they should yield to 
 the weird that awaited them, and the All-father him- 
 self should die. 
 
 ' See the curious " Rigsmaal" in E^dda Samundar. iii. i7o-,no 
 Copenhagen, 1828. ^' 
 
 ' Saga of Harald Fairhair ; Laing's Sea Kings of No^^vay (trans- 
 lation of the He.mskringla). i. 275. For the Fylki, see Munch, Det 
 Norske Folks Hist. (German trans.), pt. i. p. 126. etc. 
 
1 
 
 56 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 Wikings. 
 
 829-858. 
 
 Their 
 warfare. 
 
 There was the same likeness in their usages of 
 war. In both peoples the war-band lay at the root 
 of all. The youn^r warriors of the folk gathered 
 round a war-leader for fight and foray ; sometimes 
 the king of this dale or that summoned his fightmg- 
 men for more serious warfare; sometimes a farmer 
 when seed-time was over mustered his bondmen for 
 a harvest of pillage ere the time came for harvest- 
 ■m<y his fields. To reap the one harvest was counted 
 throu<rh the north as honest and man-worthy a deed 
 as to^reap the other.' But while the English war- 
 band made its foray over land, the northern war- 
 band made its foray over sea. From the " wik, or 
 creek where their long-ship lurked, the " W ikmgs, 
 or "creek-men,"-^ as the adventurers were called, 
 pounced upon their prey, or crept along the iron- 
 bound coast, striking here and there up the fiords 
 to harry and to slay. The " long-ship " itself in its 
 very construction was above all a pirate ship; of 
 <rreat length, but narrow beam and little depth of 
 keel,' its admirable lines and all but flat bottom 
 shovved that it was built exclusively for speed. In 
 roucrh water, indeed, the Wiking ships were almost 
 
 unmanageable, and a storm like that off the coast of 
 
 Lindisfa'rne in 794 threw them helpless on the beach. 
 
 Nor were they adapted fo r long sea-j ourneysj^there 
 
 " ■ See the story of Swein. AsleiPs son, in the Orkneyinga Saga 
 ftrans bv Anderson), c. 72, etc.. pp. 1 17 '•'■><•?• , „ ^. , 
 
 ^' For derivation and history of this word, see Munch. Det Norskc 
 Folks Hist. (German trans.), pt. iv. p. =37- It is used solely by voy- 
 atrers to the western, never by those to the easterri, seas. 
 ^. The boat found recently under a mound at Gokstad m Norway, 
 i, about sevcntv-eight feet long by si.xteen and a half feet broad, 
 and between five and six feet deep. She would draw about four 
 feet of water, and was driven by si.xteen oars on either side. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 was little accommodation for crew or cargo ; and the 
 pirates were forced to moor at each sunset, to make 
 a foray for what cattle might serve for their meal 
 and to sleep beneath a sail on the beach. In ficrht- 
 ing, too, their slightness of construction, fastened" to- 
 gether as their timbers often were bv wattles of 
 tree-roots for lack of iron, forbade any use of them 
 in shock of ship against ship; ' they were, in fact, 
 lashed together, and their stern and forecastle used 
 as platforms for their fighting crews. But they 
 were well fitted for their special end. A heavy 
 merchant vessel lay at the mercy of the Wikino-'s 
 ;' keel," as it darted out from covert of headland ''or 
 isle, while Its flat bottom and shallow drau<rht of 
 water made every river-mouth a haven, and "every 
 river a road into the land that the pirates lusted to 
 pillage. 
 
 At the causes that drew these men, with the close 
 of the eighth century,' to their attack on western 
 Christendom we can do little more than guess, for 
 history of the north, as yet, there is none.' It may 
 ^^l^i^^tciMegen^told^^^^ of popula- 
 
 ■ The ships of the Wikings ^^^^1^^^^^^^^'^^^:^^ . 
 their ma,n object was to serve merely as« means of transpo.t^rom 
 one field of plunder to another. See K. Maurer's review oTsteen" 
 strups Indlednmg i Normannertiden (Normannerne, Hind '"n 
 (A S.'")" ^'"=^^'"^-''-g- 4th series. No. 2. Jan. ,3, .877, p. 25.- 
 
 back to ff,f^"=',^:'^"!'=e<="ds carry the conquests of the Northmen 
 back to a far earher t.me. But the joint evidence of the Fnirlish 
 
 Jate of.h T'"' chroniclers is conclusive in establishing the Li 
 date of their first attacks. 
 
 = Munch, in the opening of his great work. Det Norske Folks 
 
 oj; th:'old::'""" r ^^"'^"^^ ^^^^ '^^^"^- ^^ ^^e help of philol! 
 ogy the older geneaIog.es. etc.; but his success is far from being 
 commensurate with his industry. ^ 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Tho 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 Wikings. 
 
 829-868. 
 
 Causes of 
 
 their 
 incn<evietit 
 
 to the 
 
 south. 
 
58 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 J 5 
 
 cHAP^ii. tion had outstripped the resources of the fiords, and 
 The the Httle commonwealths were forced by very hun- 
 ^orthB ger to drive out their younger folk.' It may be that 
 wikings. ^1^^, ^^.Qj.|^ Qf union which was at last to knit these 
 829-858 commonwealths together into peoples and nations, 
 as well as the revolt against it, had already begun. 
 The men of the north shared with the rest of the 
 Teutonic family its love of freedom and self-govern- 
 ment ; but the severance of settlement from settle- 
 ment by long reaches of desolate moorland gave this 
 spirit of independence a harder and fiercer tone than 
 elsewhere. It became a wild and passionate hatred 
 of the subordination and obedience which wider 
 union and a common government necessarily bring 
 with them. • No seas were too strange to traverse, no 
 land too far to fly to, when the Northman was called 
 to bow to the rule of a common king. But the full 
 effect of this temper was not to be felt for a hundred 
 years; and in seeking for the causes of their action 
 at this earlier time it is, perhaps, needless to look 
 
 ' Laing (Sea Kings of Nonvay, i. 109) shows the impossibiHty of 
 widening the little farms along the fiords, and the consequent neces- 
 sity for constant emigration. It is still seen in the large number of 
 Scandinavian emigrants to America. See Munch. Det Norske 
 Folks Hist. (German trans.), pt. i. p. 173, and Dudo, " Exuberantes 
 atque tcrram, quam incolunt, habitare non sufhcientes, collecta sorte 
 multitudine pubescentium, veterrimo ritu in externa regna extru- 
 duntur nationum, ut adquirant sibi praeliando regna, quibus vivere 
 possint pace perpetuu " (Duchesne, Histor. Norm. p. 62). Olaf 
 Trygv-asson's Saga mentions a tradition that in case of famine all 
 who could not feed themselves, old and sick, were slain. [Steen- 
 strup accepts the theory of over-population (which he attributes to 
 the practice of polygamy) as the cause of emigration. K. Maurer, 
 on the other hand, argues from the account given in Landnamabok 
 of Harald Fairhair's attempts to check emigration that the country 
 cannot have been over-peopled. See Maurer's review of Steenstrup 
 in Jeniier Literatur-zeitung, Jan. 13, 1877, p. 25.— (A. S. G.)] 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 further than to the hope of plunder. What a spell 
 the sudden disclosure of a world's wealth casts on 
 whole peoples we know from the memories of the 
 Spani of Charles the Fifth and the England of 
 thzabeth. But the expeditions of Cortes or Ra- 
 leigh were only the last outbreaks of a passion 
 which had lingered on from the very outset of hu- 
 man history. As soon as men gathered in village 
 and seaport the boats of Greek pirates swarmed 
 over the Hellenic seas. Rome, in the very hei<rht 
 of her power, had to battle with pirate fleets whkh 
 grew with the growing commerce of the Mediterra- 
 nean. It was the wealth of the empire, the dream 
 of sacking her towns and pillaging her treasures, 
 which drew on her the German peoples in her de- 
 cay. And now that the world which had reeled 
 under that mighty shock was again organizing itself 
 round powers which recalled the greatness as well 
 as the name of Rome — now that commerce was 
 covering the sea afresh with its merchant boats, and 
 nevv towns rising within deserted walls, and wealth 
 gathering once more under the shelter of church 
 and abbey, the thirst for plunder woke again in the 
 north. The boats which had sailed from its fiords 
 to pillage the dales of their neighbors steered south- 
 wards for a richer spoil. 
 
 From the opening of the ninth century we see 
 them pushing boldly to the south along two distinct 
 luies of advance on either side of Britain— alon- the 
 coast of Ireland, and along the coast of Gaul, "xhe 
 startmg-point of the last advance was a region 
 *!!^l!!ifLt2Jlif^ihlorigmal Engle-land," but which 
 
 'VVulfstan told Alfred of his saiF pasf 'JutlandT^e^iaii^riird 
 
 CHAP. 11. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 Wikings. 
 
 829-858. 
 
 and the 
 Frnuks. 
 
6o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 i 
 
 829 858 
 
 
 CHAP. II. was now known as South Jutland, and whose 
 Thi earHer peoples had been replaced by dwellers of 
 Ttbf Scandinavian blood. The political geography of the 
 wikings. j^^^j-^i^ ^^-^^ f^i- fi-om having taken, as yet, its after- 
 shape. The kingdom of Swithiod, indeed, in the 
 lands about Upsala already gave promise of the fu- 
 ture Sweden, but only a germ of the later Norway 
 could be seen in the litde kingdom of Westfold round 
 the Christiania fiord. Small, however, as this was, it 
 had shown itself vigorous enough to set up a Ime 
 of dependent kings in South Jutland;' and it was 
 the raids of these kings along the Prankish shores 
 that, in the year 800, when his power had reached 
 its highest point, drew Charles the Great to the 
 northern borders of his realm. The garrisons he 
 stationed along the coast, as well as a fleet which 
 he ordered to be built in its harbors, showed how 
 keen was his sense of the danger that threatened 
 the western world. His precautions, indeed, were 
 not an hour too soon. In 803, during his last strug- 
 gle with the Saxons, Gudrod or Godfrid, king both 
 of Westfold and South Jutland, advanced with a 
 fleet as far as Slcswick, and gave shelter to the war- 
 riors who fled from the sword of the Franks. Five 
 years later a raid of the same king across the Elbe 
 attain called the F^rankish arms to the north, and 
 cfodfrld drew across the peninsula the defensive 
 line of earthworks called the Dane work to arrest 
 them. 
 
 in^i^slands." " In these lands." comments the king, '* the Engle 
 dwelt before they came hither to this land."— .Alfred's Orosius, in 
 
 Pauli's Life of Alfred, p. 253. , , 1 ^ xf u r. . 
 
 » For these kings in Westfold and South Jutland, see Munch, Det 
 
 Norske Folks Hist. (German trans.), pt. iv. pp. 134- 1 54- 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 6l 
 
 So formidable, indeed, was this freebooter s pres- char n. 
 ence that Charles was already preparing an expe- Thi 
 dition against Jutland when Godfrid himself chal- ^o7tiIf 
 lenged the encounter, in 8io, by a descent on Frisia '^^^^^*' 
 with two hundred ships ; and, making himself master 829 »^a 
 of the country after three combats with its people, tt^v 
 boasted that he would soon go and enthrone himsclC^'^TsL!" 
 in the emperor's own Aachen. The danger, indeed, 
 passed away as suddenly as it had risen, for the 
 northern king was slain by one of his followers, his 
 kingdom was broken up, and a nephew, Heming, 
 who succeeded him in the Jutish part of it, made 
 peace with the Franks. But even this peace, and a 
 civil war among the Northmen, which followed it, 
 did not quiet the emperor s anxiety ; for on the eve 
 of his death, in the autumn of 8i i, we find him visit- 
 ing Boulogne to see the ships whose building he 
 had ordered the year before, and, after restoring the 
 old Roman light-house which served to guide ships 
 along the coast, he made his way thence to the banks 
 of the Scheldt, where vessels were also in process of 
 construction. During the early part of the reign of 
 his son, the Emperor Lewis, a continuance oi the 
 civil w^ar among the Northmen served even more 
 than these fleets to secure the Frankish coast; and 
 the aid of the emperor enabled Harold or Heriold, 
 one of the claimants of the throne, again to detach 
 Jutland from Westfold. But Harold's conversion to 
 Christianity was at once followed by his expulsion 
 from the land ; and from this moment the old attacks 
 were resumed as fiercely as ever, till the strife be- 
 tween Lewis and his sons broke down the barriers 
 between the Northmen and their prey, and the pirate- 
 
62 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. !I, 
 
 The 
 
 Coining 
 
 of the 
 
 Wikings. 
 
 829-858. 
 
 The 
 
 and 
 Ireland. 
 
 boats ravaged without hindrance from the mouth of 
 the Elbe to the mouth of the Rhine. 
 
 It was a i)arty of these marauders along the 
 Prankish coast who at last pushed across the Chan- 
 nel to the mouth of the Thames and ravaged, in 834, 
 the Isle of Sheppey.' But whatever influence the 
 advance of the Wikings along the coast of Gaul may 
 have had on the southern or eastern states of Brit- 
 ain, the attention of Ecgberht himself must have been 
 fixed even more intently on their parallel line of ad- 
 vance to the west.' Ireland was as yet a more tempt- 
 ing prey for the pirates than even Gaul' It was at 
 the monasteries that these earlier raids were mainly 
 aimed ; and nowhere were the monastic houses so 
 many and so rich. It was in these retreats, indeed, 
 sheltered as men deemed by their holiness from the 
 greed of the spoiler, that the whole wealth of the 
 country was stored; and the goldwork and jewelry 
 of their shrines, their precious chalices, the silver- 
 bound horn which king or noble dedicated at their 
 altars, the curiously wrought covering of their mass- 
 books, the hoard of their treasure-chests, fired the 
 imagination of the northern marauders as the treas- 
 ures of the Incas fired that of the soldiers of Spain. 
 News spread fast up dale and fiord how wealth such 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 832 (4). 
 
 " Additional prcof that the earlier attacks on Southern Britain 
 came from Ireland is given by a hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins, many 
 of them Kentish, found at Delgany in Wicklow, to which attention 
 has been drawn by Mr. John Evans. The latest in date are those 
 of Beornwulf. from 820 to 824, while neither in Sweden nor Den- 
 mark have such coins been found of earlier date than 830. 
 
 ' For the Northmen in Ireland, see especially The War of the 
 Gaedhill with the Gaill, ed. by Dr. Todd. 1867, and its learned In- 
 troduction. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 63 
 
 as men never dreamed of w^as heaped up in houses 
 guarded only by priests and shavelings, who dared 
 not draw^ sword. The Wikinofs had lomj been draw- 
 ing closer to this tempting prey. From the coast of 
 Norway' a sail of tw^enty-four hours with a fair wind 
 brings the sailor in sight of the Shetlands;' Shet- 
 lands and Orkneys furnished a base for the advance 
 of the pirates along the western shores of Britain, 
 where they found a land like their own in the dales 
 and lochs of Ross and Argyll, and where the names 
 of Caithness and Sutherland tell of their conquest 
 and settlement on the mainland ; while the physical 
 appearance of the people still records their coloniza- 
 tion of the Hebrides.' Names such as that of the 
 Orm's Head mark their entrance at last into the 
 Irish Channel;* and here they had for more than 
 thirty years been ravaging along either coast, but 
 seeking out and plundering above all the religious 
 houses with which Ireland was studded. 
 
 In 832, however, but four years after the submis- 
 sion of all England to Ecgberht, these raids gave 
 way to an organized invasion ; for the host of a lead- 
 
 ' The earlier assailants of Ireland arc called "White Lochlann," 
 who are supposed to be Norwegians ; the later " Danar," or Danes. 
 But " we cannot be sure that the word * Dane ' is not sometimes 
 given to the Norwegians." — Todd, War of Gaedhill and Gaill, Introd. 
 p. xxxi. Geographical considerations, however, seem decisive as to 
 the starting-point of the attack on the Isles and Ireland. 
 
 ^ Munch, Dct Norske Folks Hist. (German trans.), pt. iv. p. 212. 
 
 ^ W^orsaae, The Danes and Northmen, sec. ix. 
 
 * The Annals of Ulster note their first appearance in 794 (really 
 795) : "The burning of Rechru by the Gentiles, and its shrines were 
 broken and plundered." Rechru is probably Lambay Island. From 
 a passage in Caradoc of Lancarvan, this would seem to have been 
 after their defeat in a descent on Glamorgan.— Todd, War of Gaed- 
 hill and Gaill, Introd. pp. xxxii., xxxiii. 
 
 CHAP. If. 
 
 Tlie 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 Wikings. 
 
 829 S58. 
 
 The 
 
 Wikings. 
 
 and the 
 
 Welsh. 
 
 3 1 
 
64 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 65 
 
 I; 
 a, 
 
 CHAP. II. er named Turgesius ' or Thorgils, establishing itself 
 Th^ at Armagh, levied tribute from all the north of Ire- 
 ^'Tthe^ land. \Vhat must have given its main import to 
 wikings. ^}^jg settlement in Ecgberht's eyes was the fact that 
 88^-858. it brought with it a revival of the struggle with the 
 Welsh. His conquest of Cornwall had seemed the 
 last blow in a strife of more than four hundred 
 years ; but the blow was hardly struck when the ac- 
 tion of the Northmen in the Irish seas roused the 
 West Welsh to fresh hopes of freedom. The scanty 
 traces of their presence show that the pirates at- 
 tempted little in the way of settlement on the east- 
 ern shores of the Irish Channel; there was little, in- 
 deed, to tempt them in the wild Bret-land. But be- 
 hind it lay the richer land of the Engle ; and soon 
 it was not as foes but as friends that they were 
 offering themselves to the Welsh for a raid on their 
 common enemy. Such an offer could not fail to 
 find a response ; and thus, after encountering with 
 varied fortunes the first stray descents upon his 
 coasts, the West-Saxon king found himself face to 
 face with a rising of the newly won land across the 
 Tamar,' backed by armed aid from the Northmen. 
 All Cornwall must have risen ; for it was at a spot 
 but a few miles from its border that Ecgberht met 
 the forces of the league, on a lift of dreary granitic 
 upland just westward of its boundary, the Tamar, 
 the heights that bear the name of Hengest-dun. 
 
 » Snorro's Saga of Harald Fairhair (Laing's Heimskringla. i. 304) 
 makes this Thorgils a son of Harald, sent by him to Ireland. But 
 Harald did not begin his reign till thirty years later, and was then 
 but a boy of ten years old. 
 
 « Cornwall had been conquered by Ecgberht in 823. See Making 
 of England, p. 432. — (A. S. G.) 
 
 But victory was still true to the king, Cornwall 
 was again recovered, and the fight won rest for his 
 own West-Saxon land from the northern marauders 
 through the last two years of Ecgberht's reign.' 
 
 But if the pirate descents failed to loose Ecg- 
 berht's hold upon the west, they had a far more mo- 
 mentous result in arresting, at its very outset, his 
 work of consolidating the English peoples themselves. 
 This work, it must be remembered, had hardly begun. 
 That the vague supremacy which Ecgberht claimed 
 might have been developed into a real national sov- 
 ereignty by after-efforts of the West-Saxon kings is, 
 indeed, likely enough, if we compare the real strength 
 of Wessex with that of its rival states ; but with the 
 coming of the Danes all effort after such a sover- 
 eignty was suddenly brought to an end, and the en- 
 ergy of Wessex had from that moment to be con- 
 centrated on the task of self-defence. We have seen 
 the strength which Ecgberht's kingdom drew from 
 the physical characteristics and varied composition 
 of the older and the newer Wessex that lay on either 
 side of Selwood. But the power of the West-Saxon 
 ruler stretched beyond the bounds of Wessex, where, 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 835 (7). In our own English chronicles " Dena,'* 
 or Dane, is used as the common term for all the Scandinavian invad- 
 ers of Britain, though not including the Swedes, who took no part 
 in the attack, while Northman generally means " man of Norway." 
 Asser, however, uses the words as synonymous, " Nordmanni sive 
 Dani." Across the channel " Northman " was the general name for 
 the pirates, and " Dane " would usually mean a pirate from Denmark. 
 The distinction, however, is partly a chronological one ; as owing 
 to the late appearance of the Danes in the middle of the ninth cen- 
 tury, and the prominent part they then took in the general W' iking 
 movement, their name tended from that time to narrow the area of 
 the earlier term of '' Nordmanni." See Munch, Det Norske Folks 
 Hist. (German trans.), pt. iv. pp. 135-137. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 WUdngs. 
 
 829-868. 
 
 Political 
 
 organiza' 
 
 tion of 
 
 Wessex. 
 
66 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 Wildngs. 
 
 82&-858. 
 
 Its 
 
 mililary 
 
 or^iiniza- 
 
 tiou. 
 
 eastward of the Andredsvveald, the so-called " Eastern 
 Kingdom " grouped itself round the centre of Kent. 
 Subject as it was to Ecgberht, Kent still retained 
 something of its older greatness ; and the existence 
 of the Primate alone would have hindered it from 
 sinking into a mere dependency of Wessex. Nor 
 did it iook upon itself as a conquered country or as 
 linked to Wessex simply by the sword; for Ecg- 
 berht claimed to be nearest in blood to the house of 
 Hengest, and to be thus as fully hereditary king of 
 Kent as he was of Wessex. The two kingdoms, 
 therefore, were united, not by a subordination of one 
 to the other, but by their obedience to a common 
 king. Such a relation made it possible to solve the 
 problem of the government of Kent by setting over 
 it, as under-king, the elder among the sons of the 
 King of Wessex, and by grouping about it Essex, 
 Surrey, and Sussex, to form a realm which bore the 
 name of the Eastern Kingdom.^ 
 
 Differences so marked as those which existed be- 
 tween the three divisions of Wessex might well have 
 imperilled its political unity; what they actually did 
 was to triple its military strength. We shall see the 
 Danes conquering Northumbria or Mercia in a sin- 
 gle campaign. But to conquer Wessex required a 
 threefold effort. When the pirates, after years of 
 ravage, had practically torn from it the Eastern King- 
 dom, Wessex itself faced the invaders behind the 
 Andredsweald ; and even when the older realm had 
 
 ^1 
 
 ' Charter of Ecgberht, 823 ; " filii nostri ^thelwulfi. quern regem 
 constituimus in Cantia'' (Thorpe, Diplomatarium, p. 66j. ^thel- 
 wulfs own charter to Chertsey (ibid. p. 78) shows that Kent here 
 means the whole Eastern Kingdom. 
 
 14 
 
 at ast been overrun, a West-Saxon king could still cur. „. 
 fall back on the Wessex beyond Sehvood. And to ^. 
 this natural strength was added the strength of a ?,T^ 
 dist.nct military organization. The fyrd 'of each w^'''"^'- 
 tolk-distnct was placed in the hands of an ealdorman m~m. 
 appointed by the king ; nor was this arrangement ~ 
 confined to Wessex itself, for in each part of the 
 "Eastern Kingdom," also, we find an ealdorman act- 
 ing side by side with the under-king.' The military 
 value of this organization was soon seen in the free- 
 dom and elasticity which it gave to the later resist- 
 ance against the Danes. 
 
 But Ecgberht was far from relying only on \{\^ Position 0/ 
 warlike resources. In his attitude towards the Church cZa. 
 he followed, no doubt, the example of the Prankish 
 kings. From the earlier Pippin to Charles the Great 
 the rulers of the Franks had striven to raise the so- 
 cial and political importance of the clergj-. Within 
 their older dominions they looked upon' prelate and 
 priest as the main elements of social order and in- 
 tellectual progress ; in their newer conquests they 
 planted religious foundations as centres of a new 
 civilization. Motives of hardly less weight would in 
 any case, have forced the same policy on Ecgberht 
 In the realms which his sword had begun to build 
 up into a new England the Church was the one 
 power which he found unbroken. The anarchy of 
 each kingdom within itself, the strife of one kingdom 
 with another, had only served to give the priesthood 
 a new political weight. In countries where the Ger- 
 man invaders found Christianity already established 
 ^^^d_bowedJoJ^ts_siip remacy, the bish op, enthroned 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 853. ~ 
 
68 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. II. in his Roman town and representing the Roman poi> 
 S; ulation in its attitude towards the conqueror, had 
 ^"^ from the first taken a separate political position, 
 wud4«». which strengthened into temporal princedom as time 
 829-858. went on. But great as such a position seemed, it 
 "" in fact brought him to the level of the secular nobles 
 about him. Like them he became necessarily em- 
 broiled in civil strife ; like them he was the sport of 
 ill fortune as of good ; and ill fortune meant, in his 
 case as in theirs, exile or deposition or death. But 
 an English bishop was from the first one in blood 
 and interest with the whole of his English flock. 
 His diocese was the kingdom. His bishop's seat 
 was the king's town. He sat beside king or eald- 
 orman in folk-moot or Witenagemot. His position 
 was as national as theirs, but it had in it an element 
 of permanence which their position lacked. At the 
 close of the eighth century, while kings were being 
 set aside and ealdomien slain, the bishop, drawn by 
 no personal interest into the strife of warring fac 
 tions, rested unharmed in his bishops chair. In 
 realms like Kent, where the civil organization broke 
 utteriy down, its ruin only added fresh greatness to 
 the spiritual organization beside it. The weakness 
 of the later kings of Hengest's race, their wreck in 
 the struggle of Wessex and Mercia for the Kentish 
 kingdom,"" raised the Archbishops of Canterbury 
 into a power with which rulers like Offa and Cen- 
 wulf were forced to reckon. 
 EcgherhCs The policy of the Mercian kings had been one of 
 ::/;:?^ jealousy of this new power and influence of the 
 Church. Ecgberht, on the other hand, like the 
 Frank sovereigns in whose court he learned the art 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 69 
 
 of rule, seized on the priesthood as allies and co- chap. n. 
 operators in the work he had to do. His eariier Thi 
 work of national consolidation, indeed, was a work ^oniTcf 
 which the Church had been doing ever since the ^^^•• 
 days of Theodore. Its synods were the first national 829^^. 
 gatherings, its canons the first national laws, its ~~ 
 bishops, chosen, as they often were, with little regard 
 to their local origin, were the first national officers. 
 The national character of the Church rose into yet 
 greater prominence as the hopes of political union 
 died away; and from the defeat of ^thelbald to 
 Ecgberht's day the ecclesiastical body remained the 
 one power that struggled against the separatist ten- 
 dencies of the English states and preserved some 
 faint shadow of national union. That Ecgberht 
 should seek Its aid in his work of consolidation and 
 order would in any case, therefore, have been natural 
 enough.' But the Inroads of the Wiklngs supplied 
 a yet stronger ground of union between the Church 
 and the new kingdom. Each suddenly found itself 
 confronted by a common enemy. The foe that 
 threatened ruin to the political organization of Eng- 
 land threatened ruin to its religious organization 
 as well. In the attack of the northern peoples, 
 heathendom seemed to fling itself In a last desperate 
 rally on the Christian worid. Thor and Odin were 
 arrayed against Christ. Abbey and minster were 
 the special objects of the pirates' plunder. Priests 
 were slain at the altar, and nuns driven, scared, from 
 their quiet cells. Library and scriptorium, costly 
 manuscript and delicate carving, blazed in the same 
 
 ' For Ecgberht's attitude to the Church, see Stubbs, Constit. Hist 
 1. 269. 
 
" f4 
 
 70 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 7VUlf. 
 
 CHAP. II. pitiless fire. It was not the mere kingdom of Ecg- 
 i^ berht, it was religion and learning and art whose 
 ^S^ very existence was at stake. It was a common 
 wikingB. danger, therefore, that drew Church and State to- 
 829^8. gether'into a union closer than had been seen be- 
 ~ fore. In 838 Ecgberht promised lasting peace and 
 protection to the see of Canterbury, and received 
 from Archbishop Ceolnoth a pledge of firm and un- 
 shaken friendship from henceforth forever.' Like 
 pledges were given and taken from Winchester, and, 
 as we may believe, from the rest of the English 
 
 churches. 
 
 This alliance was the last political act of Ecg- 
 berht's reign, but its results were felt as soon as 
 his son ^thelwulf mounted the throne in the year 
 which followed it, 839; and the energetic attitude of 
 such a bishop as Ealhstan of Sherborne, the polit- 
 ical influence of Bishop Swithun of Winchester, 
 mark the new part which the Church was hence- 
 forth to play in English affairs. As bishop of the 
 royal city of Winchester, Swithun was naturally 
 drawn close to the throne, and throughout ^thel- 
 wulf's days he seems to have acted as the king s 
 counsellor.' But ^thelwulf was far from being the 
 mere tool of his minister. To the charges made in 
 later times against the son of Ecgberht the actual 
 histor>^ of his reign gives little countenance. He 
 is reproached with weakness and inactivity, with an 
 unwarlike temper, and with an excessive devotion to 
 the Church. But it is hard to see any want of 
 energy in the kings actual conduct. His steady 
 
 * Stubbs and Haddan, Councils, iii. 617. 
 « Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 151- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 7, 
 
 fight with the Danes, as well as the crowning vic- 
 tory which foiled their heaviest attack at Aclea, 
 show his worth as a warrior; while the firmness 
 with which he carried out Ecgberhts policy at 
 home, and his effort to organize a common Euro- 
 pean resistance to the northern marauders, show his 
 capacity as a statesman. 
 
 ^thelwulf had hardly mounted the throne when 
 he had to meet the foe whom his father's sword had 
 driven for a brief space from the land, for not even 
 such a victory as Hengest-dun could long check the 
 attack of the pirates who were cruising in ever-grow- 
 ing numbers over the Irish Sea. Their successes, as 
 we have seen, had now given them a base of opera- 
 tions in Ireland itself, the north of which seemed 
 passing into the hands of the Wikings.' Undis- 
 puted master of Ulster, Thorgils dealt a heavy 
 blow at the religion and civilization of the island 
 by the destruction of Armagh, and pressed hard 
 upon Meath and Connaught. Meanwhile, scattered 
 squadrons were seizing point after point along the 
 shore, raising forts and planting colonies to which 
 Ireland owed the rise of its earliest towns, for Dub- 
 lin, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork all sprang from 
 pirate settlements.' It was thus from a land that 
 seemed all but their own that the Ostmen, as the 
 Wikings were called in these parts, could direct 
 their attacks against the unharried country across 
 ^L^^^'g^'^ Channel. But they found a vigorous 
 
 ' For the character of Thorgil's settlement^^Todd, War of Gaed- 
 hill and Gaill, Introd. p. xlviii. 
 
 = " It was in 837 or 838 that Dublin was first taken by the foreign- 
 ers who erected a fortress there in 841 or 842.--Todd, War of Gaed- 
 niU and Gaill, Introd. p. liii. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 Wikmg-g, 
 
 829 85a. 
 
 The 
 
 attack 
 IVt'ssex, 
 
72 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 CHAP. II. and well-organized resistance. In 8^,7 an attack on 
 the very heart of the realm was repulsed by the 
 fyrd of Hamton-shire under Ealdorman Wulfheard/ 
 
 wikingi. j}^^ 13^1), q{ the pirate raids, however, were as yet 
 
 829-868. directed against the country to the west beyond 
 Selwood, the district which, from its half Celtic pop- 
 ulation, was known as that of the Wealh-cyn, and 
 where, in spite of the failure of the Cornwealas in 
 their revolt against Ecgberht, they might still hope 
 for aid from the western Welsh. Here, however, 
 the local fyrds fought as resolutely as in Hamton- 
 shire. In the very year of Wulfheard's success 
 Ealdorman yEthelhelm, at the head of the Dorset- 
 folk, fell beaten after a well-fought struggle with a 
 pirate force which landed at Portland," and three 
 years later King i^thelwulf was himself defeated in 
 an encounter with thirty-five pirate ships at their old 
 landing-place of Charmouth ; ' but in 845 the fyrds 
 of Somerset and Dorset, with their ealdormen and 
 their bishop, Ealhstan, at their head, repulsed the in- 
 vaders with heavy loss at the mouth of the Parret, 
 and six years later they were driven back with 
 slaughter by the fyrd and ealdorman of Devon." 
 ^^^ The stout fisfhtins: of the men of Wessex was, no 
 
 in Frntik- doubt, aidcd by a sudden weakening in the position 
 of their assailants; for in the year of Bishop Ealh- 
 stan's victory at the Parret, Thorgils was slain in a 
 risine of the Irish tribes of the north,' and his host 
 driven from the land, while the Ostmen of the coast 
 wasted their strength in bitter warfare between the 
 
 land. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 837. « Ibid. 
 
 > Ibid. 840. •Ibid. 845, 851. 
 
 • See, for date, Todd, War of Gaedhill and Gaill, Introd. p. xliii. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 73 
 
 older settlers and fresh-comers from the northern chap. n. 
 lands.' But whether from her own resistance or the Xhi 
 weakness of the foes, Wessex at last gained a breath- ^i^^ 
 ing-space in the struggle ; and for twenty years to ^'i^- 
 come only a single descent on her coast disturbed 829-858. 
 the peace which she had won. The cessation of the 
 strife in one quarter, however, was but the signal 
 for its outbreak in another. The Wikings, as we 
 have seen, had pushed forward from their home in 
 two parallel lines of advance— one, mainly from Nor- 
 way, by the Shetlands and the Hebrides along the 
 coast of Ireland; the other, mainly from South Jut- 
 land, along the coast of Friesland and of Gaul. The 
 last had, till now, found a formidable barrier in the 
 resistance of the empire. But the wars which broke 
 out only a few years after ^thelwulf's accession be- 
 tween the sons of Lewis the Pious threw open 
 Frankland to the pirates' arms, and after pushing 
 up the Seine and the Loire to the sack of Rouen 
 and Nantes, they reached the Garonne, in 844, and 
 wrecked its country as far as Toulouse. In 845 a 
 mighty host crowned the work of havoc by the sack 
 of Paris; and with fresh fire thus added to their 
 greed, fleet after fleet poured along the coast of 
 Gaul. Their aid roused the Bretons into revolt; 
 while victories over the troops of the Franks gave 
 Saintes and Limoges to pillage. The pirate raids 
 threatened to take the form of permanent conquests. 
 One host settled down in Friesland, another seized 
 
 ' According to the Annals of Ulster, the " Dubhgael," Black Gen- 
 tiles, or Danes, first came to Ireland in 851, and their coming was at 
 once followed by a great battle with the " Fingalla," or Norwegians. 
 —Todd, War of Gaedhill and Gaill, Introd. p. Ixxviii. 
 
74 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND, 
 
 CHAP. II. the district between the Scheldt and the Meuse ; 
 
 The the fleets which pillaged along the Seine and the 
 ^omT Loire began to winter boldly in the islands of the 
 wikings. ^^^.^ j-i^^ers ; while, in 848, a pirate force mastered the 
 829-868. town of Bordcaux and made it a place of arms. 
 
 ~ From this hour the Wikings were masters of west- 
 
 ern Frankland, moving with little resistance from 
 
 river to river, and gathering booty at their will. 
 
 TA^yai- It may have been the very success of their work, 
 
 taa Kent, j^^^^.^^^^.^ ^^ ^j^^ ^^^ gj^^ ^{ the Channel that had 
 
 hindered them, as yet, from undertaking any very 
 serious work on the other. From the outset of 
 ^thelwulf 's reign, indeed, their presence had been 
 felt on the eastern coast of Britain ; in 838 we hear 
 of descents on Lindsey and East Anglia,' and, in 
 spite of the silence of our annals, these descents 
 were probably often repeated through the years that 
 followed. On Kent, naturally, their attacks fell more 
 frequently. Nowhere in Britain was there a more 
 tempting field for the spoiler. Its early civilization, 
 its importance as the road of communication with 
 the Continent, made Kent one of the wealthiest and 
 most thriving parts of Britain; its bounds were 
 steadily enlarging as the Kentishmen cleared their 
 way into the skirts of the Weald, and rescued from 
 the woodland the fertile tract along the upper Med- 
 way; and if the silting up of the Wantsum had 
 closed the harbor of Richborough, the growing trade 
 with Gaul had but passed to Dover and to Sand- 
 wich.' The central borough of Kent, Canterbury, 
 
 » Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 838. 
 
 « This must have been very early ; as Dover was already a port in 
 Ealdhelm's day, and Sandwich in Wilfrid's. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 75 
 
 at Aclea. 
 
 \vas in size and wealth among the greatest of English chap. n. 
 cities ; and it was the seat of a primacy which the m 
 suppression of that of Lichfield left without a rival ^7^ 
 in southern Britain. What was yet more important wikiags. 
 m the pirates' eyes was the wealth of its religious 829 » 8. 
 houses. Half Thanet belonged to the abbey at 
 Minster, while the estates of the two monasteries 
 at Canterbury were scattered over the whole face of 
 the shire. 
 
 While yEthelwulf guarded Wessex, it was \\^x^ The victory 
 that his son yEthelstan met the assailants of his 
 kingdom in the east. In ^^^ the same force which 
 ravaged Lindsey and East Anglia slew Ealdorman 
 Herebriht and many with him, in a descent on the 
 flats of the Mersc-wara, and harried and slew in 
 Kent itself.' In the next year, after a raid on Can- 
 terbury, the pirates pushed up the Thames to Lon- 
 don and Rochester."^ Then, for a while, the land 
 had rest, till in 851 the Under-king and Ealdorman 
 of Kent repulsed a raid upon Sandwich, and even 
 captured nine of the pirate ships. The squadron, 
 however, which they thus beat off was only the ad- 
 vance guard of a host which was now preparing for 
 an attack; and in the course of the same year a 
 fleet of three hundred and fifty pirate vessels, start- 
 ing, as it would seem, from the settlement which had 
 been made in the island of Betau, moored at the 
 mouth of the Thames,' sacked Canterbury, pillaged 
 London in spite of the efforts of the Mercian khig, 
 Beorhtwulf, who advanced to oppose them, and 
 pushed through Surrey into the heart of Britain. 
 Here, however, i^thelwulf, summone d at last to his 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 838. » Ibid. 839. ~ » IbidTSsiT" 
 
76 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The 
 
 Coining 
 
 of the 
 
 WilKngi. 
 
 829-858. 
 
 Conquest 
 of the 
 North 
 Welsh. 
 
 aid by the Kentish king, threw himself across their 
 path/and a long and stubborn fight at Aclea ended 
 in the defeat of the marauders. More pirates fell 
 on the field, boasted the conquerors, than had ever 
 fallen on English ground before ; and the complete- 
 ness of the repulse was seen in the withdrawal of the 
 host to its old field of plunder across the Channel. 
 But the Wikings were far from any thought of 
 abandoning their prey. Two years later two ealdor- 
 men, at the head of the fyrds of Kent and Surrey, 
 fell after a well-fought fight with a host in Thanet ; ' 
 while in 855 the pirates encamped for the whole 
 winter in the Isle of Sheppey. 
 
 What was needed to shake off this persistent 
 attack of the Wikings from Gaul was, as /Ethel- 
 wulf saw, the alliance and co-operation of the Prank- 
 ish king who was struggling against them in Gaul 
 itself. If the first result of the pirate storm had 
 been to further English unity by allying the new 
 English State with the English Church, its second 
 result was to force the State into closer relations 
 with its fellow states of Christendom. At the be- 
 ginning of his reign .^thelwulf had opened commu- 
 nications with the Emperor Lewis the Gentle for 
 common action in meeting the common danger; 
 but it is in his later years that we see the first dis- 
 tinct announcement of an international policy, the 
 first English recognition of a common interest 
 among the western nations, in the resolve of the 
 king to cross the seas for counsel and concert with 
 Charles the Bald. Work, however, had to be done 
 
 Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 853. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. ^^ 
 
 before he could quit the realm.' On both sides of 
 the Channel, as we have seen, the appearance of the 
 foe from the north had given a signal for the upris- 
 ing of the Celt ; and while in Gaul the Bretons had 
 shaken off the yoke of Charles the Bald and set up 
 again a Breton kingdom under Breton kings, in 
 Britain the West Welsh had risen against \heir 
 West-Saxon over-lords, and the North Welsh had 
 thrown off the Mercian supremacy. So formidable, 
 indeed, was the last revolt, that, in 853, two years 
 after the battle of Aclea, the Mercian king Burh- 
 red, Beorhtwulf's successor, was forced to appeal to 
 his West-Saxon over-lord for aid; and it was only 
 a march of their joint forces into the heart of 
 North Wales, with the conquest of Anglesea, that 
 forced the Welsh ruler, Roderic Mawr, again to 
 own the English supremacy and to pay tribute to 
 Mercia. 
 
 In spite of the wintering of a pirate force in Shep- 
 pey, the two triumphs of yEthelwulf in Surrey and 
 in Wales left Britain sufficiently tranquil in 854 to 
 suffer him to leave its shores. His first journey, 
 however, recalls to us how much more the danger 
 from the marauders seemed to men of that day a 
 religious than a political one. He undertook a pil- 
 grimage to Rome. We know little of the pilgrim- 
 age or of his stay at the imperial city, though it 
 
 'Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 853 ; Asser (ed. Wise), p. 6. One part 
 of ^thelwulfs preparation was the grant of a sixth part of the rents 
 from his private dominions for ecclesiastical and charitable purposes 
 (Asser, ed. Wise, p. 8). By an early fraud, this was represented as 
 a grant of a tenth of the whole revenue of the kingdom, and as 
 the legal origin of tithes. See Kemble, Saxons in England, ii. 48a- 
 490. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 
 of the 
 
 Wikmgs. 
 
 829-808. 
 
 ALlhel- 
 
 -wttlf's visit 
 
 to Charles 
 
 the Bald. 
 
78 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 79 
 
 CHAP. II. lasted a whole year, and cannot but have served to 
 The draw closer the connection of the English Church 
 
 *^?^ with the Mother Church from which it sprang. 
 
 wikings. Pj.qj^ Rome, however, he passed, at length, to the 
 
 82&-868. court of the Franks. Blow after blow^ had shattered 
 ~~ the Prankish state since Ecgberht, half a century 
 earlier, quitted Charles the Great to seek his throne 
 in Wessex. The vast realm had been torn to pieces 
 by the dissensions of its rulers, as well as by the 
 revival of national spirit among the peoples out of 
 whom it had been built up. A ring of enemies had 
 gathered round it on every border. Sclaves and 
 Magyars pressed on its German frontier. The 
 Northmen carried fire and sword over western 
 Frankland, the country west of the Meuse and the 
 Rhone, a fragment of the old Frank realm which 
 had fallen in the strife that followed the death of 
 Lewis the Gentle to his youngest son, Charles the 
 Bald. The reign of Charles had as yet been one of 
 terrible misfortunes ; for, brave and active as he was, 
 his vigor spent itself fruitlessly on the crowd of foes 
 who surrounded him — on the rising of the Breton, 
 the revolt of Gascony, the strife of his own house 
 for rule, the never-ceasing forays of the Northmen. 
 Beaten and baffled as he seemed, however, Charles 
 fought on; and the struggle of the harassed king, 
 if it failed to save his own realm, did somewhat to 
 save yEthelwulf 's. The visit of .^thelwulf to the 
 Prankish court, where he spent three months in the 
 summer of 856, was a recognition of their common 
 work; and his marriage with the Frank king's 
 young daughter, Judith, with which the visit closed, 
 marks probably the conclusion of a formal alliance, 
 
 perhaps of a common plan of operations with 
 Charles the Bald.' 
 
 But the policy of y^thelwulf was in advance of 
 his age. England had hardly as yet realized the 
 need of national unity, and outside the king's coun- 
 cil chamber there can have been few who understood 
 the need of union between the nations of Christen- 
 dom. The descents of the Wikings had as yet, with 
 a single exception, been but isolated plunder-raids, 
 and their very success against the invaders would 
 help to blind Englishmen to a sense of their danger. 
 The new connection with the Prankish king, on the 
 other hand, may have roused suspicions of a plan 
 for setting aside the elder sons of ^thelwulf in 
 favor of the issue of his marriage with Judith; and 
 if such suspicions were once aroused, they would be 
 quickened by the coronation of the queen, a cere 
 mony which was as yet against the wont of the 
 West Saxons.' Whatever was the cause of the ris- 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 855 ; Prudent. Tree. Ann. a. 856 (ap. Pertz. i. 450), 
 who dates the betrothal in July, the marriage at Verberie on the 
 Oise on Oct. i,says that Hincmar, " imposito capiti ejus diademate 
 reginae nomine insignit, quod sibi suaeque genti eatenus fuerat insue- 
 tum." The marriage can have only been a formal one, as Judith 
 was but twelve years old. The marriage of Judith to ^thelbald, on 
 his father's death, had, no doubt, the same purely political meaning. 
 
 '■' Asser (ed. Wise), p. 9; Will. Malm.. Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 169.* 
 At some time before ^thelwulf's journey the question of the suc- 
 cession had been settled in a somewhat peculiar way. His next 
 successor would naturally be his eldest son, the " Eastern King," 
 ^thelstan ; but, whether from the failing health which the death of 
 ^thelstan soon after may indicate or no, it seems to have been need- 
 ful to look further, and to arrange that the crown should pass, at his 
 death, to his three brothers successively in the order of their birth, 
 setting aside the children of all of them, ^thelstan died before his 
 father's return ; and the next son, ^thelbald, may have looked on 
 the alleged coronation of his youngest brother Alfred at Rome, or 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Tlio 
 
 Coining 
 
 of the 
 
 Wikingf. 
 
 829-858. 
 
 Aithel- 
 7vulfs re- 
 turn and 
 
 death. 
 
8o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. II. ing, on his return at the close of 856 yEthelwulf 
 found Wessex in arms. In a gathering at Sel- 
 wood ' its thegns had pledged themselves to place 
 
 The 
 
 Coming 
 of the 
 
 wiking.. the king's eldest livins: son, i^thelbald — who on the 
 
 •29-858. 
 
 death of his brother ^thelstan, a few years back, 
 had succeeded him in charge of the Eastern King- 
 dom — on the throne of Wessex, and their course was 
 backed by Bishop Ealhstan of Sherborne. Swith- 
 un, on the other hand, remained true to ^^thel- 
 wulf, and the Kentishmen welcomed him back to 
 their shores. But i^thelwulf had no mind for civil 
 strife. He was already drawing fast to the grave ; 
 and if we judge his conduct by the past history of 
 his reign, rather than by the charges of weakness 
 which later tradition brought against him, we may 
 see in his summons of a Witenagemot to settle this 
 question the reluctance of a noble ruler to purchase 
 power for himself by again rending England asun- 
 der in the face of the foe. The voice of the Witan 
 bade ^tthelwulf content himself with the Eastern 
 Kingdom ; and, abandoning Wessex to ^thelbald, 
 the king dwelt quietly in this under-realm for the 
 brief space of life which still was left him." 
 
 on the marriage with Judith, as threatening his right of succession 
 under this arrangement. 
 
 ' Asser (ed. Wise), p. 8. 
 
 » Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 170 ; Asser (ed. Wise), p. 9- 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 THE MAKING OF THE DANELAW. 
 
 858-878. 
 
 A FEW months after his withdrawal to the Eastern 
 realm brought yEthelwulf to the grave, at the open- 
 ing of 858;' and ^thelbald enjoyed but for two 
 years longer the crown which revolt had given him. 
 The reign of his brother ^thelberht,' who followed 
 him in 860, was almost as short and uneventful; 
 and for some years there was little to break the 
 peace of the land save a raid of the Northmen on 
 Winchester,' which was avenged by the men of 
 Hamptonshire and Berkshire under their ealdor- 
 men,' and a ravaging of the eastern shores of Kent 
 by pirates from Gaul in 864. But with the death 
 of ^thelberht and the accession of his next sur- 
 
 » " Idibus Januarii," Prud. Tree. Ann. a. 858 (ap. Pertz. i. 45 1 ). 
 
 " By ^thelwulfs will, ^thelberht, who succeeded him as under- 
 king in Kent, should have remained there at ^thelbald's death 
 while Wessex fell to his younger brother ^thelred ; but the wili 
 must have been set aside by the Witan as inconsistent with the ar- 
 rangement by which the brothers were to follow one another in or- 
 der of age. F^oth the bequest and the setting aside are of the high- 
 est import for our after history; the f^rst as the earliest known in- 
 stance of a claim to " bequeath '' the crown as a personal property, 
 the second as showing such a claim to be as yet not admitted. 
 
 ' This was under Weland, whom we find before and after this in 
 the Seine and the Somme.— Munch, Det Norske Folks Hist. pt. i v. 
 pp. 200, 209, 210. 
 
 * Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 860. 
 
 The 
 final at- 
 tack on 
 Britaiu. 
 
82 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. HI. viving brother, /Ethelred, in 866, the northern storm 
 ^e broke with far other force upon Britain.' Its occu- 
 «J^,i"^ nation had now, indeed, become almost a necessity 
 DfneiaV for the Wikings. It was the one measure which 
 85^78. could draw their other conquests together. They 
 "" already occupied the Faroes and the Shetlands the 
 Orkney Isles and the Hebrides. On either side of 
 Britain they were a settled power. The w^est coast 
 of Ireland was dotted with their towns, while east- 
 ward their settlements formed a broken line from 
 Friesland to Bordeaux. But, in the very heart ot 
 their field of operations, Britain still lay uncon- 
 quered, for their descents on its shores had only 
 ended as yet in hard fighting and defeat. And yet 
 it was the winning of Britain which was needed 
 above all to support and widen their conquests to 
 the eastward and westward of it Had the pirates 
 once become masters of this central post the face 
 of the west must have changed. Backed by a 
 Scandinavian Britain, their isolated colonies along 
 the Irish coast must have widened into a dominion 
 over all Ireland, while their settlement along the 
 Prankish coast might have grown into ;^ territory 
 stretching over much of Gaul. In a word, Christen- 
 dom woidd have seen the rise of a power upon its 
 border which might have changed the fortunes of 
 the western world. Such political considerations, 
 indeed, can hardly have affected_any_savejhe 
 
 --7— ^^;;:;;;;^^Vh^^ accession marks a new 
 
 step fonv ard in he consoUdation of Wessex. Kent and its depend- 
 endes are no longer left detached as a separate under-kmgdom 
 and tL kings younger brother, Alfred, who would otherwise have 
 succeeded to the Kentish under-kingdom, becomes " Secundanus. 
 -Asser (ed. Wise), pp. i9> 22. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 83 
 
 leaders of the northern warriors, but for every war- 
 rior there was the ceaseless pressure of the pirates' 
 greed.' Now that its abbeys were wrecked, there 
 was little booty to be got from Ireland; and even 
 Gaul, wasted as it had been for half a century, was 
 ceasing to be a prey worth much fighting for. 
 Britain, however, still lay practically untouched. 
 No spoilers hand had fallen on most of its greater 
 monasteries. No pirate's hand had as yet wrung 
 ransom from its royal hoards. From the opening 
 of y^thelred s reign, therefore, Britain became the 
 main field of northern attack. 
 
 The name, however, under which its assailants 
 were known suggests that a reason for the choice 
 of this new field of w^irfare, even more powerful 
 than greed or ambition, lay in the appearance of a 
 new body of assailants." It is now that we first hear 
 of the Danes. The assailants of the Franks had 
 been drawn, as we have seen, from the Northmen of 
 South Jutland, those of Ireland from the Northmen 
 of Norway. But while these earlier Wikings were 
 doing their work on either side of Britain, another 
 people of the same Scandinavian blood had been 
 taking form along the southwestern coast of the 
 present Sweden, and had spread from thence over 
 Zeeland with its fellow-isles and the north of our 
 Jutland.' These were the men who now came to 
 
 ' Hen. Huntingdon, Hist. Angl., lib. v. prooem. (ed. Arnold, p. 138). 
 puts this well : •• Daci vero terram . . . non obtinere sed prsedari stu- 
 aebant, et omnia destruere, non dominari cupiebant." 
 
 ' See Dahlmann. Gesch. von Dannemark, i. 65. 
 
 / From Othere's voyage (in Alfred's Orosius). which is our earliest 
 historical authority, it is clear that the Danes had reached these lim- 
 its before the close of the ninth century. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 858-878. 
 
 coming 
 
 of the 
 
 Danes, 
 
84 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. 111. the front under the name of the Danes; and that 
 Thi they brought a new force and a more national life 
 ^^ to the struggle is plain from the character which it 
 Dmneiaw. immediately took. The petty squadrons which had 
 858-878. till now harasscd the coast of Britain made way for 
 ~ hosts larger than had fallen on any country in the 
 west; while raid and foray were replaced by the 
 regular campaigns of armies who marched to con- 
 quer, and whose aim was to settle on the land they 
 
 had won. 
 cAnrachr j\^q numbcrs in which the Danes drew together 
 
 ;l/"r. showed their consciousness that the work they were 
 taking in hand was work such as the pirates had 
 never^aken in hand before. But their numbers are 
 far from explaining the rapidity and completeness 
 of their success in the coming strife. The real 
 force of the northern warriors, in fact, everywhere lay 
 not in numbers, but in their superiority as soldiers 
 to the men they met. As assailants, indeed, their 
 natural advantages were great ; for their mastery of 
 the sea gave them along every coast a secure basis 
 of operations, while every river furnished a road for 
 their advance.' But the caution and audacity with 
 which they availed themselves of these advantages 
 showed a natural genius for war. To seize a head- 
 land or a slip of land at a river mouth, to draw a 
 
 » It is possible that the boats which may be seen making up the 
 Humber with the tide to Goole and the Trent, and which are still 
 known as " keels." may fairly represent to us " keels " of earlier 
 times Their large, red-brown sails, about seventy feet long, are but 
 a few feet shorter than that of the Wikings* ship of Gokstad ; sails 
 of that kind rising above the fringe of reeds and over the long reach- 
 es of marsh-land must often have struck terror into the dweUers on 
 the Humbrian shores.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 
 
 85 
 
 trench across it and back their trench with earth- chai. iif. 
 works, to haul up their vessels within this camp and Thi 
 assign it a camp-guard, was the prelude to each ^?tL? 
 northern foray; and it was only when their line of ^'^'^ 
 retreat was secured that they pushed into the heart s^'''®- 
 of the land.' From the moment of their advance 
 caution seemed exchanged for a reckless daring. 
 But their daring was far from being reckless. They 
 were, in fact, the first European warriors who re- 
 alized the value of quick movement in war. The 
 earliest work of the marauders was to seize horses; 
 once mounted, they rode, pillaging, into the heart 
 of the land; and the speed with which they hurried 
 along baffled all existing means of defence. While 
 alarm beacons were flaming out on hill and head- 
 land, while shire-reeve and town-reeve were muster- 
 ing men for the fyrd, the Dane had already swooped 
 upon abbey and grange. When the shire-host was 
 fairly mustered, the foe was back within his camp ; 
 and the country folk wasted their valor upon en- 
 trenchments which held them easily at bay till the 
 black boats were shoved off to sea again. Nor was 
 this all. The Danes were as superior to their op- 
 ponents in tactics as in strategy. An encounter 
 between the shire-levies and the pirates was a strug- 
 gle of militia with regular soldiers. The Scandina- 
 vian war-band was a band of drilled warriors, tried 
 
 » In their own land, which was penetrated throughout by arms of 
 the sea, no spot lay more than ten miles from the water, and the 
 whole country was thus necessarily exposed to pirate raids, such as 
 those of the Wendish sea-rovers, who. for a time, made a part of the 
 coast of Jutland a mere desert. It was under these conditions that 
 the Danes had learned their special mode of warfare. See Dahl- 
 raann, Geschichte von Dannemark, i. 129, 136.— (A. S. G.) 
 
86 
 
 THE CONgUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. III. in a hundred forays, knit together by discipline and 
 
 Tbi mutual trust, grouped round a leader of their own 
 
 Ttk? choosing, and armed from head to foot. Outnum- 
 
 ^^^^- bcr them as they might, a host of farmers hurried 
 
 m-vjs. from their ploughs, armed with what weapons each 
 
 "" found to hand, were no match for soldiers such as 
 
 these. 
 TAe It was now nearly fourteen years since the Danes 
 "^rZ!;: had appeared in the western seas. In 852 a force 
 of these " Dubh-Gaill," or Dark Strangers, made its 
 way to the Irish coast under a sea king called Olaf 
 the Fair, himself no Dane, but a son of one of the 
 petty rulers of the Norwegian Upland;' and aftqr 
 hard fighting with the " Finn-Gaill," or White Stran- 
 gers, the Norwegians whom it found in possession of 
 the iDirate field, the Danes withdrew, to return four 
 years after in overwhelming force. From 856 the 
 Wikings about Ireland submitted to Olaf, and his 
 occupation of Dublin made it the centre of the Ost- 
 men.' At the same time Ivar the Boneless, who, 
 whether a son of the mysterious Ragnar Lodbrok 
 or no, was a Skioldung, or of the kingly race among 
 the Danes, seems from the Irish annals to have been 
 fighting in Munster. But for ten years we see noth- 
 ine mo're of these leaders or of their Danish follow- 
 and it is not till 866 that we find them united 
 attack on the greater island of Britain. 
 
 ers 
 in an 
 
 While the Ostmen gathered in a fleet of two hun- 
 dred vessels under Olaf the Fair, and threw them- 
 
 » The Landnama Book calls him a son of King Ingialld, who came 
 of the stock of Halfdan Whitefoot, King of Upland. 
 
 » Todd, War of Gaedhill and Gaill, Introd. pp. Ixxviii. Ixxix. " Ost- 
 men " was the name given to the pirates settled on the east coast of 
 Ireland. — (A. S. G.) 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 S? 
 
 The 
 
 D lilies in 
 
 York. 
 
 selves on the Scot kingdom across the Firth of chap. m. 
 Forth, a Danish host from Scandinavia itself, under The 
 lyar the Boneless, landed in 866 on the shores of ^^ 
 East Anglia.' We can' hardly doubt that this dis- ^*^^'^*^ 
 trict had been the object of many attacks since the 8M-878. 
 raid on its shores which is recorded more than twen- 
 ^ ty years before,' for the Danes were suffered to win- 
 ' ter within its bounds, and it was only in the spring 
 of 867 that they horsed themselves and rode for the 
 north. 
 
 Their aim was Northumbria ; and as they struck 
 over Mid-Hritain for York they found the country 
 torn by the wonted anarchy, and two rivals contend- 
 ing, as of old, for the throne. Though the claimants 
 united in presence of this common danger, their union 
 came too late.' The Danes had seized York at their 
 first arrival, and now fell back before the Northum- 
 brian host to shelter within its defences, which seem 
 still to have consisted of a wooden stockade crown- 
 ing the mound raised by the last Roman burghers 
 round their widened city.* The flight and seeming 
 panic of their foes roused the temper of the North- 
 umbrians; they succeeded in breaking through the 
 stockade, and, pouring in with its flying defenders, 
 
 ' The English Chronicle calls it a " micel here," but names no 
 leader, ^thelweard, however, calls it "classis tyranni Igwares;" 
 and the Chronicle names Inguar and his brother Hubba as leaders 
 of the " here " when it conquered East Anglia four years later. The 
 lists of after writers are made up of all the names mentioned in the 
 subsequent story. I have omitted all reference to the legend of 
 Ragnar Lodbrok's death, which does not make its appearance for a 
 couple of centuries. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 838. ' Sim. Durh., Hist. Dun. Eccl. lib. ii. c. vi. 
 
 * " Non enim tunc adhuc ilia civitas firmos et stabilitos muros illis 
 temporibus habebat.''— Asser (Wise), p. 18. 
 
ss 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 858-878. 
 
 /Cui/i of 
 
 Northum 
 
 bria. 
 
 were already masters of the bulk of the town when 
 the Danes turned in a rally of despair. From that 
 moment the day was lost. Not only were the two 
 kings slain, but their men were hunted and cut down 
 over all the country-side, till it seemed as if the whole 
 host of Northumbria lay on the fatal field.' So over- 
 whelming was the blow that a general terror hindered 
 all further resistance ; those who survived the fight 
 " made peace with the Pagans," and Northumbria 
 sank, without further struggle, into a tributary king- 
 
 dom of the Dane. 
 
 But the loss of its freedom was only the first re- 
 ' suit of this terrible overthrow. With freedom went 
 the whole learning and civilization of the North. 
 These, as we have seen, were concentrated in the 
 great abbeys which broke the long wastes from the 
 H umber to the Forth, and whose broad lands had 
 as yet served as refuge for what remained of order 
 and industry in the growing anarchy of the country. 
 But it was mainly the abbeys that roused the pirates' 
 greed ; and so unsparing was their attack after the 
 victory at York " that, in what had till now been the 
 main home of English monasticism, monasticism 
 wholly passed away. The doom that had long ago 
 fallen on Jarrow and Wearmouth fell now on all the 
 houses of the coast. The abbey of Tynemouth was 
 burned. Streoneshealh, the house of Hild and of 
 Cadmon, vanished so utterly that its very name dis- 
 
 » " Illic maxima ex parte omnes Northanhymbrensium coeti, Deci- 
 sis duobus regibus, cum multis nobilibus deleti occubuerunt."— As- 
 set (Wise), p. 1 8. Flor. Wore, gives the date of this battle as Palm 
 Sunday, or March 21,867. 
 
 » Bernicia, however, was not ravaged nor its abbeys destroyed till 
 
 Halfdene's raid in 875. 
 
 f 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 89 
 
 appeared, and the little township which took its place chap. m. 
 in later days bore the Danish name of Whitby. It iai 
 was the same with the inland houses. Cuthbert's ^^ 
 Melrose, Ceadda s Lastingham, no longer broke the ^»^»^- 
 silence of Tweeddale or Pickering. If Wilfrid's M8-878. 
 church ^t Ripon still remained standing,' his ab- ~ 
 bey perished; and though Archbishop ^thelberht's 
 church still towered over York in the glory of its 
 new stonework, we hear no more of library or school. 
 As a see, indeed, York, in time, profited by the blow. 
 On the general fabric of the church in the north it 
 fell heavily : after the sack of Holy Island, the Bish- 
 op of Lindisfarne was hunted from refuge to refuo-e 
 with the relics of Cuthbert ; ' the Bishop of Lindsey 
 was driven to seek a new home in the south ; while 
 the bishopric at Hexham came wholly to an end.' 
 But the ruin of its fellow-sees brought to York a 
 new greatness. As representative of conquered 
 Northumbria, and as the one power which remained 
 permanent amidst the endless revolutions of the pi- 
 rate state which superseded it, the Primate at York 
 became the religious centre of the North at a mo- 
 ment when the North regained the political individ- 
 uality it seemed to have lost since the days of Ead- 
 berht' The gain of the primacy, however, was a 
 small matter beside the losses of the country at large. 
 The blows of the Dane were aimed with so fatal a 
 precision at the centres of its religious and intellec- 
 tual life that of the houses which served as the schools, 
 libraries, and universities of Northumbria not one 
 
 • It was destroyed by Eadred in 948. 
 ' Sim. Durh., Hist. Dun. Eccl. Hb. ii. c. vi. 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 274. 
 
 * Ibid. 273. 
 
90 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. III. remained standing in the regions over which the 
 The conquerors swept. So thoroughly was the work of 
 
 ^5^ destruction done that the country where letters and 
 Danelaw, culture had till now found their favorite home re- 
 
 858-878. mained for centuries to come the rudest and most 
 ignorant part of Britain. 
 '^^ As yet, however, the Danes seem to have had lit- 
 
 threaun tlc aim but pluudcr ; and they were hardly masters 
 
 Meraa, ^^ ^^.^^ \s\i^n^ Setting up Ecgbcrht as an under- 
 lying,' they turned to seek new spoil in the south. 
 They seized the passage of the Trent at Nottingham, 
 formed their winter camp there,' and threatened 
 Mercia in the coming spring. But their way was 
 suddenly barred. At the threat of invasion the Mer- 
 cian king, Burhred, with his Witan, called for aid 
 from his West-Saxon over-lord.' The inaction of 
 i^thelred through the strife in Northumbria shows 
 that, in spite of the submission at Dore,* the north- 
 ern realm stood practically without the West-Saxon 
 supremacy. But time and the policy of the house 
 of Ecgberht had tightened the bonds which linked 
 central Britain to the West-Saxon crown ; and the 
 appeal for help against the Welsh in ^thelwulf s 
 days, as now for help against the Danes, shows that 
 Mercia thoroughly recognized its position as an 
 under-kingdom. The call was heard, and a rapid 
 march brought ^Ethelred's host to the Danish front 
 
 » "Sub suo dominio regem Ecgberhtum praefecerunt." — Sim. 
 Durh., Hist. Dun. Eccl. lib. ii. c. vi. 
 
 ^ Asser (ed. Wise), pp. 19, 2c ; Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 868. 
 
 ^ Asser (ed. Wise), p. 19. 
 
 * The Northumbrians had owned Ecgberht as their over-lord at 
 Dore, on the borders of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, in 827. Eng. 
 Chron. a. 827.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 91 
 
 at the passage of the Trent. At the head of his 
 joint army of Mercians and West Saxons the king 
 sought at once to give battle. The Danes, however, 
 were too good soldiers to be drawn into the field; 
 they fell back on their invariable poHcy of fighting 
 behind earthworks, and the defences of their camp 
 proved too strong to be broken through, even by the 
 fierce attacks of the English host.' But if ^thel- 
 red failed to crush the Dane, he at any rate saved 
 Mercia, for a peace between the Danes and Mercians 
 at last parted the combatants. While Aithelred 
 withdrew to Wessex, the Danes fell back, baffled, to 
 winter at York ; and the severity of their losses 
 seems to be shown by their inactivity for the rest of 
 the year." 
 
 When they next quitted York, indeed, it was to 
 seek another prey than Mercia. It was the wealth 
 of the great Fen abbeys that drew the pirate force, 
 with Ivar and his brother Hubba still at its head, at 
 the close of 869, to an attack on the East- Andian 
 realm. The Lincolnshire men may, as after tradi- 
 tion held,' have thrown themselves across their path ; 
 but if so, it was to be routed in as decisive an over- 
 throw as that of York, and Peterborough, Crowland, 
 and Ely were sacked and fired, while their monks 
 fled or lay slain among the ruins. From the land 
 of the Gyrwas, however, they suddenly struck for 
 East Anglia itself," and, crossing the Devils Dyke 
 without resistance, raised their winter camp at Thet- 
 
 > Asser (ed. Wise), p. 20. 
 ^ Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 869. 
 
 ' Ingulf gives plentiful details of this inroad ; but it is impossible 
 to make more than general use of so late a forgery. 
 * Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 870. 
 
 cAav. III. 
 
 The 
 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 
 Banelaw. 
 
 858-878. 
 
 Tlieir 
 cofiguest 
 of East 
 Anglia. 
 
92 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAF. III. ford. The success of their inroad was complete. 
 The Brave as their strife with Mercia but a few years be- 
 
 "Jj^ fore shows them to have been, the East Engle were 
 
 Danelaw, utterly defeated in two attacks on the Danish camp; 
 
 w^78- and the strife ended with the capture of their king, 
 Eadmund, who was brought prisoner before the pi- 
 rate leaders, bound to a tree, and shot to death with 
 arrows. His martyrdom by the heathen made him 
 the St. Sebastian of English legend ; in later days 
 his figure gleamed from the pictured windows of 
 church after church along the eastern coast, and a 
 stately abbey which bore his name rose over his relics. 
 They How great was the terror stirred by these succe§- 
 
 ivclscx. sive victories was shown in the action of Mercia, for, 
 thoueh still free from actual attack, it cowered panic- 
 stricken before the Dane, and by payment of tribute 
 owned his supremacy. This submission brought 
 Wessex face to face with the pirates. The southern 
 kingdom stood utterly alone, for the work of Ecg- 
 berht had been undone at a blow, and but five years' 
 figrhtinn: had sufficed to tear England north of Thames 
 from its over-lordship. It is hard to believe that such 
 a revolution can have been wholly wrought by the 
 Danish sword, or that conquests so rapid and so com- 
 plete as those of Ivar can have been made possible 
 save by the temper of the lands he won. The Eng- 
 lish realms were still, in fact, far from owning them- 
 selves as an English nation. To Northumbria, to 
 Mercia, to East Anglia, their conquest by the Dane 
 must have seemed little save a transfer from one for- 
 eign over-lord to another; and it may be that in 
 each of the three lands there were men who preferred 
 the supremacy of the Dane to the supremacy of the 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 93 
 
 West Saxon. But the loss of the two kingdoms chap. m. 
 left Wessex alone before the heathen foe. The time Si 
 had come when it had to fight, not for supremacy, ^^^ 
 but for life. It was the last obstacle in the pirates' ^^^eiaw. 
 path. Elsewhere all had gone well with him. Brit- s^s bia. 
 ain seemed on the point of becoming a Scandina- ~ 
 vian land. The Orkney Jarls had conquered Caith- 
 ness. The Scot king had become a tributary of 
 the Northmen. Northumbria and East Anglia lay 
 in Danish hands, while Mid-Britain owned their su- 
 premacy. Nor did the conquest of Wessex promise 
 to be a hard matter. Except in his one march upon 
 Nottingham, yEthelred had done nothing to save 
 his under-kingdoms from the wreck ; and when the 
 pirate host set out from East Anglia its work in 
 southern Britain promised to be as easy and complete 
 as its work in the north. 
 
 The leader in the new fray was no longer Ragnar's The 
 son, Ivar, who seems to have returned to his con- BeVh/Jn. 
 quest of Deira, while his brother Hubba had put 
 afresh to sea with a Wiking fleet which we shall find 
 later on in the Bristol Channel, but Guthrum, or 
 Gorm, who may (as later genealogies told) have been 
 of kin to the Gorm who was soon to draw the Dan- 
 ish people together into a kingdom of Denmark. 
 With him marched Basgsceg, the Danish King of 
 Bernicia, and a crowd of jarls— Sidroc the Old and ' 
 Sidroc the Young, Osbern, and Fraena and Harald 
 among them.' In 871 their host sailed up the Thames 
 past London, and seized a tongue of land some half 
 a mile from R eading for its camp.' The country 
 
 ' We know these as having fallen at Ashdown.— Asser (ed. Wise), 
 P-23- 'Eng.Chron. (Winch.),a.87i. 
 
94 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 95 
 
 ciiAr. in. which was to form the scene of the coming struggle 
 The was the square of rough forest-country to which the 
 ^f th? abundance of " bearroc," or box-trees, among its wood- 
 Daneiaw. j^nds crave the name of Berkshire/ a district wedged 
 858^878. as it were into an angle which the Thames makes 
 as it runs from its head-waters eastward to Oxford, 
 and then turns suddenly to the south to cleave^ its 
 way through chalk uplands to Reading and the Ken- 
 net valley. The bulk of the shire was still wild and 
 thinly peopled, for chalk downs spread over the 
 heart of it from the Thames to Hampshire, and the 
 fertile Kennet valley to the south lay pressed be- 
 tween these uplands and the barren and tangled 
 country about Windsor. But the northern escarp- 
 ment of the downs looked over the broad reaches 
 of the Vale of White Horse, where the deep clay 
 soil lent itself to tillage, where English settlements 
 clustered thickly, and manors of the West -Saxon 
 kings were scattered over the land. 
 ^//mf. One of these king's tuns, that of Wantage,' had 
 been the birthplace of the youngest of ^thelwulf s 
 sons, the i^theling /Elfred.' Young as he still was, 
 
 * Asser (ed. Wise), p. i. " IHa paga quae nominatur Bearrocscire, 
 quae paga taliter vocatur a Berroc sylva, ubi buxus abundantissime 
 
 nascitur." 
 
 2 " In villa regia quae dicitur Wanading."— Asser (ed. Wise), p. i. 
 
 ' For Alfred's life the main authority must be the work attribu- 
 ted to Asser. Its genuineness, which was disputed by Mr. Wright 
 (Biographia Britannica Literaria), is admitted by almost all other 
 scholars; though the critical examination of Pauli (Life of /Elf red, 
 pp. 4-1 1) shows in how damaged a state the book has come down 
 to us. In spite of all difficulties, however, " no theory of the author- 
 ship or date of the work," says Mr. Earle (Parallel Chronicles, In- 
 trod. p. Ivi.). "has ever been proposed which, on the whole, meets 
 the facts of the case better than that set forth in the book itself, 
 that it was written in 893." Asser has embodied the whole con- 
 
 ^Ifred's life had been a stirring and eventful one. ci^ap. m. 
 He was but four years old when he was sent with a Th^ 
 company of nobles to Rome,' on an embassy which ^f^ 
 paved the way for ^thelwulfs own visit two years ^aneiaw. 
 later, and he returned to the imperial city in his 858^*s. 
 father's train. The boy's long stay there, as well as 
 at the Prankish court, left a mark on his mind which 
 we can trace through all his after-life. English as 
 Alfred was to the core, his international temper, his 
 freedom from a narrow insularism, his sense of the 
 common interests and brotherhood of Christian na- 
 tions, pointed back to the childish days when he 
 looked on the wonders of Rome or listened to the 
 scholars and statesmen who thronged the court of 
 Charles the Bald. There was little, as we have seen, 
 to break the peace of the land as the y^theling grew 
 to manhood save passing raids of the Northmen 
 from Gaul, and the vigor and restlessness of the boy's 
 temper found no outlet for itself but in the chase. 
 But the thirst for knowledge was already quicken- 
 ing within him. It was one of the bitter regrets of 
 his after-life that at this time, when he had leisure 
 and will to learn, he could find no man to teach him. 
 But what he could learn he learned. The love of 
 English verse, which never left him, dated from these 
 earlier days. It was a book of English songs which 
 (if we accept the story in spite of its difficulties)' his 
 mother promised to the first of her sons who learned 
 
 tents of the existing chronicle from 851 to 887, a point at which 
 there are good grounds for believing the Chronicle, as Alfred found 
 it, to have ended. This coincidence " is strongly in favor of the 
 professed date." 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 853. 
 
 ' See Pauli's criticisms. Life of Alfred, p. 51. 
 
 I 
 
96 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The 
 
 Mtlrii g 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 858-878. 
 
 His 
 
 political 
 position. 
 
 to read it. The beauty of its letters caught Alfred's 
 eye, and, seizing the book from his mother's hand, he 
 sought a master, who repeated it to him till the boy's 
 memory enabled him to recite its poems by heart.' 
 
 As yet, however, his temper had little political im- 
 portance, for he stood far from the throne. But 
 death was already paving his way to it. ^^thelbald 
 enjoyed the crown but two years after his fathers 
 death ; and only six years later the death of ^thel- 
 berht in 866, and the accession of his one surviving 
 brother, ^thelred, set Alfred next in the accepted 
 order of succession to the West-Saxon throne. The 
 stress of events, too, called him now to sterner studies 
 than those of letters ; for though the consolidation of 
 the Eastern Kingdom with the rest of the monarchy 
 hindered him from becoming its under-king, he held 
 an office, that of Secundarius, in which we may, per- 
 haps, see a germ of the later Justiciarship; and it 
 was in discharge of these new duties that he marched, 
 at nineteen, with his brother to the Trent. The pol- 
 icy of Ecgberht's house aimed at a close union with 
 central Britain : a sister of v^lfred was already wife 
 of the Mercian king; and in i^lfred's union at this 
 moment with the daughter of an ealdorman of the 
 Gainas, we see a trace of the same policy which brought 
 about, in later days, the marriage of his own daughter 
 with the Mercian, i^thelred.' But the marriage 
 feast was roughly broken up, for the young husband 
 was seized in the midst of it with a disease, probably 
 that of epilepsy, from which he was never afterwards 
 to be wholly free. Neither sickness nor marriage, 
 however, held i^lfred back from the field ; he fought 
 
 97 
 
 in the West-Saxon ranks at Nottingham,' and now chap. m. 
 that the Dane attacked his own Wessex he led the Th^ 
 van of his brother s host. ^J^J"^ 
 
 - of the 
 
 It may have been to save the home of his child- ^^neiaw. 
 hood that the young a^theling fought so stoutly in 858-878. 
 the after fights. But king and people fought as^-;.."^.^/ 
 stoutly as yElfred himself, for now that they were '"''" ^'''"'• 
 attacked on their own ground the West Saxons 
 turned fiercely at bay. We have seen how, from the 
 first, the Gwent had been screened from invasion by 
 the impenetrable barriers that guarded it on every 
 side, and how the hosts of its earlier assailants had 
 fallen back before steeps such as those of Wanbor- 
 ough and Ashdown. A far different fortune, how- 
 ever, seemed to await the Danes. They had no 
 sooner reached Reading than one of their marauding 
 parties was cut to pieces by a force hastily gathered 
 under the ealdormen of the district, and the check 
 gave ^thelred and his brother time to hurry to the 
 field;' but though the king at once assailed the 
 camp which the pirates had formed by running an 
 entrenchment from the Kennet to the Thames, a 
 desperate fight ended in his repulse, and the defeat 
 threw open WY^ssex to the invaders. As the beaten 
 Englishmen fell back along the Thames, the pirates 
 pushed rapidly by the ancient track known as the 
 Ridgeway, along the edge of the upland which looks 
 over the Vale of White Horse, till on the height of 
 Ashdown they threw up intrenchments and again 
 encamped.' 
 
 * Asser (ed. Wise), p. i6. 
 
 * Asser (ed. Wise), p. 59. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 868. 
 
 "" Eng. Chron. (Winch.),' a. S71 ; Asser (ed. Wise), p. 21. 
 
 ^ Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 871. 
 
98 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 99 
 
 c„.v. n,. The march of the Danes showed their gen.us for 
 iT. war They had, in fact, thrown themselves on their 
 "^■"f cnemv's rear, and not only cut off his communica- 
 .ai^r. irwUrtl. Gwent, but turned its very esca^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 «rs78. aeainst him, for it was ^thelrcd and not the Danes 
 n. Li had to storm the heights of Ash^own in the 
 S^.. coming struggle. From such a post "-^^J, all W es^ 
 sex lay at the mercy of the invaders But hey had 
 still to fight for it, for neither /Ethelred no A.Ured 
 were men to give up hope at a -"gle bio. Four 
 divs after the fight at Reading the English arm>, 
 rlforced probably by the men of Wantage and he 
 neighborhood, stood again face to face with its foe . 
 and ^.Ifred, who led the advance, at once at aeWeci 
 them • Posted, however, as they were on a hill cov- 
 e cTwith thick brushwood and sheltered by their 
 u" 1 intrenchments, the Danes held the a-theling s 
 troops stoutly at bay; and though message after 
 message called ^thelred to his f- t^e kmg refused 
 to march till the mass he was hearing was done 
 "God first and man after," /Ethelred answered his 
 brother's cry; and /Elfred could only save h.s men 
 from utter rout by charging again and again, like 
 a ^ild boar," up the slope. The king, however, 
 showed a cool judgment in his delay, for his men 
 tre well in hand before he moved, and the genera 
 Id'an e of his army at last cleared the fatal h.l. 
 The fight raged fiercest round a stunted thorn-tre^ 
 which men in after-days noted curiously ( I have 
 een it -ith my own eyes," says Asser), and here 
 
 with loud shouts Dane and E^S'f'^"-" ^^^^^^.^ 
 hard. TWthejhoutsjv ere hushed at last, ine 
 
 ■ ~^~h9xr (ed. wise), pp. 23, 23- 
 
 day went for ^thelred. King Baegsceg fell beneath cur. ,„. 
 the sword of the king himself, and five pirate jarls ^ 
 lay among tiie corpses which were heaped upon the "J?""* 
 
 field." Danelaw. 
 
 But, routed as it was, Guthrum's host sought shel- sssTts. 
 ter m the camp at Reading, and its intrenchments^/^//,,- 
 again held the brothers at bay. The West Sa.xons"'""'''"-'"'" 
 still, indeed, kept their mastery in the field, beating 
 back the Danes as they tried a new dash along the 
 hne of the Kennet, and holding them in check at 
 Basing, when with forces strengthened by the arri- 
 val of fresh troops from the Thames they struck 
 southward for Hampshire. But the camp at Read- 
 ing remained impregnable, and every hour of delay 
 told fatally against ^thelred. Already weakened 
 by these fierce encounters, the West-Sa.xon leader 
 was hampered above all by the difficulty of holding 
 his levies together. Men called from farm and field 
 and looking for support to the rations they brought 
 with them, were eager to fight and go home ; while 
 the Danes were constantly reinforced by fresh-comers 
 and spurred to new efforts by the need of procurino^ 
 supplies from the country they won. A change in 
 the relative weight of the two armies at last showed 
 itself, for a new raid upon Surrey brought the pi- 
 rates better luck than its predecessors ; and after a 
 brave fight at Merton, in which their king was mor- 
 tally wounded, the West Sa.xons drew off, beaten 
 from the field.' When .^thelred's death, in April,' 
 added its gloo m to the gloom of defeat, and /Elf red 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 871. Mbid"" 
 
 ' Flor. of Wore, dates it three weeks after Easter, which, in 871 
 would make it April 23. - " °7'. 
 
ICX) 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The 
 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 858-878. 
 
 The 
 
 Danes 
 
 master 
 
 Mercia. 
 
 took his place on the throne, the young king (he 
 numbered but two-and-tvventy years) stood ahnost 
 alone in front of the enemy, for at the news of his 
 brother's death the English levies had broken up 
 and gone home. 
 
 At this very hour a large fleet of Danes pushed 
 up Thames to join their fellows at Reading, and Al- 
 fred was forced to hurry from his brother's grave at 
 Wimborne with what men he could muster to meet 
 a fresh advance of the foe. But with such forces 
 little could be done to check their march. They 
 seem already to have entered the Gwent and to have 
 encamped at Wilton, the early " tun " to which our. 
 Wiltshire owes its name, before Alfred could meet 
 them ;' and a desperate attack which the young king 
 made on them there was roughly beaten off. A 
 succession of petty defeats forced Alfred at last to 
 a shameful truce ; and, at the counsel of his Witan, 
 he bought with hard money the withdrawal of the 
 Danes from the land. The shame was hard to bear, 
 for though barsfains of this sort had been common 
 enough in Ireland and Gaul, a purchased peace had, 
 as yet, scarcely been known among Englishmen ; 
 and the distress of i^lfred may be seen in a vow of 
 alms to the holy places in Rome, and even in far-off 
 India, for deliverance from his foes, which marked 
 this dark hour of his history.' But if the gold won 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 871 ; Asser (ed. Wise), p. 25. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Canterbury), a. 883. "This year Sighelm and 
 i^thelstan carried to Rome the alms which the king vowed to send 
 thither, and also to India, to St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew, when 
 they sat down against the army at London.'' The Danish "here" 
 retired, after the truce, to winter at London (Eng. Chron. a. 872) ; 
 but we have no account of iElfred's sitting down against them ; and 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 lOI 
 
 a respite for Wessex, it left the pirates free to com- 
 plete their work in the centre of the island. Grant- 
 ing peace, no doubt on terms of tribute, to the ruler 
 of Mid-Britain, the host after a year spent in North- 
 umbria, returned to its camp at Torksey, in Lincoln 
 shire, to gather fresh forces for a new campaign ;' 
 then, in the spring of 874, the Danes burst upon 
 Mercia. We hear of no resistance. King Burhred 
 fled over sea without striking a blow to find refuge 
 and a grave at Rome; while his conquerors, setting 
 up a puppet king, Ceohvulf, in his room, took oath 
 of vassalage from him and his subjects, and wintered 
 at Repton, sacking and firing the great abbey which 
 served as the burial-place of the Mercian kings.' 
 
 Their mastery of central Britain, however, only 
 served to give the Danes a firmer base from which 
 to complete their conquest of the island, both in 
 north and south. With the spring of 875 their 
 force broke asunder: one part of it, with Halfdene 
 at its head, marching northward to the Tyne to 
 complete the reduction of Bernicia.' The aim of 
 the pirates still remained mainly that of plunder, 
 and the religious houses which had escaped till 
 now fell in this fiercer storm. Coldingham, the 
 
 as this is a late copy of the Chronicle, its entry may be a mere blun- 
 der for Asser's entry, " Paganorum exercitus Lundoniam adiit et ibi 
 hiemavit,'' or, rather, Huntingdon's copy of this, "quando hostilis 
 exercitus hiemavit apud Lundoniam." 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 873. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 874; Asser (ed. W^ise). p. 26; ^thel- 
 weard, a. 872. " Myrcii confirmant cum eis foederis pactum stipendi- 
 aque statuunt." From the Chronicle it seems that the Danes took 
 part of Mercia, leaving part to Ceolwulf. Is this the beginning of 
 the division into Danish and English Mercia.^ 
 
 ^ Eng. Chron. a. 875. 
 
 CH.vr. III. 
 
 The 
 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 . 858-878. 
 
 Division 
 of the 
 
 Dtiuis/t 
 host. 
 
I02 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. in. house of Ebbe, was burned to the ground. Bishop 
 Thi Eardulf was driven from Lindisfarne, carrying with 
 '^onh? liim the body of Cuthbert as his chiefest treasure, 
 Danelaw. ^^ wander with it for years from one hiding-place to 
 858^78. another.' When little remained to glean from the 
 wasted land, Halfdene led his men through Cum- 
 bria, where Carlisle was entirely destroyed, and on 
 through Strath-Clyde' to the north, where the Scot 
 king Constantine was battling for life against Thor- 
 stein, a son of Olaf the Fair, and the Norwegian 
 Jarl Sigurd, who had now established himself in the 
 Orkneys. Thorstein and Sigurd overran the north- 
 ern parts of the realm, while Halfdene advanced 
 from the south, till the Scots, pressed between the 
 two pirate hosts, bought peace for the moment by 
 the cession of Caithness. But while one portion of 
 the host was thus busy beyond the H umber, Guth- 
 rum was leading the other half from their winter- 
 quarters at Repton to Cambridge, to prepare for a 
 final onset upon Wessex. The greatness of the 
 contest had now drawn to Britain the whole strength 
 of the Northmen. Ireland won a long rest as its 
 Ostmen flocked to join their brethren over the sea; 
 and the force of the pirates in Gaul was so weak- 
 ened that Charles was able to drive them from their 
 strono-bold at Ancfers. But the weakness of the 
 pirates to east and west only pointed to a general 
 
 > Sim. Durh., Gest. Reg. a. 875. 
 
 ' " Pictos atque Stretduccenses depopulati sunt/' Sim. Durh. 
 •• He made raids on the Picts and the Strath-Clyde Wealhs," Eng. 
 Chron. (Winch.), a. 875. *' Inducunt Pihtis bellum Cum brisque," 
 ^thelweard. a. 875, lib. iv. c. 3. Skene notes this as "the first ap- 
 pearance of the term of Cumbri or Cumbrians, as applied to the 
 Britons of Strath-Clyde.'' 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 103 
 
 second at- 
 tack oti 
 Wcsscx. 
 
 concentration of their force upon Britain, and it was chap.iii. 
 with a host swollen by reinforcements from every * xhi 
 quarter that Guthrum, in 876, set sail for the south.' ^^l^^ 
 Alfred had equipped a few ships which served to Danelaw, 
 beat off some smaller parties that attacked the 858-878. 
 coast, but the little squadron was helpless to m^^lGuthnnns 
 such a fleet as now put out from the harbors of 
 East Anglia. Coasting by Dover, Guthrum made, 
 like the earlier marauders, for the Dorset coast, and 
 seized a neck of land near Wareham, between the 
 Piddle and the Frome, for his camp. Alfred at 
 once marched on these lines; but they were too 
 strong to storm, and gold, we can hardly doubt, 
 again bought a treaty in which the pirates swore on 
 every relic that could be gathered, as well as on 
 their own Odin's ring, a sacred bracelet smeared 
 with the blood of beasts offered at the god s altar, 
 to quit the king's land. Alfreds hold was no 
 sooner loosened, however, than half of the northern 
 host took horse, and striking across country seized 
 Exeter to winter in.' The seizure of the city may 
 have been looked on by the Danes as no breach of 
 faith, for Exeter was still in part a British town ; but 
 it was just this that made their presence there so 
 serious a danger, and through the winter yElfred 
 girded himself for a resolute effort to drive them 
 out before their success could cause a Welsh risinir. 
 At break of spring in %-]-] the West-Saxon army 
 closed round the town, while a hired fleet' cruised 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 875 ; Asser. (ed. Wise), p. 27. 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 877. 
 
 ^ " Impositisque piratis in illis vias maris custodiendas commisit." 
 — Asser (ed. Wise;, p. 29. 
 
I04 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The 
 
 Making 
 
 cf the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 858-878. 
 
 The stir- 
 prise of 
 IVesiex. 
 
 off the coast to guard against rescue. A storm, 
 which drove their boats on the rocks of Swanage, 
 foiled the efforts of the freebooters who remained 
 at Wareham to rescue their brethren, and Exeter 
 was at last starved into surrender, w^hile Guthrum 
 again swore to leave Wessex.' 
 
 7'he Danish host withdrew, in fact, into the Severn 
 valley to winter at Gloucester." But Alfred had 
 hardly disbanded the army which had taken Exeter 
 when Hubba, Ivar's brother, with a fleet which had 
 been ravaging in the Bristol Channel, struck up the 
 Severn to Guthrum's aid. All thought of the oath 
 they had sworn at once passed from the minds of the 
 invaders; and at the opening of 878 Hubba, with a" 
 squadron of twenty-three ships, made his way to the 
 coast of Devonshire, while the main body of the 
 northern host again crossed the Avon and pushed, 
 by a swift and secret march, as far as Chippenham." 
 The surprise of Wessex was complete. The Danes 
 were in the heart of the Gwent before tidinsrs of their 
 advance could call either king or people to arms, and 
 the whole district east of the Selwood lay at their 
 mercy. To gather the fyrd of Hampshire or Wilts 
 or Berkshire in face of the pirates was impossible. 
 Their activity made them masters of the land ; "many 
 of the folk they drove beyond sea " over the Bristol 
 Channel, "and the greater part of the rest they forced 
 to obey them.'" Alfred alone remained untouched 
 by the terror about him. Falling back through the 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 877. 
 
 ' ^thelweard.a. 877, lib. iv. c. 3. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 878 ; Asser (ed. Wise), p. 30. 
 
 * Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 878. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 105 
 
 Selwood, on the westernmost fragment of Wessex, chap. m. 
 the land of the Somer-scetas and Defn-sa^tas, he seems Th^ 
 even there to have found his efforts to gather a force ^fth? 
 baffled for a while by civil strife ;' and the band which Danelaw, 
 still followed the king made its way with difficulty 858'^78. 
 to the marshes that occupied the heart of Somer- 
 setshire.' From Langport to the site of the later 
 Bridgewater, the country between Polden Hill and 
 the Ouantocks was little more than a vast morass 
 drained by the deep channel of the Parret. The 
 local names of the district, Sedgemoor, on whose 
 half-reclaimed flats Monmouth was to meet his doom, 
 the "zoys" or rises, crowned now-a-days with marsh- 
 villages, such as Chedzoy and Middlezoy, preserve 
 a record of the flood-drowned fen in which /Elfred 
 sought shelter. In the midst of it, at a point where 
 the Tone, flowing northward from Taunton, strikes 
 the Parret, lies Athelney, a low lift of ground some 
 two acres in extent, girded in by almost impassable 
 fen-lands. It was at Athelney that the king threw 
 up a fort and waited for brighter days.' 
 
 A jewel of blue enamel, enclosed in a setting of ^^Mtof 
 gold, with the words round it "Alfred had me ^'^'^"''^"'' 
 wrought," was found here, in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, and still recalls the memories of this gallant 
 stand. It was only later legend* that changed it 
 into a solitary flight, as it turned the three months 
 of Alfred s stay in this fastness into three years of 
 
 ' "i^lfredo,-' says ^thelweard, a. 886, "quern ingenio, quern 
 occursu, non superaverat civilis discordia saeva." 
 
 ' Asser (ed. Wise), p. 30. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 878 ; Asser (ed ' Wise), p. 33. 
 
 * The legend of St. Neot, written at the end of the tenth century, 
 of which fragments break our actual text of Asser. 
 
io6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAT^iii. hiding. The three months were, in fact, months of 
 THe active preparation for a new struggle. Athelney 
 of*thT ^vas a position from which Alfred could watch close- 
 Daneiaw. |y |.}^^ movements of his foes, and with the first burst 
 w^78. of spring he found himself ready to attack them. 
 Whatever disunion may have thwarted him before 
 must now have been hushed, for the fyrd of Devon- 
 shire gathered round its Ealdorman Odda, and fall- 
 ing suddenly on Hubba, whose squadron was harry- 
 ing the coast, cut his men to pieces;' while the men 
 of Somerset rallied round their Ealdorman, yEthel- 
 noth. In the second week of May, 878, the whole 
 host of the West Saxons mustered under their young 
 king s standard at Ecgberht's stone on the east of 
 Selwood. Till now their gathering had been hidden 
 from the Danes by this great screen of woodland, 
 and when they burst through it into the older Wes- 
 sex the surprise may have been as complete as when 
 the Danes burst in from Chippenham. Whatever 
 was the cause of his success, yElfred no sooner found 
 their host at Ethandun or Edington, near Westbury, 
 than he defeated it in a great battle, and drove the 
 beaten warriors to seek shelter in their camp. But 
 the camp at Edington, unlike the camps which had 
 hitherto repulsed the English, had no outlet by river 
 to the sea; it was possible to cut off its supplies, 
 and a siege of fourteen days forced the Danes to 
 surrender.' 
 
 '^ofwed- ^'^^ struggle had been a short one, but the com- 
 
 more, pletencss of v^lfred s victory was seen in its results. 
 
 The spirit of the assailants was utterly broken ; and 
 
 * Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 878 ; Asser (ed. Wise), p. 33. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 878 ; Asser (ed. Wise), pp. 33, 34. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 107 
 
 while the bulk of the pirate host withdrew, under a chap. m. 
 leader named Hasting, to their old quarters in Gaul, ^ 
 Guthrum, the leader of the rest, bound himself, by ^?ijf 
 a solemn Peace at Wedmore, a village on the north d*^»^- 
 of the Polden Hills,' to become a Christian, and to ws^'S- 
 quit i^lfred's realm. The treaty itself is lost,' but 
 its provisions are, no doubt, marked in the events 
 that followed. Not only did the Danes withdraw 
 from all England south of the Thames, but they 
 left in yElfred's hands all England westward of the 
 Watling Street, the land of the Hwiccas, the upper 
 part of the valley of the Thames, and the whole 
 valley of the Severn. The rich pastures along the 
 Cherwell, the downs of the Cotswolds, the forest- 
 tract of Arden, the flats which lay about the still de- 
 serted ruins of the later Chester, Oxford, Worcester, 
 and Gloucester, were thus rescued from heathen rule. 
 The rescue of this district, however, was a small 
 matter beside the fact that Wessex itself was saved. 
 In the dark hour when yElfred lay watching from 
 his fastness of Athelney, men believed that the whole 
 island had passed into the invader's hands. Once 
 settled in the south, as they were already settled in 
 central and northern England, the Danes would have 
 made short work of what resistance lingered on else- 
 where, and a few years would have sufficed to make 
 England a Scandinavian country. All danger of 
 this had vanished with the Peace of Wedmore. The 
 whole outlook of the pirates was changed. Dread 
 as i^lfred might the sword that hung over him, the 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 878 ; Asser (ed. Wise), p. 35. 
 ' The existing "Alfred and Guthrum's Peace" is, as we shall 
 see, of later date. 
 
io8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. III. Danes themselves were as yet in no mood to renew 
 
 The their attack upon Wessex ; and with the abandon- 
 
 ^rthe ii"»t,'nt of this attack not only was all hope of winning 
 
 Danelaw. Britain, as a whole, abandoned, but all chance of 
 
 858 878. making it a secure base and starting-point for wider 
 Scandinavian conquests passed away. 
 
 itseffedcn j^^ ^idc of iuvasiou, in fact, had turned; and 
 Europe felt that it had turned. The struggle with 
 the West Saxons had been marked by a general 
 pause in the operations of the pirates elsewhere, for 
 their number was so small in relation to the area 
 over which thev fousfht that their concentration for 
 any great struggle in one quarter meant their weak- 
 ening and retreat in another. It is clear, from the 
 general aspect of the war in Gaul, that the conquest 
 of the Danelaw, and the absorption of a large force 
 in its settlement, had already weakened the strength 
 of the northern onset upon the Franks. The cour- 
 age of the peoples across the Channel rose as the 
 pressure of the Northmen became lighter; and we 
 see in every quarter a growing resistance to the in- 
 vaders. But this resistance took a new vigor when 
 the Danes were thrown back from Wessex. The 
 spell of terror was broken. Nowhere had the at- 
 tack been so resolute ; nowhere had the forces of 
 the pirates been so great; nowhere had their cam- 
 paigns been conducted on so steady and regular a 
 plan ; nowhere had they so nearly reached the verge 
 of success ; and nowhere had they so utterly failed. 
 The ease and completeness with which the invaders 
 had won the bulk of Britain only brought out in 
 stronger relief the completeness of their repulse from 
 the south. 
 
 ElS'GTiAlJrD 
 
 54 
 
 W.Gr.O E.Cr 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 109 
 
 Great, however, as were the results of ^^ If red's chap.ih. 
 victory, the fact remained that the bulk of Britain The 
 lay still in Danish hands. If we look at it in its of th? 
 relation to England as a whole, the treaty of Wed- d»°^^- 
 more was the acknowledgment of a great defeat. 858-878. 
 Bravely as the house of Ecgberht had fought, the TheDaue- 
 work of EcQ:berht was undone. The dominion 
 which he had built up was wrecked like the do- 
 minion of the Karolings; and for the moment it 
 seemed yet more completely wrecked. The blows 
 of the Northmen had fallen, indeed, as heavily on 
 the one dominion as on the other ; but in the Karo- 
 lingian Empire their settlements were scattered and 
 few, nor had they any importance save in further- 
 ing the tendency of its various peoples to fall apart 
 into their old isolation. In England, on the other 
 hand, the Danes had won the bulk of the land for 
 their own. Beaten as they were from Wessex, all 
 northern, all eastern, and a good half of central 
 Britain remained Scandinavian ground. The set- 
 tlements of the Northmen in Frankland, those in 
 Friesland or on the Loire, even the more perma- 
 nent Norman settlements at a later time on the 
 Seine, were too small to sway in other than in- 
 direct ways the fortunes of the States across the 
 Channel. But in Britain the Danish conquests out- 
 did in extent and population what was left to the 
 English king, and the realm of yElfred saw across 
 Watling Street a rival w^hose power was equal to, 
 or even greater than, its own. 
 
 Nor was this conquest a mere w^ork of the sword. The Dams 
 
 A • 1 1 tn North- 
 
 With the change of masters went a social revolu- umbria. 
 tion, for over the whole space, from the Thames to 
 
I lO 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. in. the Tees, the Danes throughout Alfred's day were 
 settling down on the conquered soil. Their first 
 
 The 
 
 ^?th? settlement was in r3eira, in the area occupied by the 
 Daxv^uw. present Yorkshire. Though their victory at York 
 658^T8. had left this district in their hands as early as the 
 ~ spring of 868, they contented themselves for the 
 next seven years with the exaction of tribute from 
 an under-king, Ecgberht, whom they set over it, 
 while they mastered East Anglia and crushed Mid- 
 Britain and made their first onset on Wessex. But 
 in 875, while Guthrum prepared to renew the attack 
 on /Elfred, Halfdene, with a portion of the Danish 
 army at Repton, marched northward into Northum- • 
 bria. It is possible that he was drawn there by a 
 rising of the country, in which Ecgberht had been 
 driven from the throne and Ricsig set as under-king 
 in his place ; but if so, the death of Ricsig marks 
 the close of this rising, and Halfdene marched un- 
 opposed to the Tyne. From his winter-camp there 
 he " subdued the land and ofttimes spoiled the Picts 
 and the Strathclyde Wealhs." ' With the spring of 
 876, however, while Guthrum and .Alfred were busy 
 with the siege of Wareham, he fell back from Ber- 
 nicia to the south, and "parted" among his men 
 "the lands of Northumbria. Thenceforth," adds 
 the chronicler, " they went on ploughing and till- 
 ing them."' That this "deal" or division of the 
 land did not, in spite of Halfdene's conquests on 
 the Tyne, extend to Bernicia, we know from the 
 fact that hardly a trace of Danish setdement can 
 be found north of the Tees.' But the names of the 
 
 » Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 875. 
 » Taylor, Words and Places, p. 112. 
 
 Ibid. 876. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 I II 
 
 towns and villages of Deira show us in how sys- 
 tematic a way southern Northumbria was parted 
 among its conquerors. The change seems to have 
 been much the same as that which folJowed the con- 
 quest of the Normans. The English population 
 was not displaced, but the lordship of the soil was 
 transferred to the conqueror. The settlers formed 
 a new aristocracy, while the older nobles fell to a 
 lower position; for throughout Deira the life of an 
 English thegn was priced at but half the value of 
 the life of a northern " hold." 
 
 Some of the new settlements can be easily traced 
 through the termination " by," a Scandinavian equiv- 
 alent for the English "tun" or "ham," while others 
 may be less certainly distinguished by their endings 
 in " thwaite" or "dale;" and in each of the Ridings 
 of Yorkshire we still find at least a hundred local 
 names of this Danish type. Where they cluster 
 most thickly is in the dales that break the wild 
 tract of moorland along the coast from Whitby to 
 the Tees valley, to which the new-comers gave the 
 name of Cliff-land or Cleveland. Around Whitby 
 itself, the " White-by " of the northern settlers, the 
 little town that rose on either side its river-mouth, 
 beneath the height on which the ruins of Streone- 
 shealh, the home of Hild and Cadmon, stood black- 
 ened and desolate, the country is thickly dotted 
 with northern names. Memories of the pirate faith, 
 of Balder and of Thor, meet us in Baldcrsby' or 
 Thornaby as in the lost name of Presteby or Priest s 
 town ; other hamlets give us the names of the war- 
 riors themselves as they turned to " plough and till," 
 
 ' Now Baldby Fields. 
 
 CIIAI'. III. 
 
 •"1 
 
 The 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw, 
 
 '4 
 
 858-8T8. 
 
 
 Their set- 
 tlements. 
 
112 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. III. Beorn and Aihvard, Grim and Aswulf, Orm and Tol, 
 Se Thorald and Swein.' A few names of far greater 
 ^ff^^ interest hint how race distinctions still perpetuated 
 Danelaw, themsclvcs in the group of little townships. Three 
 85^878. Englebys or Inglebys and two Normanbys tell how 
 "~ here and there lords of the old Engle race still 
 remained on a level with the conquerors, or how 
 Northmen or Norwegians who had joined in the 
 fio-htincT had their share in the spoil.'^ At the other 
 extreniity of this district, in the valley of the Tees, 
 a curious coincidence almost enables us to detect 
 the spot from which the settlers came. On the 
 coast of South Jutland we f^nd two towns in close - 
 neighborhood, Middleburg and Aarhus; while in 
 the^ees valley Middlesborough is as closely neigh- 
 bored by its " Aarhus-um " or Airsome. It is hard- 
 ly possible not to believe that the great iron-mart 
 of Cleveland must look for its mother-city to the 
 little Jutish township, as the Boston of the New 
 World looks for its mother-city to the Boston of 
 
 the Old.^ 
 
 Cleveland remained for centuries to come a thor- 
 oughly Scandinavian district; of its twenty -seven 
 lords in Domesday, twenty-three still bore distinc- 
 tively Danish names, and names of a like character 
 
 > Barnby. Ellerby, Grimsby, Aislaby (Asulvesbi), Ormsby, Tolesby. 
 
 Swainby. Thoraldby. • . ir „ 
 
 ^ Atkinson. Glossary of Cleveland Dialect. Introd. p. xiv. etc. Even 
 the judicial institutions of the settlers survive in "Thingu'all. 
 a spot by Whitby, which has vanished from the modern map. but 
 whose name Mr. Atkinson discovers in a Memorial of Benefac- 
 tions to Whitby Abbey as "Thingvala.^' 
 
 » Atkinson, Cleveland Dialect, Introd. p. xiu. note. The boutn 
 Jutland •* Hjardum " probably finds a like successor in the Cleve- 
 land " Yarm " or *' Varum." 
 
 Their 
 trade. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 113 
 
 seem at a yet later time to have prevailed even chap. m. 
 among its serfs/ What drew settlers so thickly Thi 
 there was, no doubt, the neighborhood of the sea ; ^^^ 
 as ease of access from the sea drew them to the ^^'^"^ 
 valley of the Ouse. The swift tide up the H umber, ®58-878. 
 the " Higra " as it came to be called from the sea- 
 god Oigir, carried the northern boats past the 
 marshes of Holdcrness to the trading -port, the 
 "Caupmanna-thorpe" or Cheapman's Thorpe, es- 
 tablished by the new-comers to the south of York.' 
 Like all men of the north, the pirates were as keen 
 traders as they were hard fighters;' their very kings 
 were traffickers. Biorn, Harald Fair-hair s son, was 
 " Biorn the Merchant," and St. Olaf was a partner in 
 the trade ventures of his Jarls. The main end of 
 their raids was to gather slaves for the slave-mart;* 
 
 • Atkinson, Cleveland Dialect, Introd. pp. xx., xxi. 
 
 ' Taylor, Words and Places, p. 254. " Caupmansthorpe near York. 
 . . . The form of the word shows us that here the Danish traders re- 
 sided, just as those of Saxon blood dwelt together at Chapmans- 
 lade. 
 
 =• Skiringsal in the Wik was now the centre of northern trade. 
 "The Sleswig ships brought to it German, Wendish, Prussian, Rus- 
 sian, Greek, and Eastern wares, as well as merchants and adventur- 
 ers from these lands. In Skiringsal, indeed, the Halgolander might 
 be seen driving bargains with the Prussian, the Trondheimer with 
 the Saxon and the Wend, the Sondmoringer with the Dane and the 
 Swede ; beside the walrus-skins and furs from the north, one might 
 see amber from Prussia, costly stuffs from Greece and the East, By- 
 zantine and Arabian coins and northern rings, while the harbor lay 
 full of big and little ships of varied build, among which the kingly 
 long-ship was distinguished not only by its size, but by its magnifi- 
 cence."— Munch, Det Norske Folks Historic (Germ, trans.), pt. iv. 
 p. 141. 
 
 * We see the actual working of this slave-trade in Olaf Trygvas- 
 son's story. He was captured in his childhood, "with his mother, 
 Astrid, and his foster-father, Thorolf, by an Esthonian wiking, as 
 they were crossing the sea from Sweden on their way to Novgorod, 
 
 8 
 
 
 If 
 
I 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cur.,.,, but thov bnHisht uith them the furs, oils, skins, and 
 i7. eideixlown <.f tlu'ir northern lands to barter for the 
 «;V^ wares of the south. Their settlements along the 
 1,'Jxri.w. „orth coast were as nuich markets as puate-holds 
 s5r^T8. and York, v.hich fiom this time became move and 
 ■ ^ more a Danish citv, was thronged at the close ot a 
 ce.itury with Danish merchants, and had beco.iie 
 the centre of a thriving trade with the north. 1 he 
 new-comers have left their mark in some of its local 
 names : die street leading to its eastern outlet is 
 still Guthrum's Gate ; and the church of bt. Olave 
 reminds us how, at the eve of the Norman Conciucst 
 the Danish population had spread to the suburbs of . 
 
 the town. ^ . , 
 
 neir or. Over the central vale, from York to Catterick, we 
 saniz^im,. ^^^^ ^^^^ „ 1^ ,. planted, as was naturally the case, 
 prcttv thicklv, with a " Balderby" among them that 
 su.-ests how the northern myths were settling on 
 English soil with the northern marauders; and it 
 the'eastern wolds present few traces of their homes, 
 thev are freciucnt along the western moors. Of the 
 life or institutions, however, of these settlers we 
 know little ; for, from the moment of their settle- 
 ment to the conquest of the Norman, northern Eng- 
 land is for two hundred years all but hidden from 
 
 =.n<1 were divided among the crew and sold. An Esthonian called 
 Klerk^'got Olaf and Thorolf for his share of the booty, but AstrK, 
 was separated from her son Olaf. then only three yeare old. Kler^ 
 kon thought Thorolf too old for a slave, and that no work coula be 
 '"out of him to repay his food, and therefore killed h,m but sold 
 fhe bov to a man called Kterk for a goat. A peasant called Rea, 
 bTug^t him from Kleerk for a good cloak, and he remained m 
 sTJilry till he was recognized by his uncle."-La.ng, Sea Kings ot 
 Norway, Introd. i. 0. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND, 
 
 115 
 
 our view. The division of Deira into three Tri- chaimh. 
 things, or Ridings, which probably dates from this xhi 
 time, may answer in some degree to older divisions; ^^^^ 
 the East Rich'ng, or district of the wolds, to an ear' »an«»»^- 
 her Dcira of tlie KngHsh conquerors, which seems »58 878. 
 in later times to have retained some sort of exist- ~ 
 ence as an under-kingdom, while the bounds of the 
 West Riding roughly correspond with those of El- 
 met, as Eadwine added it to his Northumbrian 
 realm. But the arrangement by which the Tri- 
 things were linked together, the adjustment of their 
 boundaries so that all three met in York itself, had 
 clearly a distinct political end, and marks a time- 
 such as that of the Danish kings— in which York 
 was the seat and capital of the central power. The 
 division of the Trithings into Wapentakes, which 
 answer here to the Hundreds of the south, is prol> 
 ably of the same date. In England, as in Iceland, 
 the w'ord may have been originally used for the 
 closing of the district^ourt, when the suitors again 
 took up the weapons they had laid aside at its open- 
 ing, and have finally extended to the district itself.' 
 The change of the English name "moot" for the 
 gathering of the freemen in township, or wapentake 
 into the Scandinavian " thing," or " ting" — a chancre 
 recorded, as we have seen, by local designations— ^s 
 no less significant of the social revolution which 
 passed over the north with the coming of the Dane. 
 
 The year after Halfdene s parting of Deira among The Danes 
 his followers saw another portion oi the Danish hos't ^Bn!^n. 
 settle in Mid-Britain. W^hile Alfred was still in 
 th e midst of his struggle with the Danes about Ex- 
 
 * Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 109. 
 
 ■■ii 
 
 
ii6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. HI. eter/'in the harvest-tide of 877. the Here went into 
 STe Mercia, and some of it they parted, and some they 
 ^*^f « handed over to Ceolwulf," who, till now, had served 
 Daneuw. ^^ their under-king for the whole/ The portion 
 S58-878 thev took for themselves is, for the most part, 
 "" marked by the presence in it of their Danish names. 
 - Byes" extend to the very borders of Lincolnshire 
 Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rut- 
 land, and Northamptonshire, while from the res of 
 Mercia they are almost wholly absent It was this 
 western half of the older kingdom, our Cheshire, 
 Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Glouces- 
 tershire, Herefordshire, and Oxfordshire, which re- . 
 mained under Ceolwulfs rule,^ and to ^vhich from 
 this time the name of Mercia is confined, while the 
 eastern or Danish half was known, at any rate in 
 later days, as the district of the Five Boroughs 
 Derby, whose name superseded the older English 
 '^ Northweorthig," Leicester, Lincoln, Stamford, and 
 
 » Ene Chron. (Winch.), a. 877. For Ceolwulf. see ib a. 874. 
 ..Th.t same year they gave the Mercian kingdom to the keeping 
 oJcfoxZui:V.-^^ fhegn of the king" (Burhred who had fled 
 to d'e at Rome). " and he swore oaths to them, and delivered host- 
 ages to hem that it should be ready for them on whatever day they 
 '?>.ad have it, and that he would be ready both in his own person 
 and with all who would follow him for the behoof of the army^ 
 
 ^ The country about Buckingham, however, which formed the 
 
 southern boundary of the " Five Boroughs." has no "byes The e 
 
 about Wirral in Cheshire are an exception which I shall have to 
 
 notice later on. We find. too. " byes " extending some few mdes 
 
 Tnto our Wan^'ickshire. I shall afterwards explain why I set aside 
 
 he notion of WaUing Street being the ^ouu6.ryoiB.rusU^^^^^ 
 
 » In 896 we find three ealdormen among the Witan of this part 
 
 of MercS.-Cod. Dip. No. 1073. The number in the undivided 
 
 Mercian realm seems to have been five. r-u ^« 
 
 ' The name first occurs in the Song of Eadmund. Eng. Chron. 
 
 (Winch.), a. 941. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 117 
 
 Nottingham. Politically this State differed widely ch.vp.ih. 
 from Danish Northumbria. While Northumbria Si 
 was an organized kingdom under the stock of In- ^^^ 
 guar or Ivar, with a definite centre at York and a DaneUw. 
 general administrative division into Trithings and 858 878. 
 Wapentakes, the independence of the Five Bor- ~~ 
 oughs was unfettered by any semblance of kingly 
 rule. Their name suggests some sort of confeder- 
 acy ; and it is possible that a common " Thing" may 
 have existed for the whole district ; but each of the 
 Boroughs seems to have had its own Jarl, and Here 
 or army, while (if we may judge from the instance of 
 Lincoln and Stamford) the internal rule of each was 
 in the hands of twelve hereditary " law-men." There 
 was a like difference in local organization. In the 
 country about Lincoln we find both Trithings and 
 Wapentakes, as on the other side the Humber, but 
 there is no trace of the Trithing in the territory of 
 the four other Boroughs. The^ distribution of set- 
 tlers over this midland Danelaw was as varied as 
 their forms of rule. They lay thickest in the Lind- 
 sey uplands, where the lands seem to have been 
 treated throughout as conquered country, and to 
 have been parted among the conquerors by the rude 
 rope - measurement of the time. Lincolnshire, in- 
 deed, contains as many names of northern settle- 
 ments as the whole of Yorkshire ;' and its little port 
 of Grimsby, whose muddy shores were thronged 
 with traders from Norway and the Orkneys, came 
 at last to rival York in commercial activity.' In 
 
 * Isaac Taylor. Words and Places, p. 122, numbers some three 
 hundred. 
 
 When Kali was fifteen winters old he went with some mer- 
 
 i \ 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 The 
 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 858-878. 
 
 The Danes 
 in East 
 A'l^Ua. 
 
 'Hi 
 
 ■^mm 
 
 Ilg THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the districts of the other four towns the names of 
 such settlements are far less numerous ; it is only 
 in Leicestershire, indeed, that we find anything like 
 the settlements of the north.* 
 
 In East Anglia the northern colonization was of 
 a yet weaker sort than in Mid-Britain. Although 
 this district had been in Danish hands since the 
 fall of Eadmund in 870, its real settlement dated 
 ten years later, when Guthrum led back his army 
 from Wessex after the Frith or Peace of Wedmore. 
 In cS8o "the army went from Cirencester to East 
 Anglia, and settled the land, and parted it among 
 them."' Guthrum's realm, however, included far 
 more than East Anglia itself. The after-war of 
 886 and the frith that followed it show that Essex 
 was detached from the Eastern or Kentish king- 
 dom, to which it had belonged since Ecgberht's day, 
 and brought back to its old dependence on East 
 Anglia. \Vith Essex passed its chief city, London, 
 now wasted by pillage and fires, but soon to regain 
 its trading activity in Danish hands, and whose 
 
 chants to England, taking with him a good cargo of merchandise. 
 They went to a trading-place called Grimsby. There was a great 
 number of people from Norway, as well as from the Orkneys, Scot- 
 land, and the Sudreyar Then he, Kali, made a stanza— 
 
 " Unpleasantly we have been wading 
 In the mud a weary five weeks ; 
 Dirt, indeed, we had in plenty 
 While we lay in Grimsby harbor." 
 
 Anderson, Orkneyinga Saga, pp. 75-7<5. 
 
 This, however, was in the twelfth century. 
 
 » In Leicestershire Taylor finds one hundred such names, m 
 Northampton and Notts fifty each, in Derby about a dozen.— Words 
 and Places, p. 122. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 880. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 119 
 
 subject territory carried Guthrum's rule along the chap.hl 
 valley of the Thames as far as the Chilterns and The 
 the district attached to Oxford, which now became ^?^^ 
 a border-town of English Mercia. To the north, Danelaw, 
 too, Guthrum seems to have wielded the old East- 858-878. 
 Anglian supremacy over the southern districts of 
 the Fen. In extent, therefore, his kingdom was fully 
 equal to either of the two rival States of the Dane- 
 law. But its character was far less northern. The 
 bulk of the warrior-settlers may have already found 
 homes on the Ouse or the Trent ; it is certain, at 
 any rate, that in East Anglia their settlements w^ere 
 few. The "byes" of Norfolk and Suffolk lie clus- 
 tered for the most part round the mouth of the 
 Yare; and this was probably the one part of this 
 district where distinct pirate communities existed ; 
 throughout the rest of it the Danes must simply 
 have quartered themselves on their English sub- 
 jects. In the dependent districts to north and south 
 they seem rather to have clustered in town-centres, 
 such as Colchester and Bedford, or Huntincrdon 
 and Cambridge, where Jarl and Here remained 
 encamped, receiving food and rent from the sub- 
 ject Englishmen who tilled their allotted lands.' 
 
 The small number of its settlers, however, was ^^'^^^^z- 
 not the only circumstance which distinguished East Ki 
 Anglia from the rest of the Danelaw. Its local in- 
 stitutions remained English, while it was far more 
 closely connected with the Encrlish kinjrdom than 
 Its fellow States. We find no trace of Trithing or 
 Wapentake within its bounds. It was from the first, 
 
 * Robertson, Scotland under Early Kings, vol. ii., Appendix, 
 "The Danelagh.'' 
 
 'Ml 
 
 Anglian 
 ingdoni. 
 
I20 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 s IHf 
 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw, 
 
 858-878. 
 
 cHAP^iii. too, a Christian kingdom. A promise to receive 
 The baptism was part of the terms of surrender on Guth- 
 rum's side after his defeat at Edington ; and " about 
 three weeks after King Guthrum came to ^^Ifred 
 ... at Aire, near Athelney, and the king was his 
 godfather in baptism, and his chrism-loosing' was at 
 Wedmore; and he was twelve days with the king, 
 and he greatly honored him and his companions 
 with gifts.'" The policy of binding to him, as far 
 as he could, this portion of the Danelaw was carried 
 on by Alfred in the later frith made between the 
 two kines with "the witan of all the English-folk'* 
 " and all the people that are in East Anglia," which, 
 after markins: the boundaries of the two realms, fixed 
 the " wer" or life-value of both Englishman and Dane 
 at the same amount,' settled the same procedure for 
 claims to property, and pledged either party to refuse 
 to receive deserters from the army or dominions of 
 the other.* 
 
 From the Tees to the brink of the Thames valley, 
 
 ih^N^^hi. from the water-parting of the country to the German 
 Sea, every inch of territory lay in Danish hands. 
 The Danelaw was, in fact, by far the most important 
 conquest which the northern warriors had made. In 
 extent, as in wealth and resources, it equalled, indeed, 
 or more than equalled, the Scandinavian realms them- 
 
 The Dam 
 law and 
 
 * Probably the loosing of the fillet bound round the head at con- 
 firmation after the anointing of the brow with the chrism. 
 
 "" Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 878. 
 
 » " If a man be slain we estimate all equally dear, English and 
 Danish." — Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 155, 156. 
 
 * " All ordained when the oaths were sworn that neither bond 
 nor free might go to the host without leave, no more than any of 
 them to us."— Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 156, 157. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 121 
 
 selves. To bring this great possession under their chap. m. 
 overlordship became, we cannot doubt, the dream Thi 
 of the kings who were beginning to build up the ^^^ 
 petty realms about them into the monarchies of the ^^^^ 
 North ; and it is possible that we find the earliest 858-878. 
 trace of that ambition which afterwards brought 
 Swein and Harald Hardrada to the shores of Britain 
 in a tale which, oddly as it has been disguised, may, 
 in its earlier form, be taken as a fair record of the 
 relations between the northern homeland and its 
 outlier in the south. " At this time," says the Saga 
 of Harald F'air-hair,' "a king called /Ethelstan had 
 taken the kingdom of England." Chronological 
 difficulties hinder us from seeing in this yEthcistan 
 the later king of Wessex, and guide us to Guthrum, 
 of East Anglia, who had taken the name of yEthelstan 
 at his baptism," or to his son and successor who may 
 have borne the same double name. Whichever of 
 these kings it was, " he sent men to Norway to King 
 Harald with this errand, that the messengers should 
 present him with a sword, with hilt and handle gilt, 
 and also its whole sheath adorned with irold and 
 silver and set with precious jewels. The ambassa- 
 dors presented the sword-hilt to the king, saying, 
 ' Here is a sword which King ^thclstan sends 
 thee, with the request that thou wilt accept it' The 
 king took the sword by the handle ; whereupon the 
 ambassadors said, ' Now thou hast taken the sword 
 according to our king's desire, and therefore art thou 
 his subject, as thou hast taken his sword.' King 
 Harald saw now that this was a jest, for he would 
 be subject to no man. But he remembered it was 
 
 ' Laing, Sea Kings of Norway, i. 308. 
 ' .^thelweard, a. 889, lib. iv. c. 3. 
 
 'II 
 
 * i'4 
 
122 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciiAP. III. his rule, whenever anything raised his anger, to col- 
 The lect himself and let his passion run off, and then 
 ^'^^^^ take the matter into consideration coolly. Now he 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw, ^jj ^q^ ^nd consulted his friends, who all gave him 
 85a-878. the advice to let the ambassadors, in the first place, 
 go home in safety. 
 
 *' The following summer King Harald sent a ship 
 westward to England, and gave the command of it 
 to Hauk Haabrok. He was a great warrior, and 
 very dear to the king. Into his hands he gave his 
 son Hakon. Hauk proceeded westward to Eng- 
 land, and found the king in London, where there 
 was just at the time a great feast and entertainment. 
 When they came to the hall Hauk told his men how 
 they should conduct themselves; namely, how he 
 who went first in should go last out, and all should 
 stand in a row at the table, at equal distance from 
 each other ; and each should have his sword at his 
 left side, but should fasten his cloak so that his 
 sword should not be seen. Then they went into the 
 hall, thirty in number. Hauk went up to the king 
 and saluted him, and the king bade him welcome. 
 Then Hauk took the child Hakon and set it on the 
 king s knee. The king looks at the boy, and asks 
 Hauk what the meaning of this is. Hauk replies, 
 ' Harald the king bids thee foster his servant-girl's 
 child.' The king was in great anger, and seized a 
 sword, which lay beside him, and drew it, as if he 
 were going to kill the child. Hauk says, ' Thou hast 
 borne him on thy knee, and thou canst murder him 
 if thou wilt ; but thou wilt not make an end of all 
 King Harald s sons by so doing.' On that Hauk 
 went out with all his men, and took the way direct 
 to his ship and put to sea — for they were ready — 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 123 
 
 
 and came back to King Harald. The king was 
 highly pleased with this ; for it is the common ob- 
 servation of all people that the man who fosters 
 another's children is of less consideration than 
 the other. From these transactions between the 
 two kings it appears that each wanted to be held 
 greater than the other; but, in truth, there was no 
 injury to the dignity of either, for each was the 
 upper king in his own kingdom till his dying day." 
 But whatever may have been the relation of the 
 Danelaw to the Scandinavian homeland, there can 
 be no doubt of the importance of this great settle- 
 ment, viewed in its relation to the country beyond 
 its borders. It was a first step towards the conquest 
 of England. The hard fighting of Wessex, the genius 
 of Alfred, had for the moment checked the con- 
 queror's advance. But what he had won was never 
 lost. Small as were the differences of manners and 
 institutions between Englishman and Dane, the 
 Danelaw preserved an individuality and character 
 which even the re-conquest by the West -Saxon 
 kings failed to take from it. If it submitted for a 
 while to English rule it remained a Danish and 
 not an English land ; and when the final attack of 
 the Danish kings fell on England, the rising of the 
 Danelaw, in Swein's aid, showed that half his work 
 was done already to his hand. From the landing of 
 Ivar to the landing of Cnut the attack of the Dane 
 on Britain is really a continuous one; but the heri- 
 tage of their victory was to pass into the hands of a 
 later conqueror, and the bowing of all England to a 
 Norman king is only the close of a work which be- 
 gan in the parting of Northern and Central England 
 among the Danish holds. 
 
 CHAP. III.. 
 
 The 
 
 Making 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 ii. 
 
 858878. 
 
 TAe Dane- 
 
 law and 
 England, 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 /E L F R E D. 
 
 878-901, 
 
 The weak- MASTERS as thcv wcre of thc bulk of Britain, the 
 
 ness of the /. , ,^ 1 t- 1 i 1 ' ^ \ 
 
 Danelaw, prcssurc of the Dancs on the England that resisted 
 them must in the end have proved irresistible had 
 their military force remained undiminished and had . 
 their political faculty been as great as their genius • 
 for war. As we have seen, however, they showed 
 as few traces of political faculty or of any power of 
 national organization as in their own Scandinavia, 
 while the number of their fighting men was lessen- 
 ing every day. Already the conquest of northern 
 Britain had done much to save the south; for the 
 attack of Guthrum on Wessex might have proved 
 as successful as the attack of Ivar on Northumbria, 
 had Ivar's men remained in the ranks of the Danish 
 host instead of settling down as farmers beside the 
 Ouse or the Trent. Peace, too, and the Christian- 
 ity which Guthrum embraced, yet further thinned 
 the Danish ranks ; and at the close of the last cam- 
 paign against Wessex a large part of the invaders 
 followed Hasting to seek better fortune in Gaul. 
 But even those who remained on English ground 
 clung loosely to their new settlements. It was not 
 Britain but Iceland that drew to it at this time the 
 hearts of the northern rovers ; and the English 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 125 
 
 Danelaw often served as a mere stepping-stone chat.iv. 
 between Norway and its offshoot in the northern mb^. 
 seas. Of the names of the original settlers of 878^1. 
 Iceland which are recorded in the Landnama, its — 
 Domesday book, more than a half are those of 
 men who had found an earlier settlement in the 
 British Isles.' 
 
 At the moment we have reached, however, even ^Eifrecfs 
 yElfred s eye could hardly have discerned the weak-;rXfX. 
 ness of the Danelaw. It was with little of a con- 
 querors exultation that the young king turned from 
 his victories in the west. He looked' on the peace 
 he had won as a mere break in the struggle, and as 
 a break that might at any moment come suddenly 
 to an end. Even in the years of tranquillity which 
 followed it there never was an hour when he felt 
 safe against an inroad of the Danes over Watling 
 Street, or a landing of pirates in the Severn. " Oh, 
 what a happy man was he!" he cries once, "that 
 man that had a naked sword hanging over his head 
 from a single thread — so as to me it always did!'" 
 And yet peace was absolutely needful for the work 
 that lay before him. If the deliverance of Wessex 
 had shown the exhaustion of the Danes, Wessex 
 itself was as utterly spent by fifty years of contin- 
 uous effort, and above all by the last five years of 
 
 ' Dasent. translation of Njal's Saga. Introd. p. xii. The most trust- 
 worthy accounts, such as that of the Landnamabok, of the first 
 settlements in Iceland show how mixed the population of the 
 British Islands then was. Besides the overwhelming numbers of 
 the Northmen, there are found men and women of Danish, Swed- 
 ish, and Flemish descent who joined in the emigration from Brit- 
 ain to Iceland.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 ' Alfred's Boethius, in Sharon Turner's Hist. Anglo-Sax. ii. 45. 
 
126 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. deadly struggle. Law, order, the machinery of 
 mh^. justice and government, had been weakened by 
 878^01. the pirate storm. Schools and monasteries had for 
 — the most part perished. Many of the towns and 
 villages lay wrecked or in ruin. There were whole 
 tracts of country that lay wasted and without in- 
 habitants after the Danish raids. Material and 
 moral civilization indeed had alike to be revived. 
 All, however, might be set right, as the king touch- 
 ingly said, " if we have stillness ;" ' and in these first 
 years of peace the work of restoration went rapidly 
 on. yElfred had to wrestle indeed with the penu- 
 ry of the royal Hoard ; for so utterly had it been . 
 drained by the payments to the pirates and the 
 cost of the recent struggle that the sons of yEthel- 
 wulf had been driven to the miserable expedient of 
 debasing the currency, and it was not till i^lfred's 
 later days that the coinage could be raised to a 
 sounder' standard.' He had to wrestle, too, yet 
 harder with the sluggishness of his subjects. There 
 were scarcely any who would undertake the slight- 
 est voluntary labor for the common benefit of the 
 realm ; persuasion had, after long endurance, to pass 
 into command ; and even commands were slowly 
 and imperfectly carried out.' Great, however, as 
 were the obstacles, the work was done. Forts were 
 built in places specially exposed to attack,' and 
 wasted lands were colonized afresh. Bishop Dene- 
 wulf, of Winchester, tells us how his land at Bed- 
 hampton, " when my lord first let it to me, was 
 
 ' Pref. to Pastoral Book (ed. Sweet). 
 ' Robertson, Hist. Essays, p. 64. 
 ' Asser (ed. Wise), p. 59. 
 
 Ibid. p. 58. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 127 
 
 unprovided with cattle, and laid waste by heathen chap. iv. 
 folk; and I myself then provided the cattle, and rn^ed. 
 there people were afterwards." ' So, too, new ab- svslsoi. 
 beys were founded at Winchester and Shaftesbury; ~" 
 while the king's gratitude for his deliverance raised 
 a religious house among the marshes of Athelney. 
 
 Busy, however, as /Elf red was with the restora- ^^^'^ »"'^'''''- 
 tion of order and good government, his main efforts '"^ '^^^'''^""' 
 were directed to the military organization of his 
 people." He had learned, during the years of hard 
 fighting with which his life began, how unsuited 
 the military system of the country had become to 
 the needs of war as the Danes practised it. The 
 one national army was the fyrd, a force which had 
 already received in the Karolingian legislation the 
 name of " landwehr," by which the German knows 
 it still. The fyrd was, in fact, composed of the 
 w^hole mass of free land-owners who formed the 
 folk : and to the last it could only be summoned by 
 the voice of the folk-moot. In theory, therefore, 
 such a host represented the whole available force 
 of the country. But in actual warfare its attend- 
 ance at the king's Vv-ar-call was limited by practical 
 difficulties. Arms w^ere costly, and the greater 
 part of the fyrd came equipped with bludgeons and 
 hedge - stakes, which could do little to meet the 
 spear and battle-axe of the invader. The very 
 growth of the kingdom, too, had broken down the 
 old military system. A levy of every freeman was 
 
 
 ' Thorpe, Diplomatarium, p. 162. 
 
 ' Stubbs (Const. Hist. i. 220 et seq.) has examined this subject; 
 but we have little real information about it from contemporary 
 documents. 
 
128 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. possible when one folk warred with another folk, 
 iEifred. when a sinorle march took the warrior to the border, 
 878^01. and a single fight settled the matter between the 
 tiny peoples. But now that folk after folk had been 
 absorbed in great kingdoms, now that the short 
 march had lengthened into distant expeditions, the 
 short fight into long campaigns, it was hard to rec- 
 oncile the needs of labor and of daily bread with 
 the needs of war. Ready as he might be to follow 
 the king to a fight which ended the matter, the 
 farmer who tilled his own farm could serve only as 
 lono; as his home-needs would suffer him. Custom 
 had fixed his service at a period of two months. 
 But as the industrial condition of the country ad- 
 vanced, such a service became more and more diffi- 
 cult to enforce ; even in Ine's day it was needful to 
 fix heavy fines by law for men who " neglected the 
 fyrd,'" and it broke down before the new conditions 
 of warfare brought about by the strife with the 
 Danes. However thoroughly they were beaten, the 
 Danes had only to fall back behind their intrench- 
 ments, and wait in patience till the two months of 
 the host's service were over, and the force which 
 besieged them melted away. It was this which had 
 aerain and asfain neutralized the successes of the 
 West-Saxon kings. It was the thinning of their 
 own ranks in the hour of victory which forced 
 /Ethelred to conventions such as that of Notting- 
 ham, and i^lfred to conventions such as that of 
 Exeter. The Dane, in fact, had changed the whole 
 conditions of existing warfare. His forces w^ere 
 
 * Ine's Law; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 134, 135. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 129 
 
 really standing armies, and a standing army of some chaimv. 
 sort was needed to meet them. ^~^ 
 
 It was to provide such a force that the kings, sTsfoi 
 from Alfred to ^thelstan, gave a new extension ^,T ' 
 to the. class of thegns.' The growth of this class ctaT' 
 had formed, as we have seen, a marked part of the 
 social revolution which had preceded the Danish 
 wars. But a fresh importance had been given to 
 the thegn by the shock which the structure of so- 
 ciety had received from the long struggle. The 
 free ceorl had above all felt the stress'^of war; in 
 his need of a protector he was beginning to waive 
 freedom for safety, and to "commend" himself to 
 a thegn who would fight for him on condition that 
 he followed his new " lord " as his " man " to the 
 field. On the other hand the lands wasted by the 
 Danes were repeopled for the most part by the 
 rural nobles, who provided the settlers with cattle 
 and implements of culture, and in turn received 
 service from them.^ So rapid was this process that 
 the class of free ceorls seems to have become all 
 but extinguished, while that of thegns, in its various 
 degrees— king s thegn, the '' baron " of the later feu- 
 dahsm ; middle thegn, a predecessor of the country 
 knight; and lesser thegn, or all who possessed 
 "soke," or private jurisdiction within their lands'— 
 came to include the bulk of the land-owners. The 
 warlike temper of the thegnhood, its military tra- 
 ditions, its dependence on the king at whose sum- 
 
 ill 
 m 
 
 • vli 
 
 ill 
 'I 
 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 220 et seq. 
 
 • Cod. Dip. 1089. See Robertson's remarks, Hist. Essays, Introd. 
 p. liv., note. ^ 
 
 = Cnut's Laws, sec. 72; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 415. 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The tteio 
 army. 
 
 
 CHAP. IV. mons it was bound to appear in the host, above all, 
 
 y^pd its wealth enabled it to bring to the field a force 
 
 878^1. well equipped and provided with resources for a 
 
 — campaign ; and it was with a sound instinct that 
 
 Alfred and his house seized on it as- the nucleus 
 
 of a new military system. 
 
 Its special recognition, as a leading element in 
 our social organization, belongs most probably to 
 his days or to those of his son ; and a law which 
 w^e may look upon as part, at least, of the king's 
 reforms gave the class of thegns at once a wide 
 military extension by subjecting all owners of five 
 hides of land to thegn service." By a development, 
 of the same principle which we find established in 
 later times, but whose origin we may fairly look for 
 here, the whole country was divided into military 
 districts, each five hides sending an armed man at 
 the king's summons, and providing him with vict- 
 uals and pay. Each borough, too, was rated as one 
 or more such districts, and sent its due contingent, 
 from one soldier to twelve. While this organiza- 
 tion furnished the solid nucleus of a well-armed and 
 permanent force, the duty of every freeman to join 
 the host remained binding as before. But a simple 
 reform met some, at least, of the difficulties which 
 had as yet neutralized its effectiveness. On the 
 resumption of the war we find that i^lfred had re- 
 organized this national force by dividing the fyrd 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws and Inst. i. 191. " If a ceorl thrived so that 
 he had fully five hides of his own land, church and kitchen, bell- 
 house and ' burh'-gate-seat, and special duty in the king's hall, then 
 was he thenceforth of thane-right worthy." Compare the North- 
 peoples' Law. sees. 5 and 9, ibid. pp. 187, 189. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 131 
 
 into two halves, each of which took by turns its chap. iv. 
 service in the field, while the other half was ex- ^IfTed. 
 empted from field-service on condition of defend- st^Isol 
 ing its own burhs and manning the rough intrench- ~~ 
 ments round every township.' A garrison and re- 
 serve force was thus added to the army on service ; 
 and the attendance of its warriors in the field could 
 be more rigorously enforced. 
 
 Further than this it was impossible to go. But <^''^'^^'^'' 
 the results of the new system were seen when the '^'^ '"''^'' 
 war broke out again in later years. The balance 
 of warlike effectiveness passed from the invaders to 
 the West Saxons. The fyrd became an army. In 
 the skilful choice of positions, in the use 'of in- 
 trenchments, in rapidity of marching, as well as in 
 the shock of the battle-field, the Danes found them- 
 selves face to face with men who had patiently 
 learned to be their match. The reorganization of 
 the fyrd, however, was only a part of the task of 
 military reform which yElfred set himself. Alone 
 among the rulers of his time he saw that the battle 
 with the pirates must really be fought out upon the 
 sea. Clear them from the land as he might, safety 
 was impossible while every inch of blue water which 
 washed the English coast was the Northman's realm. 
 But to win the sea was a harder task than to win 
 back the land. yElfred had only to organize the 
 national army; he had to create a national fleet. It 
 was not, indeed, that Englishmen had ever lost their 
 love for the sea; fishers and coasters abounded from 
 the first along the Northumbrian shore, and ports 
 su ch as Yarmouth and London can h ardly have de- 
 
 * Eng. Chron. a. 894, 
 
 
 \ 
 
I30 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 *; I 
 
 The ttezu 
 army. 
 
 ft 
 
 CHAP. IV. mons it was bound to appear in the host, above all, 
 
 jEifrid. its wealth enabled it to bring to the field a force 
 
 878^01. well equipped and provided with resources for a 
 
 — campaign ; and it was with a sound instinct that 
 
 i^ilfred and his house seized on it as- the nucleus 
 
 of a new military system. 
 
 Its special recognition, as a leading element in 
 our social organization, belongs most probably to 
 his days or to those of his son ; and a law which 
 w^e may look upon as part, at least, of the king's 
 reforms gave the class of thegns at once a wide 
 military extension by subjecting all owners of five 
 hides of land to thegn service.' By a development, 
 of the same principle which w^e find established in 
 later times, but whose origin we may fairly look for 
 here, the whole country was divided into military 
 districts, each five hides sending an armed man at 
 the king's summons, and providing him with vict- 
 uals and pay. Each borough, too, was rated as one 
 or more such districts, and sent its due contingent, 
 from one soldier to twelve. While this organiza- 
 tion furnished the solid nucleus of a w^ell-armed and 
 permanent force, the duty of every freeman to join 
 the host remained binding as before. But a simple 
 reform met some, at least, of the difficulties which 
 had as yet neutralized its effectiveness. On the 
 resumption of the war we find that i^lfred had re- 
 organized this national force by dividing the fyrd 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws and Inst. i. 191. " If a ceorl thrived so that 
 he had fully five hides of his own land, church and kitchen, bell- 
 house and ' burh'-gate-seat, and special duty in the king's hall, then 
 was he thenceforth of thane-right worthy." Compare the North- 
 peoples' Law, sees. 5 and 9, ibid. pp. 187, 189. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 131 
 
 Creation 
 of a navy. 
 
 into two halves, each of which took by turns its chap. iv. 
 service in the field, while the other half was ex- ^"i^ed. 
 empted from field-service on condition of defend- stmoi. 
 ing its own burhs and manning the rough intrench- ~ 
 ments round every township.' A garrison and re- 
 serve force was thus added to the army on service ; 
 and the attendance of its warriors in the field could 
 be more rigorously enforced. 
 
 Further than this it was impossible to go. But 
 the results of the new system were seen when the 
 war broke out again in later years. The balance 
 of warlike effectiveness passed from the invaders to 
 the West Saxons. The fyrd became an army. In 
 the skilful choice of positions, in the use 'of in- 
 trenchments, in rapidity of marching, as well as in 
 the shock of the battle-field, the Danes found them- 
 selves face to face with men who had patiently 
 learned to be their match. The reorganization of 
 the fyrd, however, was only a part of the task of 
 military reform which Alfred set himself. Alone 
 among the rulers of his time he saw that the battle 
 with the pirates must really be fought out upon the 
 sea. Clear them from the land as he might, safety 
 was impossible while every inch of blue water which 
 washed the English coast was the Northman's realm. 
 But to win the sea was a harder task than to win 
 back the land. Alfred had only to organize the 
 national army; he had to create a national fleet. It 
 was not, indeed, that Englishmen had ever lost their 
 love for the sea ; fishers and coasters abounded from 
 the first along the Northumbrian shore, and ports 
 such as Yarmouth and London can hardly have de- 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 894. 
 
 !.| 
 
 - if.f 
 
 m 
 
 T 
 
132 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. pended for traffic on foreign shipping. That no 
 
 ^tfTed. mention is made in earlier times of a " ship-fyrd," or 
 
 878^1. assessment for the equipment of a fleet, is due to 
 
 "" the fact that the struggles of early England had as 
 
 yet been land struggles within the bounds of the 
 
 country itself ; but on the first outbreak of a foreign 
 
 war the war of Ecgfrith with Ireland — the Irish 
 
 coast was ravaged by a fleet which must have been 
 raised through a public contribution and manned by 
 sailors accustomed to stormy seas/ In the south, 
 indeed, no English navy seems to have existed dur- 
 ing the earlier period of the northern atfacks. The 
 seizure of Wareham, however, spurred Alfred to. 
 create a fleet/ He built larger ships than had as 
 yet been used for warfare; and though forced by 
 the greater skill of the Northmen in sea matters to 
 man'^his vessels with " pirates " from Friesland, their 
 action did much to decide the fate of Exeter. This 
 naval force was steadily developed.' In Alfred's 
 later years his fleet was strong enough to encounter 
 the pirate-ships of the East Anglians ; and in the 
 reign of his son an English force of a hundred ves- 
 sels asserted its mastery of the Channel* 
 ALifreci A work of even greater difficulty than the reor- 
 ''^^vf ' ganization of fyrd or fleet was the reorganization of 
 public justice. Here .Alfred's efforts again fell in 
 
 ^IZ 
 
 » A. D. 684. Baeda. H. E. lib. iv. c. 26.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 "" Asser. a. 877 (cd. Wise, p. 29): " Jussit cymbas et galeas, id est, 
 longas naves fabricari per regnum." 
 
 ' See Eng. Chron. a. 897. 
 
 ♦ We can hardly attribute to yElfred the law that we find in force 
 in Eadgar's day, by which a ship was due from every three hun- 
 dreds, probably of the coast-shires ; but some such law there must 
 have been to account for Eadward's fleet. 
 
 with the silent revolution which was undoin^r the c„a,..,v. 
 older institutions of the English race. The change ^^ea 
 in the character and conception of the kingship, „r9oi 
 u-hich was being brought about by the consolidation " 
 of the peoples into a single monarchy, as well as by 
 the new tie of personal allegiance which bound men 
 to the "lord of the land," was bringing with it a cor- 
 responding modification in the notions of justice 
 and local government. The "peace of the folk" 
 was becoming more and more, both in feeling and 
 in fact, "the kings peace,"' while public justice was 
 more and more conceived of as emanating from the 
 power and action of the sovereign rather than as a 
 right inherent in the community itself. That this 
 change of sentiment was of far older date than yEl- 
 fred's time, we see from the language of the king 
 I he conception of justice, as inherent in the local 
 jurisdictions, or as flowing from the will of the peo- 
 ple, has wholly vanished. In Alfred's mind justice 
 flows to every court from the king himself, of whose 
 judicial power each is representative, and who, as 
 the fountain and source of justice, was bound on'ap- 
 peal to correct or confirm the judgment of all. " It 
 is by gift from God and from me," he says to all who 
 claim jurisdiction, "that you occupy your office and 
 rank."' Not only did an appeal lie to him person- 
 ally from every court, but we find him exercising 
 this jurisdiction through delegated judges, in whose 
 action we see the first traces of the judicial author- 
 ■ty of the Royal Counc il. " AH the law dooms of 
 
 ^ See Stubbs, Const, Hist. i. 208-212. 
 
 - "Dei dono et meo sapientium ministerium et gradus usurpas- 
 tis, Asser (ed. Wise), p. 70, t, v = 
 
134 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. his land that were given in his absence he used to 
 E^ed keenly question, of whatever sort they were, just or 
 87^901 unjust; and if he found any wrong-doing in them 
 — he would call the judges themselves before him, and 
 either by his own mouth or by some other of his 
 faithful men seek out why they gave doom so un- 
 righteous, v/hether through ignorance or ill-will, or 
 fo'r love or from hate of any, or for greed of gold." ' 
 The law was, in fact, now the kings law: offences 
 against it are offences against the king, and con- 
 tempt of its courts is contempt of the king.' 
 yEi/red's This ucw couccption of justice received a power- 
 ^#.;////... ^^^ impulse from the growing inefficiency of the 
 "folk's justice" itself, i^lf red's main work, like' 
 that of his successor, was to enforce submission to 
 the justice of hundred-moot and shire-moot alike on 
 noble and ceorl, "who were constantly at obstinate 
 variance with one another in the folk-moots before 
 ealdorman and reeve, so that hardly any one of them 
 would grant that to be true doom that had been 
 judged for doom by the ealdorman and reeves.'" 
 
 » Asser (ed.Wisc). p. 70: "Nam omnia pcne totius suae regionis 
 judicia. quse in absentia sua fiebant. sagaciter investigabat. qualia 
 fierent, justa aut etiam injusta ; aut vero si aliquam in illis judiciis 
 iniquitatem intelligere posset, leniter ad vocatos illos ipsos judices,aut 
 per se ipsum, aut per alios suos fideles quoslibet, interrogabat," etc. 
 
 = " Ofer-hyrncsse ;" first heard of in LI. Eadw. L sec i. (Thorpe. 
 Anc. Laws, i. 161), and so dating from Alfred's day 
 
 » .Asser (ed. Wise), p. 69. " Nobilium et ignobilium . . . qui 
 ssepissime in concionibus comitum et pra^positorum pertinacissime 
 inter se dissentiebant, ita ut pene nuUus eorum quicquid a comiti- 
 bus et pra^positis judicatum fuisset. verum esse concederet." As 
 Stubbs (Const. Hist. i. 112, note) points out. this shows "that eal- 
 dorman and gerefa, eorl and ceorl. had their places in these courts. ' 
 and that, "although the officers might declare the law. the ultimate 
 determination rested in each case with the suitors." 
 
 135 
 
 ■ 
 
 But even the doom of the folk-moot was subject on chap.iv. 
 appeal to the justice of the king.' Judicial business, ^m^d. 
 in fact, occupied a large part of yElfred's time. He sts^sol 
 was busied, says his biographer, "day and night" in ~ 
 the correction of local injustice, ''for in that whole 
 kingdom the poor had no helpers, or few, save the 
 king himself."' The work was one which brought 
 with it bitter resistance, and the strife, even with 
 men of his own house, for law and justice, left pain 
 and disappointment in Alfred's heart. " Desirest 
 thou power .f^" he asks in one of his writings. " But 
 thou shalt never obtain it without sorrow — sorrow 
 from strange folk, and yet keener sorrows from thine 
 own kindred.'" " Hardship and sorrow !" he breaks 
 out again; "not a king but would wish to be with- 
 out these if he could. But I know that he can- 
 not."* 
 
 Gloom or anxiety, however, failed, even for a mo- ax^Vj// 
 ment, to check his activity in the work of restora- ^^'''''''' 
 tion.' He was as busy without Wessex as within. 
 
 » Asser (ed. Wise), p. 70. « Jbid. p. 69. 
 
 ' JEUred's Boethius, in Sharon Turner's Hist. Anglo-Sax. ii. 43. 
 * Ibid. p. 45. 
 
 " Later tradition (Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 186) at- 
 tributed to Alfred the institution of the shire, the hundred, and 
 the tithing; and Professor Stubbs (Const. Hist. i. 112) suggests a 
 real ground for this. "The W'est-Saxon shires appear in history 
 under their permanent names, and with a shire organization much 
 earlier than those of Mercia and Northumberland ; while Kent, 
 Essex, and East Anglia had throughout an organization derived 
 from their old status as kingdoms. It is in Wessex, further, that 
 the hundrcdal division is supplemented by that of the tithing. It 
 may then be argued that the whole hundredal system radiates from 
 the West-Saxon kingdom, and that the variations mark the grad- 
 ual extension of that power as it won its way to supremacy under 
 Egbert or Ethclwulf, or recovered territory from the Danes under 
 
 ■m 
 
 
 it 
 
136 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAR IV. In the division of Britain, at the Peace of Wedmore, 
 iEifred. he had saved from the grasp of the Danes the west- 
 878^1. ern portion of the Mercian kingdom, the upper val- 
 leys of the Thames and the Trent, the whole valley 
 of the Severn, with the outlier of the Hwiccan ter- 
 ritory in Arden, and the more northerly region of 
 our Shropshire and Cheshire. Of what vital im- 
 portance this tract was to prove, we shall see in the 
 after-part of our story. It was from it that y^lfred 
 drew the teachers who began the intellectual and 
 religious restoration of the rescued realm. It was 
 from it that his daughter, in later days, advanced to 
 the conquest of Mid-Britain. It was of more im- 
 mediate value as parting the Welshmen from the 
 Danes, and thus paving the way for that complete 
 reduction of the former, which was the necessary 
 prelude to any effective struggle with the settlers of 
 the Danelaw. But what immediately fronted the 
 young king was the question of its government. 
 The question was one of great moment, not only 
 in its bearing on Mercia, but in its bearing on the 
 future of England itself. The royal stocks, once 
 the centres and representatives of the separate folks, 
 were dying out one by one. In the earlier days of 
 Ecgberht the only kings that retained political life 
 were those of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex, 
 wdth the tributary realms of East Anglia and of 
 Kent. Of these the Kentish kings soon came to an 
 end, while the strife over the succession in North- 
 
 Alfred and Edward, Athelstan, Edmund, Edred, and Edgar. If 
 this be allowed, the claim of Alfred, as founder, not of the hundred- 
 law, but of the hundredal divisions, may rest on something firmer 
 than legend.'' 
 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ^37 
 
 umbria sprang from the virtual extinction of its chap.iv. 
 royal stock. But the action of Ecgberht, even in im^ 
 the moment of his triumph, showed that so long as stsIoi 
 the royal races existed at all, any real union 0/ the — ' 
 English peoples in one political body was practically 
 impossible. 
 
 The difficulty, indeed, could hardly have been rA^A/.r. 
 solved save by some violent shock ; and the shock i^)^.^:';. 
 was given by the coming of the Danes. Before 
 fifty years were over, the royal houses of Northum- 
 bria, of East Anglia, of Mercia, were brought to an 
 end. The two claimants to the northern throne 
 perished in the battle of York. The martyrdom of 
 Eadmund closed the East-Anglian line, while that 
 of Mercia ended in the flight of Burhred to Rome 
 before the inroad of Guthrum. It was thus that 
 the position of yElfred differed radically from that 
 of Ecgberht ; for even had he wished to restore the 
 mere supremacy over Mercia which Ecgberht had 
 wielded, he had no royal house through which to 
 restore it. He was driven, in fact, by the very force 
 of things, to be not merely a West-Saxon over-lord 
 of Mercia, but a Mercian king. He made no attempt 
 to fuse Mercia into Wessex ; it remained a separate, 
 though dependent, State, with its Mercian witenage' 
 mot and Mercian ruler, ^thelred, who may ha'^e 
 sprung from the stock of its older kings. But 
 ^thelred was simply Ealdorman of the Mercians. 
 Though Alfred uses, in his dealings with Mercia, 
 only the general title of " King," it was as King of 
 the Mercians that he acted ; their Ealdorman owned 
 him as his lord, and their Witan met by his license. 
 How thoroughly Alfred asserted royal rights in 
 
 i 
 
136 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAR IV. In the division of Britain, at the Peace of Wedmore, 
 ^^d. he had saved from the grasp of the Danes the west- 
 878-901. ern portion of the Mercian kingdom, the upper val- 
 ~ leys of the Thames and the Trent, the whole valley 
 of the Severn, with the outlier of the Hwiccan ter- 
 ritory in Arden, and the more northerly region of 
 our Shropshire and Cheshire. Of what vital im- 
 portance this tract was to prove, we shall see in the 
 after-part of our story. It was from it that Alfred 
 drew the teachers who began the intellectual and 
 religious restoration of the rescued realm. It was 
 from it that his daughter, in later days, advanced to 
 the conquest of Mid-Britain. It was of more im- 
 mediate value as parting the Welshmen from the' 
 Danes, and thus paving the way for that complete 
 reduction of the former, which was the necessary 
 prelude to any effective struggle with the settlers of 
 the Danelaw. But what immediately fronted the 
 young king was the question of its government. 
 The question was one of great moment, not only 
 in its bearing on Mercia, but in its bearing on the 
 future of England itself. The royal stocks, once 
 the centres and representatives of the separate folks, 
 were dying out one by one. In the earlier days of 
 Ecgberht the only kings that retained political life 
 were those of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex, 
 with the tributary realms of East Anglia and of 
 Kent. Of these the Kentish kings soon came to an 
 end, while the strife over the succession in North- 
 
 Alfred and Edward. Athclstan, Edmund, Edred, and Edgar. If 
 this be allowed, the claim of Alfred, as founder, not of the hundred- 
 law, but of the hundredal divisions, may rest on something firmer 
 than legend.'' 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ^Z7 
 
 umbria sprang from the virtual extinction of its chap., v. 
 royal stock. But the action of Ecgberht, even in e^^ 
 the moment of his triumph, showed that so long as 878"loi 
 the royal races existed at all, any real union of the ~ ' 
 English peoples in one political body was practically 
 mipossible. "^ 
 
 The difiRculty, indeed, could hardly have been ^^^^^^f^r. 
 solved save by some violent shock; and the shock i:;;::;;.^ 
 was given by the coming of the Danes. Before 
 fifty years were over, the royal houses of Northum- 
 bria, of East Anglia, of Mercia, were brought to an 
 end The two claimants to the northern throne 
 perished in the battle of York. The martyrdom of 
 Eadmund closed the East-Anglian line, while that 
 of Mercia ended in the flight of Burhred to Rome 
 before the inroad of Guthrum. It was thus that 
 the position of Alfred differed radically from that 
 of Ecgberht ; for even had he wished to restore the 
 mere supremacy over Mercia which Ecgberht had 
 wielded, he had no royal house through which to 
 restore it. He was driven, in fact, by the very force 
 of thmgs, to be not merely a West-Saxon over-lord 
 of Mercia, but a Mercian king. He made no attempt 
 to fuse Mercia into Wessex ; it remained a separate, 
 though dependent. State, with its Mercian witenacre- 
 mot and Mercian ruler, ^thelred, who may hat^e 
 sprung from the stock of its older kings. But 
 ^thelred was simply Ealdorman of the Mercians. 
 1 hough Alfred uses, in his dealings with Mercia, 
 only the general title of " King," it was as King of 
 the Mercians that he acted ; their Ealdorman owned 
 him as his lord, and their Witan met by his license 
 How thoroughly yElfred asserted royal rights in 
 
 
 M 
 
138 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. Mid-Britain may be seen, indeed, from his Mercian 
 
 jEifred. Coinage. Coinage, in the old world, was the un- 
 
 87r90i. questioned test of kingship, and a mint which ^^Ifred 
 
 — set up at Oxford,' within the borders of the Mercian 
 
 Ealdormanry, proves even more than the submissive 
 
 words of Witan or Ealdorman the reality of his rule. 
 
 In fact, Wessex and Mercia were now united, as 
 
 Wessex and Kent had long been united, by their 
 
 allegiance to the same ruler ; and the foundation of 
 
 a national monarchy was laid in the personal loyalty 
 
 of Jute and Engle and Saxon alike to the house of 
 
 Cerdic.'' 
 
 139 
 
 1 << 
 
 We have in the British Museum," Mr. Barclay V. Head has 
 been good enough to write to me, " a whole series of Alfred's coins, 
 struck at various mints, and among them are some discovered some 
 twenty or thirty years ago at Cuerdale, which read ' ORSNA- 
 FORDA.' It is usual to attribute these to Oxford." On a subse- 
 quent personal examination, however, he finds that the word has 
 been misread, and is clearly " OKSNAFORDA," which must be 
 taken as the earliest authentic form of the town's name. No writ- 
 ten evidence for Oxford's existence can be found before its mention 
 in the Chronicle in 912 in the following reign. 
 
 » We find i^thelred an Ealdorman under Burhred, c. 872-874 
 (Kemb., Cod. Dip. 304). His first extant charter under Alfred is 
 of 880. as "dux et patricius gentis Merciorum," and already married 
 to i^thelfloed, who signs it. In 884 he signs as '* Merciorum gentis 
 ducatum gubernans" (Cod. Dip. 1066); in 888 as "procurator in 
 dominio regni Merciorum" (ib. 1068). The grant of 880 is "cum 
 licentia et impositione manus ^Elfredi regis, una cum testimonio et 
 consensu seniorum ejusdem gentis (Merciorum)." "^Elfred rex" 
 signs first, then " i^thcred dux," then " ^thelflaed conjunx " (Cod. 
 Dip. 311). Another grant in 883 is with Alfred's "leave and wit- 
 ness" (ib. 313). And so, in 896, when .^thelred summons the 
 Mercian Witan, " that did he with King iElfred's witness and 
 leave" (ib. 1073). In a charter, however, of 901 (Cod. Dip. 330), 
 Alfred's last year of reign, there is no mention of JElired, but 
 of ".^thered ^d(elflaedque) dei gratia monarchiam Merciorum 
 tenentes honorificeque gubernantes et defendentes ;" the grant is 
 made solely " cum licentia et testimonio pantorum procerum Mer- 
 
 latvs. 
 
 Important as was the union of Wessex and Mer- c„.p. .v. 
 tTa'Vfn ? ' ^'^P. t^^^-rds national unity, it led ^^. 
 to a step yet more miportant in the fusion of the st^^ol 
 customary codes of the English peoples into a com-^r 
 mon law. The sphere of the written eodes mi<.ht^^^" 
 be narrow ,n relation to the whole body of custom- 
 ary law but they had by .Alfreds day come to be 
 regarded as its representatives, and thus to be spe- 
 cially representative of the tribal life which the cus- 
 tomary law embodied. As king, therefore, of Wes- 
 sex, of Kent, and of Mercia, Alfred found himself 
 an administrator of three separate codes, whose 
 differences however slight, reflected the distinctions 
 u-h.ch held each of these States apart from the 
 other. Of a new legislation, or of the bringing a 
 larger sphere of English life within the scope of the 
 written law, the king had no thought. The very 
 notion of new legislation, indeed, ungrounded on 
 custom, was without hold on him or his people " I 
 durst not," he says, frankly, " venture to set down in 
 writing much of my own, for it was unknown to me 
 what of It would please those who should come after 
 us. All that he could venture on was a certain 
 amount of rejection; "many of those dooms which 
 seemed to me not good I rejected them by the 
 counsel of my witan ;" but the main work was sim- 
 
 tkle™ Tht H ^^ :^^° '^''''""'- '^g" ^'helfia^d.-' without 
 ^thelred « ^?f not however, represent a new position taken by 
 ^tahl ,h , fjf' '''^"' ''"'' Eadwards accession, though it is 
 r .^ finH ^""='"'^^^'^' ^- «94 (lib. iv. c. 3), calls him " rex," for in 
 
 « Z;f ''.7''"'= " ^thelfledam, qui tunc principatum 
 
 Dip rosT'"" ^"'""' '^ '"'' P''=='''"° ■•<^g<= tenuerunt" (Cod 
 
 
140 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^iv. ply a work of compilation.' " Those things which I 
 jE^ed. met with, either of the days of Ine, my kinsman, or 
 8781^1. of Offa, king of the Mercians, or of ^thelberht, 
 — who first among the EngHsh race received baptism, 
 those which seemed to me the rightest, those I^ 
 have gathered together and rejected the others.'" 
 But unpretending as the work might seem, its im- 
 portance was great. With it began the conception 
 of a national law. The notion of separate systems 
 of tribal customs passed away with the weakening 
 of the notion of tribal life ; and the codes of Wes- 
 sex, Mercia, and Kent blended in the doom-book 
 of a common England. 
 n^ Danes Jhc kiug's work of peace, however, was now 
 "w^' drawing to an end. We have seen how anxiously, 
 while girding himself for the coming strife, .Alfred 
 was looking out through these six years of quiet, 
 from 878 to 884, over the West -Saxon frontier.' 
 What helped him to give rest to his land— as he 
 knew well— was not only the peace of Wedmore, 
 but the work which the pirates had found to do 
 on the other side of the Channel ; for their defeat 
 
 141 
 
 » Of the seventy-seven clauses of Alfred's law, fifty-three relate to 
 personal injuries ; these are taken from the Kentish codes, especial- 
 ly that of /Ethelberht. with but sHght change save in the amount of 
 the fine. The rest are mainly borrowed from Ine, whose agricult- 
 ural laws, however, are wholly omitted : and there are a few mis- 
 cellaneous laws, which may be iElfred's own, or taken from the 
 lost code of OfTa. 
 
 " Thorpe, Anc. Laws and Inst. i. 59. 
 
 " Among other causes for anxiety was the desertion of English- 
 men to the Danes. In Cod. Dip. 1078 we hear of an ealdorman, 
 Wulfhere. who ''suum dominum regem ^^Ifredum et patriam. ultra 
 jusjurandum quam regi et suis omnibus optimatibus juraverat,dere- 
 liquit." This is a very early instance of the oath of allegiance. 
 
 in England had thrown them back on their old chap.iv. 
 field of attack in the land of the Franks. The Jilfrid. 
 establishment of the Danelaw gave them a base 878 m 
 of operations for descents on the opposite coast,' — 
 and when the host under Guthrum sailed home to 
 East Anglia, after its repulse from Wessex, it was 
 in order to sail off again to the Scheldt. The close 
 of the struggle in England threw, in fact, the whole 
 weight of the pirate onset on the Franks. It fell 
 above all on Northern Frankland, and soon the 
 Scheldt, the Meuse, and the Rhine were full of pi- 
 rate squadrons. The Frank kings fought bravely 
 as of old, though their strength was still broken by 
 the dynastic quarrels which the dream of restoring 
 the empire of Charles the Great stirred up perpet- 
 ually among his descendants. But the resistance 
 of Wessex roused a new vigor among its neighbors. 
 Lewis the German fought the pirates hard on the 
 Scheldt, while two grandsons of Charles the Bald, 
 Lewis and Carloman, who mounted the throne of 
 the West Franks in the year after the peace of 
 Wedmore, checked Guthrum by a victory at Sau- 
 court on the Somme. The contest, however, drew 
 larger hosts to Guthrum's aid, and an overpowering 
 force poured up the Rhine and harried Lorraine 
 as far as Aachen. Lewis the German and Lewis 
 of the West Franks alike passed away in this hour 
 of gloom, while Carloman, still battling with the 
 pirate host as it poured from Aachen over Western 
 Frankland, died in 884. 
 
 But the hard fighting told. The old ease with ^^^'>^/- 
 which the Northmen pass ed from land to land, as i^^/^w. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 880-884. 
 
 lU 
 
 m 
 
 ' »i 
 
 : 
 
142 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. resistance drove them to seek fresh ground for their 
 jEifred. forays, was coming fast to an end. On both sides 
 878^1. of the sea their hosts found men ready to meet blow 
 — with blow. When the pirates who had quitted the 
 Loire steered for Wessex, ^^ If red's new fleet was 
 ready for them, and a brisk engagement, in which 
 four of their ships were sunk or captured, drove 
 them from the coast.' The bulk of their hosts, 
 who had followed Hasting to Northern Frankland, 
 had to fight a stubborn fight at Haslo against the 
 Emperor Charles. Before blows such as these the 
 Wikines were driven to draw their whole force 
 together, and in 884 the fleet of the Northmen was 
 concentrated in the Somme. To rest idle, however, 
 was to starve, and part of their host soon moved 
 to Lorraine, while part pushed up the Thames and 
 beset Rochester.' But the old days of panic were 
 over, and Rochester held bravely out till ^^Ifred 
 could hurry to its relief and drive its besiegers to 
 the sea with the loss of their horses.' Short as the 
 campaign had been, it was to have important re- 
 sults. Though the repulse of the pirates had been 
 quick enough to hinder a general rising of the 
 Danelaw in their aid, the Danes of Guthrum's king- 
 dom had already set aside the Frith of Wedmore 
 and given help to their brethren.* No sooner, there- 
 fore, had the pirate-force retreated from Rochester 
 than West-Saxon ships from Kent appeared off the 
 East-Anglian coast to punish this breach of faith. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 882. . ' Ibid. 885. 
 
 ' " Equis, quos de Francia secum adduxerant.'' — Asser (ed. Wise), 
 p. 37. This shows the size of their ships. 
 * iEthelweard, a. 885. lib. iv. c. 3. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 143 
 
 A squadron of the freebooters was captured at the chap. iv. 
 mouth of the Stour, and its crews slain. The insult fflfred 
 was avenged by a sudden and successful rally of stsI^oi 
 the East Anglians, in which the king's ships were — ' 
 destroyed, but the measures which Alfred took in 
 the next year show that the rally was followed by 
 submission, and that a fresh peace had been made 
 between the combatants on terms that implied 
 Guthrum's recognition of the superior strength of 
 the West-Saxon king. 
 
 The Essex which the Danes had occupied till ^^A^^ 
 now, as a dependency of their East-Anglian realm, LonL. 
 must have been the older kingdom of the East Sax- 
 ons, a tract which included not only the modern 
 shire that bears their name, but our Middlesex and 
 Hertfordshire, and whose centre, or "mother -city," 
 was London. London had, as yet, played little part 
 m English history; indeed, for nearly half a century 
 after its conquest by the East Saxons it wholly dis- 
 appears from our view. Its position, however, was 
 such that traffic could not long fail to re-create the 
 town, and the advantages which had drawn trade 
 and population to the Roman Londinium must have 
 already been at work in repeopling the English 
 London. Its growth, however, was 'for a while to 
 be arrested ; for the conquest of the town by Ecg- 
 berht, in his general reunion of the English States, 
 was quickly followed by the struggle with the Danes. 
 To London the war brought all but ruin; so violent, 
 m fact, was the shock to its life that its very bishop- 
 nc seemed for a time to cease to exist' The Roman 
 walls must have been br oken and ruined, for we hear 
 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 275. ~ 
 
 : -fi 
 
144 
 
 THE CONgUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. of no resistance, such as that which, in later days, 
 
 jafred. made the city England's main bulwark against 
 
 87^901. northern attack; and in 851 it was plundered by 
 
 the marauders, who again wintered at Fulham in 
 
 880, when the city was probably subjected anew to 
 
 their devastations. At the peace of Wedmore it 
 
 must have been left, like the rest of Essex, in the 
 
 hands of Guthrum. But with the war of 886 came 
 
 its deliverance, for at the close of the strife with 
 
 East Amelia we find London in i^lfred's hands. 
 
 Whether he had won it by actual siege or no,' he 
 
 "peopled" or "settled" it, and handed it over to 
 
 the Mercian ealdorman ^^thelred to hold against 
 
 the Danes. 
 
 '^^^r The cession of London, however, was only part 
 
 Division . -. - 1 • t /-^ 1 T*!- 
 
 of Essex, of the sacrifice by which Guthrum won peace. 1 he 
 geographical boundaries, which it names, show that 
 the " Frith between y^ilfred and Guthrum," which 
 has commonly been identified with the Frith con- 
 cluded at Wedmore, is really the peace of 886 ; and 
 that its provisions represent a territorial readjust- 
 ment by which East Anglia bought peace from the 
 king. The older Essex was broken into two parts 
 by an artificial line of demarcation between Guth- 
 rum's realm and the Mercian ealdormanry, a line 
 which passed from the Thames up the Lea as far 
 as its sources near Hertford, thence struck straight 
 
 » "Obsidetur a rege iElfredo urbs Lundonii," says ^thelweard ; 
 but Earle (Parallel Chron. p. 310) argues that this is a mere miscon- 
 ception of the Chron. a. 886, "gesette yElfred cyning Lundenburg," 
 iEthelweard substituting ** besette " for " gesette," " besieged " for 
 "colonized'' or "peopled." All the later authorities follow the 
 Chronicle, or Asser's *' restauravit et habitabilem fecit."— Asser (ed. 
 Wise), p. 52. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 145 
 
 over the Chilterns, and down their slopes into the chap.iv. 
 valley of the Ouse, at Bedford, and thence followed icl^d. 
 the countless bends of Ouse to the point where its sT^i^oi 
 course was cut by the line of the Watling Street, ~ 
 near Stony Stratford.' In other words, the western 
 half of the East-Saxon kingdom was torn away from 
 the eastern half to form a district around London.'^ 
 The division may be but the return to an earlier 
 arrangement; for some such parting must have 
 taken place when Ecgberht joined Essex to his 
 "eastern kingdom" of Kent, while London was still 
 left in Mercian hands. This arrangement, however, 
 was so soon put an end to by the reunion of London 
 and Essex in the kingdom of Guthrum, that it would 
 have left hardly a trace of its existence but for the 
 
 * Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 153. At this point, where the line hit the 
 Watling Street, the territories of Guthrum and Mercia ceased to 
 march together, and it was. therefore, needless further to define the 
 boundaries of either. But the border-line refers strictly to these 
 two realms ; and the common reading of it, as if from this point 
 Watling Street formed the bound between the rest of the Danelaw, 
 i. e. the territory of the Five Boroughs and Mercia, has no founda- 
 tion in the actual text of the frith. There must have been a sepa- 
 rate frith between the Five Boroughs and English Mercia, no doubt 
 with a like definition of the boundary line, as there was certainly 
 such a frith between Wessex and Northumbria (Eng. Chron. a. 91 1), 
 but both are lost. 
 
 'Asser (ed. Wise), p. 5, says of London, "Quae est sita in aquilo- 
 nari ripa Tamesis fluminis, in confinio East Seaxum, et Middle 
 Seaxum, sed tamen ad East Seaxum ilia civitas cum veritate perti- 
 net." It may be doubted whether " Middle-Sexe'' were heard of 
 before this assignment of the old East-Saxon borderland as a " Pa- 
 gus''for London in 886, when the need arose for a distinguishing 
 name" for its inhabitants. I shall, however, deal afterwards with the 
 bearing of this division on the general question of the "shires;" 
 here we need only note that the question has hardly arisen, as the 
 hne of the Frith is far from representing the later lines of the shires 
 along its course. 
 
 10 
 
 , i\{ 
 
 ;fi: 
 
146 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Posilion 
 of the 
 Danes 
 
 reversed. 
 
 CHAP. IV. permanent severance which was now made by the 
 iEifred. Frith of 886. It was this which gave both terri- 
 87*1901. tories the shape which tliey still retain, which fixed 
 — the border of Essex at the Lea, and annexed to 
 London that district, which, from its position be- 
 tween West Saxon and East Saxon, either now or 
 at some earlier time, was known as the land of the 
 
 Middlesexe. 
 
 In a military point of view, the recovery of the 
 Thames valley, with the winning and fortification 
 of London, was of great moment, for it closed to 
 the Danes that water-way by which, in past times, 
 the pirates had advanced to the attack of Wessex. 
 Its military results, however, proved to be the least 
 results of the war. Till now Alfred's victories had 
 seemed a mere saving of Wessex, a temporary re- 
 pulse of the Dane from a part of Britain. But the 
 character of the w^ar, as it reopened in 885, showed 
 how much greater a work than this had been done 
 at Athelney and Edington. With the Frith of 
 Wedmore the whole military position of the Danes 
 had in fact been reversed. From an attitude of 
 attack they had been thrown back on an attitude 
 of defence. The Northmen had failed to crush the 
 house of Cerdic, and already it seemed as if the 
 house of Cerdic was turning to crush the Northmen. 
 The driving off of the pirates, the attack on East 
 Anglia, the recovery of London and the lands about 
 it, showed England that in Wessex and its king 
 the country possessed a force not only strong 
 enough to withstand the Danes, but strong enough 
 to take in hand the undoing of what the Danes 
 had done. 
 
 U7 
 
 The consciousness of such a change at once chap. ,v. 
 made itself felt. If any date can be given for the ^^fTed 
 foundation of a national monarchy, as distinct from avgleoi 
 the earlier supremacy of king over king, it is the ^— ' 
 year 886. In that year, says the chronicle, " all the '^^^''^^ 
 Angel-cyn turned to Alfred, save those that were ""'""^ 
 under bondage to Danish men.'" The old tribal 
 jealousies were, if not destroyed, at least subordi- 
 nated to the sense of a common patriotism, and a 
 sense of national existence began from this moment 
 to give life and vigor to the new conception of a 
 national sovereignty. If the Dane had struck down 
 the dominion of Ecgberht, it was the Dane who was 
 to bring about even more than its restoration. Set 
 face to face with a foreign foe, the English people 
 was waking to a consciousness of its own existence; 
 the rule of the stranger was crushing provincial 
 jealousies and deepening the sense pf a common 
 nationality; while the question of political and mili- 
 tary supremacy was settled as it had never been set- 
 tled before. Wessex alone had repulsed the Dane. 
 The W^est Saxons had not only kept their own free- 
 dom : they had become the only possible champions 
 of the freedom of other Englishmen. The old jeal- 
 ousy of their greatness was lost in a craving for 
 their aid, for it was plain that deliverance from the 
 invader, if it came at all, must come through the 
 sword of the W^est-Saxon king. It was no wonder, 
 then, that the eyes of Northumbrian and Mercian 
 turned more and more to Alfred, or that his work 
 gleamed over England like a light of hope. His 
 s[ow, patient undoing of the evil which the Danes 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 886. ~ 
 
 
 ■1 
 
 •41 
 
 t I 
 
 N 
 i ^ I 
 
148 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. had done in Wessex was a promise of its undoing 
 ;Eifr"ed. throughout the nation at large. 
 878-901 But if the growth of this sentiment gave a moral 
 —^^ strength to Alfred's position, the sentiment itself 
 ,!a/rnfn craincd largeuess and dignity from the conception 
 '4^5:' of national rule which it found embodied in the 
 king. Hardly had this second breathing-space been 
 won in the long conflict with the enemy than JEl 
 fred turned anew to his work of restoration. The 
 ruin that the Danes had wrought had been no mere 
 material ruin. When they first appeared off her 
 shores, England stood in the fore-front of European 
 culture; her scholars, her libraries, her poetry, had 
 no rivals in the western world. But all, or nearly 
 all, of this culture had disappeared. The art and 
 learning of Northumbria had been destroyed at a 
 blow ; and throughout the rest of the Danelaw the 
 ruin was as complete. The very Christianity of 
 Mid-Britain was shaken; the sees of Dunwich and 
 Lindsey came to an end ; at Lichfield and Elmham 
 the succession of bishops became broken and irreg- 
 ular; even London hardly kept its bishops stool. 
 But its letters and civilization were more than shak- 
 en—they had vanished in the sack of the great 
 abbeys of the Fen. Even in Wessex, which ranked 
 as the least advanced of the English kingdoms, .Al- 
 fred could recall that he saw, as a child, " how the 
 churches stood filled with treasures and books, and 
 there was also a great multitude of God's servants ;" 
 but this was ''before it had all been ravaged and 
 burned.'" "So clean was learnin g decayed among 
 
 ' " I remembered also how I saw, before it had all been ravaged 
 and burned, how the churches throughout the whole of England 
 
 149 
 
 English folk," says the king, "that very few were chap.iv. 
 there on this side Humber that could understand 2^^ 
 
 Latin ?ntF"V'';'^^^ '''''''''''' ^^S^^ -^^ ^^ --- 
 
 Latin nto English, and I ween there were not many " 
 
 beyond the Humber. So few of them were there 
 
 that I cannot bethink me of a single one south of 
 
 Ihames when I came to the kingdom.'" It was in 
 
 fact, only in the fragment of Mercia which had been 
 
 saved from the invaders that a gleam of the old in- 
 
 tellectual light lingered in the school which Bishop 
 
 VV erf nth had gathered round him at Worcester. 
 
 It IS in his efforts to repair this intellectual ruin ^z/'^^v 
 
 that we see Alfreds conception of the work he had '"w"' 
 
 to do. The Danes had, no doubt, brought with 
 
 them much that was to enrich the temper of the 
 
 coming England, a larger and freer manhood, a 
 
 greater daring, a more passionate love of personal 
 
 freedom, better seamanship and a warmer love of 
 
 the sea, a keener spirit of traf^c, and a rancre of 
 
 trade -ventures which dragged English commerce 
 
 into a wider world. But their work of destruction 
 
 threatened to rob England of things even more pre- 
 
 cious than these. In saving Wessex, ^Jfred had 
 
 saved the last refuge of all that we sum up in the 
 
 word civilization, of that sense of a common citizen- 
 
 ship and nationality, of the worth of justice and or- 
 
 der and good government, of the harmony of indi- 
 
 vidua! freedom in its highest form with the general 
 
 security of society, of the need for a co-operation of 
 
 Tu^iul^^"^ with treasures and books, and there was also a great 
 mulutude of Gods servants." - Pref. to Alfred's translation of 
 Gregory's Pastoral (ed. Sweet). 
 ' Pref. to Pastoral (ed. Sweet). 
 
I50 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. every moral and intellectual force in the develop- 
 jE^id. mcnt both of the individual man and of the people 
 878:901 as a whole, which England had for two centuries 
 — been either winning from its own experience or 
 • learning from the tradition of the past. It was be- 
 cause literature embodied what was worthiest in this 
 civilization that Alfred turned to the restoration of 
 letters. He sought in Mercia for the learning that 
 Wessex had lost.'' He made the Mercian Plegmund 
 Archbishop of Canterbury;^ Werfrith, Bishop of 
 Worcester, helped him in his own literary efforts, 
 and two Mercian priests— ^thelstan and Werwulf— 
 became his chaplains and tutors. But it was by ex- 
 ample as well as precept that the king called Eng- 
 land again to the studies it had abandoned. " What 
 of all his troubles troubled him the most," he used 
 to say, " was that, when he had the age and ability 
 to learn, he could find no masters." But now^ that 
 masters could be had, he worked day and night.^ 
 He stirred nowhere without having some scholar by 
 him. He remained true, indeed, to his own tongue 
 and his own literature. His memory was full of 
 English songs, as he had caught them from singers' 
 lips"^; and he was not only fond of repeating them, 
 but taught them carefully to his children.* But he 
 
 » Asser (ed. Wise), p. 46. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Peterborough), a. 890. 
 
 > " Die noctuque. quandocunque aliquam licentiam haberet, libros 
 ante se recitare talibus imperabat. non enim unquam sine abquo 
 eorum se esse pateretur. quapropter pene omnium librorum notiUam 
 habebat. quamvis per seipsum aliquid adhuc de libris intelhgere 
 non posset ; non enim adhuc aliquid legere inceperat."— Asser (ed. 
 
 Wise), p. 46. 
 
 * - Et Saxonicos libros recitare, et maxime Saxonica carmma 
 
 memoriter discere. aliis imperare. et solus assidue pro viribus stu- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 151 
 
 knew that the actual knowledge of the world must chap. iv. 
 be sought elsewhere. Before many years were over JEifred. 
 he had taught himself Latin,' and was soon skilled 
 enough in it to render Latin books into the Encrlish 
 
 878-901. 
 
 tongue. 
 
 His wide sympathy sought for aid in this work 
 from other lands than his own. " In old time," the 
 king wrote sadly,' " men came hither from foreign 
 lands to seek for instruction ; and now, if we are to 
 have it, we can only get it from abroad." He sought 
 it among the West Franks and the East Franks; 
 Grimbald came from St. Omer to preside over the 
 new abbey he founded at Winchester, while John, 
 the Old Saxon, was fetched — it may be from the 
 Westphalian abbey of Corbey — to rule the monas- 
 tery he set up at Athelney.^ A Welsh bishop was 
 
 diosissimc non desinebat."— Asser (ed. Wise), p. 43. His children, 
 Eadward and ^Ifthryth, were not left " sine liberali disciplina," 
 "nam et psalmos et Saxonicos libros et maxime Saxonica carmina 
 studiose didicere, et frequentissime libris utuntur."— lb. 43. In 
 the palace-school " utriusque linguae libri, Latina; scilicet et Sax- 
 onicae assidue legebantur."— lb. 43. So of his nobles, if any were 
 too ignorant or old to profit by "liberalibus studiis," " Suum si 
 haberet filium, aut etiam aliquem propinquum suum, vel ctiam si 
 aliter non habeat suum proprium hominem liberum vel servum, 
 quem ad lectionem longe ante promovcrat, libros ante se die noc- 
 teque quandocunque unquam ullam haberet licentiam Saxonicos 
 imperabat recitare." — Asser (ed. Wise), p. 71. Stray references 
 throughout his writings show his familiarity with the Old English 
 hero-legends : " Where are now the bones of Weland ?'' he renders 
 the "Fabricii ossa" of Boethius. 
 
 » Either in 885 or 887. See Pauli, Life of Alfred, p. 169. " Non 
 enim adhuc legere inceperat," says Asser (ed. Wise), p. 46, apparent- 
 ly of the time soon after the Frith of Wedmore. I take " legere " 
 to have its usual meaning, that of reading and translating Latin. 
 
 ' Pref. to Pastoral Book. 
 
 ' Asser (ed. Wise), p. 61. 
 
 Asser. 
 
152 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciup.iv. drawn with the same end to Wessex; and the ac- 
 iofr^. count he has left of his visit and doings at the court 
 878^01. brings us face to face with the king. " In those 
 — days," says Bishop Asser, " I was called by the king 
 from the western and farthest border of Britain, and 
 came to Saxon-land ; and when, in a long journey, I 
 set about approaching him, I arrived, in company 
 with guides of that people, as far as the region of 
 the Saxons, who lie on the right hand of one's road, 
 which in the Saxon tongue is called Sussex. There 
 for the first time I saw the king in the king's house, 
 which is named Dene. And when I had been re- 
 ceived by him with all kindness, he began to pray 
 me earnestly to devote myself to his service, and be 
 of his household, and to leave for his sake all that I 
 possessed on the western side of Severn, promising 
 to recompense me with greater possessions." Asser, 
 however, refused to forsake his home, and .Alfred 
 was forced to be content with a promise of his re- 
 turn six months after. " And when he seemed sat- 
 isfied with this reply, I gave him my pledge to re- 
 turn in a given time, and after four days took horse 
 again and set out on my return to my country. But 
 after I had left him and reached the city of Win- 
 chester, a dangerous fever laid hold of me, and for 
 twelve months and a week I lay with little hope of 
 life. And when at the set time I did not return to 
 him as I had promised, he sent messengers to me 
 to hasten my riding to him, and seek for the cause 
 of my delay. But, as I could not take horse, I sent 
 another messenger back to him to show him the 
 cause of my tarrying, and to declare that if I recov- 
 ered from my infirmity I would fulfil the promise I 
 
 153 
 
 had made. When my sickness then had departed chap. iv. 
 I devoted myself to the king's service on these terms, su^ed. 
 that I should stay with him for six months in every 878^901. 
 year, if I could, or, if not, I should stay three months — 
 in Britain and three months in Saxon-land. So it 
 came about that I made my way to him in the 
 king's house, which is called Leonaford, and was 
 greeted by him with all honor. And that time I 
 stayed with him in his court through eight months, 
 during which I read to him whatever books he 
 would that we had at hand ; for it is his constant 
 wont, whatever be the hinderances either in mind 
 or body, by day and by night, either himself to read 
 books aloud or to listen to others reading them." ' 
 
 The work, however, which most told upon English ^''rf/io/ 
 culture was done, not by these scholars, but by^^^l- ^^.^' 
 fred himself. The king's aim was simple and prac- 
 tical. He desired that "every youth now in England, 
 that is freeborn and has wealth enough, be set to 
 learn, as long as he is not fit for any other occupa- 
 tion, till they well know how to read English writ- 
 ing; and let those be afterwards taught in the Latin 
 tongue who are to continue learning, and be pro- 
 moted to a higher rank." ' For this purpose he set 
 up, like Charles the Great, a school for the young 
 nobles at his own court.' Books were needed for 
 them as well as for the priests, to the bulk of whom 
 Latin was a strange tongue, and the king set him- 
 self to provide English books for these readers. It 
 was in carrying out this simple purpose that yElfred 
 
 ' Asser (ed. Wise), pp. 47-51. 
 ' Pref. to Pastoral (ed. Sweet). 
 * Asser (ed. Wise), pp. 43, 44. 
 
154 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 878-901. 
 
 CHAP. IV. changed the whole front of English literature. In 
 EihQd. the paraphrase of Cadmon, in the epic of Beowulf, 
 in the verses of Northumbrian singers, in battle- 
 songs and ballads, English poetry had already risen 
 to a grand and vigorous life. But English prose 
 hardly existed. Since Theodore's time theology 
 had been the favorite study of English scholars, 
 and theology naturally took a Latin shape. His- 
 torical literature followed Bxda's lead in finding a 
 Latin vehicle of expression.' Saints' lives, which 
 had now become num.erous, were as yet always writ- 
 ten in Latin. It w^as from i^lfred's day that this 
 tide of literary fashion suddenly turned. English 
 prose started vigorously into life. Theology stooped 
 to an English dress."" History became almost whol- 
 ly vernacular.' The translation of Latin saint-lives 
 into English became one of the most popular liter- 
 ary trades of the day. Even medicine found Eng- 
 lish interpreters. A national literature, in fact, 
 sprang suddenly into existence which was without 
 parallel in the western world.* 
 
 1 << 
 
 The charters anterior to Alfred are invariably in Latin." — Pal- 
 grave. Engl. Commonw. i. 56. 
 
 ' From the time of Alfred's version of " The Pastoral Book," re- 
 ligious works like /Elfric's Homilies are written in English. In this 
 vernacular theolog>' England stood alone. 
 
 * From the days of /Elfred to the eve of the Norman Conquest, 
 when the "Vita Haroldi'' forms an exception (for the Encomium 
 Emmne is hardly of English origin), we possess only a single Latin 
 historian, the ealdorman ^thelweard. 
 
 * "The old English writers,*' says Mr. Sweet, "did not learn the 
 art of prose composition from Latin models; they had a native his- 
 torical prose, which shows a gradual elaboration and improvement, 
 quite independent of Latin or any other foreign influence. This is 
 proved by an examination of the historical pieces inserted into the 
 Chronicle. The first of these, the account of the death of Cynewulf 
 
 155 
 
 It IS thus that in the literatures of modern Eu- chap., v. 
 rope that of England leads the way. The Romance JEi^ed 
 tongues-the tongues of Italy, Gaul, and Spain- 
 
 l<m 
 
 were oiily just emerging into definite existence ^,7-,, 
 
 when /^^Ifi-orl ^iri-^^-^ TTiiZi_ .1 /-.,., . ^-'jrea s 
 
 when Alfred wrote. Ulfila.s, the first Teutonic 
 prose-writer, found no successors among his Gothic 
 people; and none of the German folic across the 
 sea were to possess a prose literature of their own 
 for centuries to come. English, therefore, was not 
 only the first Teutonic literature— it was the earliest 
 prose literature of the modern world. And at the 
 outset of English literature stands the figure of 
 ^Ifred. The mighty roll of books that fills our 
 libraries opens with the translations of the kino- 
 He took his books as he found them— they were in 
 fact, the popular manuals of his day: the compila- 
 
 and Cynchard IS composed in the abrupt disconnected style of oral 
 conversation: .t shows prose composition in its rudest and most 
 prnnitive form, and bears a striking resemblance to the earliest 
 Icelandic prose In the detailed narrative of Alfred's campaign 
 and sea-f.ghts the style assumes a different aspect; without losing 
 the force and simplicity of the earlier pieces, it becomes refined 
 and polished to a high degree, and yet shows no traces of foreign 
 
 !^irri''' h w'"'"*^'/' '" "''= ■"™''"^'' "■^'^ °"'y translation of 
 Alfred s which from the similarity of its subject admits of a direct 
 comparison, we find almost exactly the same language and style as 
 m the contemporary historical pieces of the Chronicle. In the 
 Hede, where the ecclesiastical prevails over the purely historical, 
 the general style is less national, less idiomatic than in the 'Oro- 
 sms. and in purely theological works, such as the ' Pastoral,' the 
 mfluence of the Latin original reaches its height. Yet even here 
 there seems to be no attempt to engraft Latin idioms on the Eng- 
 sh version; the foreign influence is only indirect, chiefly showing 
 ■tselt m the occasional clumsiness that results from the difficulty 
 01 e.xpressing and defining abstract ideas in a language unused to 
 
 R.^ u f^''*!-^i'^ metaphysical subtleties.'-Introduction to Pastoral 
 Book (E. E. Text Soc.), p. xli. 
 
 trausla- 
 tiojis. 
 
156 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 .Slfred. 
 •78-901. 
 
 CHAP. IV. tion of " Orosius," which was then the one accessible 
 hand-book of universal history, the works of Baeda, 
 the " Consolation " of Boethius, the Pastoral Book 
 of Pope Gregory. " I w^ondered greatly," he says, 
 "that of those good men who were aforetime all 
 over England, and who had learned perfectly these 
 books, none would translate any part into their 
 own language. But I soon answered myself, and 
 said, ' They never thought that men would be so 
 reckless and learning so fallen.'" As it was, how- 
 ever, the books had to be rendered into English by 
 the king himself, with the help of the scholars he 
 had gathered round him. " When I remembered," 
 he says, in his preface to the Pastoral Book," " how 
 the knowledge of Latin had formerly decayed 
 throughout England, and yet many could read 
 English writing, I began, among other various and 
 manifold troubles of this kingdom, to translate into 
 English the book which is called in Latin Pasto- 
 ralis, and in English Shepherd's Book, sometimes 
 word by word, and sometimes according to the 
 sense, as I had learned it from Plegmund, my arch- 
 bishop, and Asser, my bishop, and Grimbald, my 
 mass-priest, and John, my mass-priest. And \vhen 
 I had learned it as I could best understand it, and 
 as I could most clearly interpret it, I translated it 
 into English." 
 
 Alfred was too wise a man not to own the 
 
 worth of such translations in themselves. The 
 
 Bible, he urged, with his cool common-sense, had 
 
 told on the nations through versions in their ow^n 
 
 The Greeks knew it in Greek. The 
 
 157 
 
 Their 
 character. 
 
 tongues. 
 
 » Alfred's Pastoral Book (ed. Sweet). 
 
 Romans knew it in Latin. Englishmen mi<rht c„ap.,v. 
 know It, as they might know the other great books ^^. 
 of tiic world, m their own English. " I think it bet- ^g-^o. 
 ter, therefore, to render some books that are most - 
 needful for men to know into the language that 
 we may all understand." But /Elfred showed him- 
 self more than a translator. He became an editor 
 for his people. Here he omitted, there he expand- 
 cd. He enriched his first translation, the " Orosius " 
 by a sketch of new geographical discoveries in the 
 north. He gave a West-Saxon form to his selec- 
 tions from Ba>da. In one place he stops to exjDlain 
 his theory of government, his wish for a thicker 
 population, his conception of national welfare as 
 consisting in a due balance of the priest, the thcgn 
 and the churl. The mention of Nero spurs him'to 
 an outbreak against abuses of power. The cold 
 acknowledgment of a Providence by Boethius gives 
 way to an enthusiastic acknowledgment of the 
 goodness of God.' As .Alfred wrUes, his large- 
 hearted nature flings off its royal mantle, and he 
 talks as a man to men. " Do not blame me," he 
 prays, with a charming simplicity, "if any know 
 Latin better than I, for every man must say what 
 he says and do what he does accordin.-- to his 
 ability." ' * 
 
 Among his earliest undertakings was an Eno-lish - - 
 version of Ba;da's history ; ' and it w as probably the cf;^ 
 
 ' See the instances given from his " Boethius'-by Sharon Turner. 
 Hist. .'Vnglo-Sax. ii. cap. 2. 
 
 ^ Pref. to the Boethius, Paulis Alfred, p. 174. 
 
 Pauli (Life of Alfred, p. 180) shows that the Ba;da must have 
 
 preceded the English rendering of the Chronicle, as this follows the 
 
 version of Baeda in one of its most characteristic blunders. 
 
 I* .'■*i 
 
 I 
 
 The 
 Euelish 
 le. 
 
158 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. making of this version which suggested the thought 
 ^"Sed. of a work which was to be memorable in our litera- 
 87&I901. ture/ Winchester, like most other Episcopal mon- 
 — asteries, seems to have had its own Bishop's Roll, a 
 series of meagre and irregular annals in the Latin 
 tongue, for the most part mere jottings of the dates 
 wheii West- Saxon bishop and West-Saxon king 
 mounted throne and bishop-stool. The story of 
 this Roll and its aftergrowth has been ingeniously 
 traced by modern criticism ; and the general conclu- 
 sions at which it has arrived seem probable enough. 
 The entries of the Roll were posted up at uncer- 
 tain intervals and with more or less accuracy from 
 the days of the first West -Saxon bishop, Birinus. 
 Meagre as they were, these earlier annals were 
 histo'rical in character and free from any mythical 
 intermixture ; but save for a brief space in Ine's day 
 they were purely West Saxon,' and with the trou- 
 bles which followed Ine's death they came to an end 
 alto<>-cther. It was not until the revival of West- 
 Saxon energy under Ecgberht that any effort was 
 made to take up the record again and to fill up the 
 gap that its closing had made.' But Swithun was 
 
 » In this sketch of the earlier history of the English Chronicle I 
 have mainly followed Mr. Earle (Two Saxon Chronicles, Parallel, 
 1865, Introduction), whose minute analysis has placed the question 
 of its composition on a critical basis. 
 
 ^ Earle finds a change in the Chronicle at 682. Ine reigned from 
 688. The annals still remained mere notes of the death and acces- 
 sion of kings and bishops, but were no longer confined to Wessex, 
 including from this point like events in Northumbria, Mercia, and 
 Kent (Earle, Introd. p. xi.). For the difficulties in the dates through- 
 out this portion, from 682 to 755. see Stubbs's preface to his edition 
 of *' Roger of Hoveden," vol. i. pp. xxxv. et seq. 
 
 3 The meagre and irregular entries from 758, which Earle styles 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 159 
 
 probably the first to begin the series of develop- chap., v. 
 ments which transformed this Bishop's Roll into a jp^ea 
 national history; and the clerk to whom he intrust- 878~90l 
 ed its compilation continued the Roll by a series of — 
 military and political entries to which we owe out 
 knowledge of the reign of ^thelwulf, while he en- 
 larged and revised the work throughout, prefixino- 
 to its opening those broken traditions of the con^ 
 ing of our fathers ' which, touched as they are here 
 and there by mythical intermixture, remain the one 
 priceless record of the conquest of Britain.' 
 
 It was this Latin chronicle of Swithun s clerk ^^-^ .^"^^'>i 
 that ALlhcd seems to have taken in hand about S87, ^^w. 
 and whose whole character he changed by giving it 
 an English form/ In its earlier portions he carried 
 still further the process of expansion. An intro- 
 duction dating from the birth of Christ, drawn from 
 the work of Ba^da, was added to its opening, and 
 
 (Introd. p.xii.) "mere chronography.an inefTectual attempt to fill out 
 the tale of years with corresponding events," may have been thrown 
 together just after Ecgberht's accession, as there is a break in the 
 genealogical preface that precedes them which suggests that it ori.r. 
 inally closed with Ecgberht's predecessor, Beorhtric. 
 
 'For the worth of these traditions, see Earle (Introd dd ix x ) 
 and my " Making of England." p. 28, note. ' ' 
 
 rTnt^H''"^'^-^f'L'^^^,^7'^'"'^^^^ '^ Swithun's own pen. Mr. Earle 
 
 (Introd. p x,v.) has little doubt of the composition of this Chronicle 
 
 during his episcopate and at his see.'' The date of its compilation 
 
 s shown by the "genealogical demonstration" (p. xii.) with which 
 
 1. .'mi t "^'^ ^^ ^Ethelwulf. So far as we can see, the work 
 uas still in Latin. 
 
 JIu^^^l ^^^^^ Alfred's chronicle-work as "soon after 890" (Life 
 ot ^ifred, pp. 180, 191). Earle, however, shows the probability of 887 
 or tne king s first compilation, as not only is there a distinct change 
 n I ^^^^T^^" ^^ ^he entries at this point, but Asser must have had 
 in h.s hands a chronicle which ended in 887, the information he 
 araws from that quarter ending in that year (Earle. Introd. p. xv). 
 
i6o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 |i< 
 
 CHAP. IV. entries from the same source were worked into the 
 ^^ed. after -annals.' But it was where Swithun's work 
 87a^i. ended that /Elircd's own work really began, for it 
 — is from the death of ^thelwulf that the Roll widens 
 into a continuous narrative, a narrative full of life 
 and originality, whose vigor and freshness mark the 
 gift of a new power to the English tongue. The 
 appearance of such a work in their own mother- 
 speech could not fail to produce a deep impression 
 on the people whose story it told. With it English 
 history became the heritage of the English people. 
 Ba^da had left it accessible merely to noble or priest; 
 Alfred was the first to give it to the people at large. 
 Nor was this all. The tiny streams of historic rec- 
 ord, which had been dispersed over the country at 
 large, were from this time drawn into a single chan- 
 nel. The Chronicle — for from this time we may use 
 the term by which the work has become famous — 
 served even more than the presence of the Dane to 
 put an end to the existence of distinct annals in 
 Northumbria and Mercia,' and to help on the prog- 
 ress of national unity by reflecting everywhere the 
 same national consciousness. 
 
 » As far, that is, as Baeda goes, to 731. From 449 to 731 the en- 
 tries for thirty-one years are wholly, and those for twelve more par- 
 tially, drawn from Baeda. 
 
 "" Stubbs (Pref. to Hoveden, vol. i. p. xi.) points out that its publi- 
 cation had possibly " the same effect on the previously existing ma- 
 terials and schemes of history that the publication of Higden's Poly- 
 chronicon had in the fourteenth, and the invention of printing in the 
 fifteenth centuries. It stopped the writing of new books and insured 
 the destruction of the old." To this cause he attributes the want 
 of any distinctly Northumbrian history of the ninth century, in 
 spite of the existence of scholars at York till after the invasion and 
 settlement of the Danes. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 161 
 
 ^ When his work on B.^da was finished, .Elfred, it chap.iv. 
 is thought, began his translation of the Consolation j^,^. 
 ot Boethius; and it is not improbable' that the 878~^i 
 metrical translation of the Metra of Boethius was ^~ ' 
 a^o from his hand. From philosophy and this 'Z-- 
 effort at poetry he turned to give to his people a 
 book on practical theology. As far as we know, the 
 translation of the Pastoral Rule of Pope Grecrory 
 ^yas his last work; and of all his translations it'^vas 
 the most carefully done. It is only as we follow 
 the king in the manifold activity of his life that 
 we understand his almost passionate desire for that 
 " stillness " which was essential to his work. But it 
 was only by short spaces that the land was " still " 
 and once more Alfred s work of peace was to be 
 broken off by a renewal of the old struggle. Five 
 years, indeed, had passed since the last attack • but 
 with the death of Guthrum-^thelstan, in 890,"^ the 
 king lost his hold on East Anglia; and though the 
 Irith between the two nations was not only renewed 
 but secured by the giving of hostages, Alfred must 
 have seen that it needed but a little aid from with- 
 out to rouse the men of the Danelaw to a renewal 
 of their attack on Wessex. And at this juncture 
 the aid from without suddenly offered itself; for the 
 fortunes of England were swayed by a revolution 
 which was going on in the north. 
 
 Through the years that followed the Peace of ^^^^'^^^ 
 Wedmore the movement towards unity, which the^'""'"" 
 Northmen had furthered by their descents on the 
 ^lish peoples, took a new vigor in their own 
 
 J( aT!^'"'^^'' '^^'^ Englischen Litteratur, p. loi. Rd. ten Brink. 
 ^^-^■^•) » Eng. Chron. a. 890. 
 
 II 
 
 ^ nl 
 
 1(1 
 ill 
 
l62 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. homeland ; the old isolation of fiord from fiord, and 
 i^ed. dale from dale, began to break down ; and the little 
 87^1. commonwealths, which had held so jealously aloof 
 ~" from each other, were drawn together whether they 
 would or no. Great kingdoms thus grew up in 
 each of the three regions of Scandinavia. Norway 
 was the first to become a single monarchy. Legend 
 told how one of its many rulers, Harald of Westfold, 
 sent his men to bring him Gytha of Hordaland, a 
 girl whom he had chosen for his wife; and how 
 Gytha sent his men back again with taunts at the 
 lord of so petty a realm. The taunts went home, 
 and Harald swore, " Never will I clip or comb my 
 hair till I have mastered all Norway with scatt and 
 dues and king's domains, or died in the trying." ' 
 So every spring-tide came war and hosting, harrying 
 and burning, till in 883 a great fight at Hafursfiord 
 settled the matter,' and Harald '' Ugly Head," as 
 men called him while the strife lasted, was free to 
 shear his locks again, and became Harald Harfager, 
 or " Fair-hair." ' 
 
 The revolution gave fresh life to the pirate raids 
 abroad, for the Northmen loved no master, and a 
 great multitude fled out of the country, some push- 
 fng as far as Iceland and colonizing it; some sailing 
 southward and waging war against their new lord 
 
 163 
 
 Invasion 
 ^JHastiug. 
 
 » Harald Fair-hairs Saga, c. v. Laing's Sea Kings, i. 274. 
 
 •^ Ibid. 287. A poem on the battle speaks of English and Scot- 
 tish warriors, and some from the Frankish coast, as engaged in it. 
 These were of course simply Wikings who had gathered from these 
 quarters for the strife. The batUe was partly decided by " the fierce 
 stone-storm's pelting rain." which formed a marked feature m all 
 northern fighting. 
 
 » Ibid. 292. 
 
 from the Orkneys and Shetlands." From these chap. .v. 
 haunts, however, Harald drove them at last, sweep- ^^ 
 ing the coast as far as Man, summer after summer,' »„— oi" 
 and settmg up an earldom in the Orkneys, which ~ 
 furnished a new base of operations against the king- 
 dom of the Scots, while the sea-kings steered south- 
 ward to jom Guthrum s host in the Rhine country 
 or Hastmg in the Channel.' The impulse which 
 the new-comers gave was sorely needed by the Wi- 
 kmgs, for the bolder temper of Western Christendom 
 was giving fresh vigor to the struggle against them. 
 At the close of 891 the pirates were beaten by King 
 Arnulf, on the Dyle, in a fight so decisive that they 
 never after attempted to settle on German soil ; and 
 even Hasting, master as he still was of northern 
 Frankland, saw his host worn out by the resolute 
 attacks of King Odo. It was time to seek new 
 fields, and famine quickened the sea-kings' resolve. 
 In 893 a fleet of two hundred and fifty vessels 
 gathered at Boulogne, and steering for the port of 
 Lymne the pirates established themselves in the 
 neighboring Andredsweald;* while shortly after, 
 Hasting himself, with eighty ships, entered the 
 Thames, and pushing up the Swale into northern 
 Kent formed his winter-camp at Milton. 
 
 • Harald Fair-hair's Saga, c. v. Laing's Sea Kings, i. 288. 
 Ibid. 291. 
 
 ' If we follow the Saga, with Skene (Celtic Scotland, i. 2>Z(^, note 
 and 344. note), Hafursfiord may be dated in 883, and the Wikings' 
 expulsion from the Orkneys, with the foundation of the earldom 
 had taken place before 893. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 893. The " Mickle wood, that we call Andred 
 was from east to west a hundred and twelve miles long, or longer 
 and thirty miles broad." "^ ' 
 
 .Hi 
 
1 64 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Rising 
 
 of the 
 
 Danelaw 
 
 \\ 
 
 cHAP^iv. In the spring of 894 they pushed their raids into 
 i^d. Hampshire and Berkshire ; but the success of their 
 878~90i. enterprise hung on the co-operation of the Danelaw. 
 The compact with i^lfred, however, was still fresh, 
 and the English Danes remained quiet/ while the 
 king, who had detached his son Eadward with a 
 smail force to watch the pirate host through the 
 winter, and stationed ealdorman yEthelred within 
 the walls of London to hold the line of the 
 Thames, himself, by skilful encampments, held the 
 two bodies of his assailants for a year at bay, and 
 prisoned them within the bounds of the Weald. 
 For a while the king had hopes of ending the war 
 by a new treaty such as that of Wedmore. Hasting 
 swore to refrain from further ravages, and confirmed 
 his oath by giving hostages and suffering his two 
 boys to be baptized \ but the negotiations were a 
 mere blind, and the good faith of the English Danes 
 yielded at last to the call of their kinsmen. The 
 forces in the Andredsweald threw themselves, by a 
 rapid march, across the Thames ; and i^lfred had 
 hardly gathered men to strengthen the army which 
 beset them in their camp on the Colne, when the 
 secret of this movement was revealed by a rising of 
 the whole Danelaw in their aid. 
 The fight The rising, however, only brought out the new 
 %me!. strength of Alfred's realm. Its policy of defence 
 was set aside for a policy of rapid and energetic at- 
 
 » After the landing of Hasting. " Northumbrians and East Engle 
 had given oaths to iElfred, and the East Engle six hostages" (Eng. 
 Chron. a. 894). This, however, did not hinder them from joining 
 the Danes, though not as yet in any general fashion. 
 
 ' i^thelweard, a. 894, lib. iv. c. 3. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 165 
 
 Jr^ I,^^^^^^"Sf^ son, Eadward, Who may have ruled c„.p.,v. 
 
 ex withTe^AI -^''"^ ^'"^' ^'"^"y' ^^"^ ^"^ ^ 
 sex uith the Mercian ealdorman, /Ethelred, added sts"^! 
 
 to their force the men of London, fell suddenly on ^ 
 
 stnpped of defenders, and sank the ships moored 
 
 Ts t' ; T"''"^^'"'- .'^^^ danger, however, was 
 ^ as great in the west as in the east, for the Danes 
 again found allies in the Welsh. They were no 
 doubt, summoned to that quarter by the hous^ of 
 Rodenc, which was now greatly harassed by the 
 petty pnnces of the border who owned yElfred s su- 
 premacy. While a fleet from East Anglia, there- 
 fore coasted round to West Wales and moored off 
 Exeter, the host from the Colne, which had formed 
 
 don, along the line of the Thames, and, crossing the 
 Co^wolck into the Severn valley, ravaged the fands 
 of ^Ifred s allies. Alfred, however, in person, held 
 Exeter against attack from the West Welsh and 
 Cornwealas while Eadward and ^thelred nerved 
 hemse ves for a final blow in the west. Gathering 
 orces from every township east of Parret, and 
 both east and west of the Selwood, and also north 
 of Thames and ujst of the Severn," from almost all 
 ^Ifreds England, in fact, save the western parts 
 which were supplying the kings own camp on the 
 
 neor;^ .1? ^y^^ora^ part of the North-Welsh 
 
 2 /f^l^^"Sht the piratd host in the Severn 
 
 alley at Buttington, forced it, after a siege of some 
 
 veeks, CO fight, defeated it with a great slaughter, 
 
 and again drove it to its old quarters in Essex" 
 
 ^resh supplies of fighting men, however, from the 
 
 • 
 
 { 
 
1 66 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP..V. Danelaw enabled Hasting to repeat his dash upon 
 «i^ the west, and. marching day and night across Mid- 
 ori,. Britain, to find a stronghold within the walls of 
 — Chester The strength of the house of Rodenc lay 
 SfoJLKn this quarter of Wales, and the occupation of 
 Chester must have aimed at securmg their coop- 
 eration. Deserted as the city was, its Roman walls 
 were too strong to force ; but by a close investment , 
 of the place through the winter, ^thelred at last 
 drove the Northmen from their hold, though he was 
 unable to follow them as they hurried through North 
 Wales, and by a wide circuit through Northumbria 
 ao-ain withdrew to a camp on the Lea.' Here they 
 were joined by their brethren from the Channel, 
 who, foiled before Exeter, fell back, ravagmg along 
 the coast to the Thames. A rout of the Londoners, 
 who attacked them in 895, proved the strength of 
 their camp on the Lea, some twenty miles from the 
 great city, and through harvest-tide the king, who 
 had now come up from the west, contented himself 
 with watching it "while the people reaped their 
 crops " But meanwhile he was preparing for a de- 
 cisive stroke. The whole of the Danish ships had 
 entered the Lea in 896, and lay under shelter of 
 the camp, when the pirates suddenly found the 
 river-course blocked by two strong fortresses. 1 he 
 retreat of their boats to the Thames and sea was 
 thus wholly cut off," and the forced abandonment of 
 their fleet, as the pirates struck again from their 
 camp to the Severn, practically ended the war. 
 After a month in their camp at Bridgenorth the 
 
 -TiiT^i^^oiTI. 895. This seems the meaning of a corrupt pas- 
 
 . s_ . , J " Eng. Chron. a. S96. 
 
 sage in ^Ethelweard. =• «> 
 
 167 
 
 Danish host broke up in 897. East Anglian and chap.iv. 
 
 iElfred. 
 
 Alfred's 
 life. 
 
 West Anglian returned to their home in the Dane 
 
 law, while the followers of Hasting retreated to their 878^901 
 
 former quarters across the Channel/ 
 
 " No wise man should desire a soft life," Alfred 
 had written some years before this last struggle 
 with the Danes, " if he careth for any worship here 
 from the world, or for eternal life after this life is 
 over."' His own life had certainly been no soft 
 one. Though he had hardly reached fifty years of 
 age, incessant labor and care had told on the vigor 
 of his youth, and he must have already felt the first 
 touches of the weakness that was to bring him to 
 the grave. But he was still a mighty hunter, wak- 
 ing the stillness of the " Itene Wood," along the 
 Southampton Water, or the stiller reaches of the 
 Cornish moorlands, with hound and horn;' and his 
 life was marked by the same vivid activity as of old. 
 To the scholars he gathered round him he was the 
 very type of a scholar, snatching every hour he 
 could find to read or listen to books read to him.* 
 The singers of his court found in him a brother 
 singer, gathering the old songs of his people to teach 
 them to his children,' breaking his renderincrs from 
 
 — ■ — . ^^ o 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 897. 
 
 ^ Transl. of Boethius, in Sharon Turner, Hist. Anglo- Sax. ii. 48. 
 
 ' "Inomnivenatoriaarte industrius venator incessabiliter laborat 
 non in vanum, nam incomparabilis omnibus peritia ct felicitate in 
 ilia arte sicut et in caeteris omnibus Dei donis fuit. sicut et nos 
 saepissime vidimus."— Asser (ed. Wise), p. 16. 
 
 Haec est propria et usitatissima illius consuetudo die noctuque, 
 inter omnia alia mentis et corporis impedimenta, aut per se ipsum 
 libros recitare aut aliis recitantibus audire."— Asser (ed. Wise), p. 50. 
 
 ' In his boyhood " Saxonica poemata die noctuque solers auditor 
 relatu aliorum saepissime audiens docibilis memoriter rctincbat." 
 -Asser (ed. Wise), p. 16. For his later life see ib. p. 43. 
 
 e 4 
 
1 68 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 169 
 
 CHAP. IV. the Latin with simple verse, or solacing himself in 
 
 jEifTed. hours of depression with the music of the Psalms. 
 
 878^01. He carried in his bosom a little hand-book in which 
 — he noted things as they struck him — now a bit of 
 family genealogy, now a prayer, now such a story as 
 that of Ealdhelm playing minstrel on the bridge.' 
 He passed from court and study to plan buildings 
 and instruct craftsmen and gold-workers, or to teach 
 even falconers and dog-keepers their business.' At 
 one time we find him planning a lantern with sides 
 of horn, whose sheltered candles may serve as a 
 rough means of measuring the hours ; at another de- 
 lighting in the fair form and early promise of his 
 grandson ^^thelstan, and arraying him, child as he 
 is, with the purple cloak and jewelled belt and gold- 
 hilted sword of a royal cnecht;' at another time urg- 
 ing Bishop Werfrith to turn into English the " Dia- 
 logues" of Gregory, at another hearing a law-case 
 as he stood washing his hands in a chamber at 
 Wardour.* 
 
 Hisicveof His love of strangers, his questionings of travellers 
 and scholars, betray an miaginative restlessness that 
 loneed to break out of the narrow world within 
 which his own experience bound him." None were 
 more welcome at his court than men from other 
 
 strangers. 
 
 ' Asser (ed. Wise), p. 55. 
 
 "^ " Edificia nova machinatione facere." — Asser (ed. Wise), p. 43- 
 "Aurifices et artifices suos omnes, et falconarios et accipitrarios 
 canicLilarios quoque docere." — lb. 43. 
 
 ' Will. Malm.. Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 210. 
 
 * Kemble, Cod. Dip. 328 : " And the king stood, washed his hands 
 at Wardour in the bower ; when he had done this he asked x^thelm 
 why our judgment seemed not right,*' etc. 
 
 ' " Ignotarum rerum investigationi solerter se jungebat." — Asser 
 (ed. Wise), p. 44. 
 
 lands; the frankness and openness of spirit, which chap.iv. 
 breathes in the pleasant chat of his books, showed m^^. 
 itself above all in his converse with them, and a 87^01 
 special part of his revenue was set aside for their — 
 entertainment' It is in yElfred s court that Eng- 
 land for the first time begins to emerge from her 
 insular isolation, and to recognize herseif as a Euro- 
 pean State. Not only Welshmen and Irishmen, but 
 " many Franks," as well as Bretons, with men alike 
 from Southern Gaul and Friesland, the country 
 about the mouths of the Rhine with which England 
 was soon to come into closer contact, offered aid 
 of book or sword to the king. Even Danes were 
 among the comers,' for the fight was hardly over 
 when the fusion of races began, and we find a young 
 noble, of ''pagan " stock, playing scholar among the 
 monks at Athelney.' 
 
 Athelney, indeed, was the largest of Alfred's ex- ^^^'^^''O'- 
 periments in the way of getting foreign aid for his 
 religious and intellectual undertakings. In found- 
 ing this abbey, as a thank-offering for the deliverance 
 which had begun in the marshes, he found his main 
 obstacle in the refusal of every West Saxon, of free 
 or noble birth, to become a monk. There were 
 
 Eleemosynarum quoque studio et largitati indigenis et advenis 
 omnium gentium, ac maxima et incomparabili contra omnes homi- 
 nes affabilitate et jocunditate."— Asser (ed. Wise), p. 44. 
 
 ' " Franci autem multi, Frisones, Galli, Pagani, Britones et Scoti. 
 Armorici, sponte se suo dominio subdiderunt, nobiles scilicet et 
 ignobiles, quos omnes sicut suam propriam gentem, secundum 
 suam dignitatem regebat, diligebat, honorabat, pecunia et potestate 
 ditabat."— Asser (ed. Wise), p. 44. 
 
 "In quo monasterio unum Paganicae gentis edoctum in mo- 
 nachico habitu degentem, juvenem admodum, vidimus, non ulti- 
 mum scilicet eorum."— Asser (ed. Wise), p. 61. 
 
lyo 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 171 
 
 CHAP. IV. monasteries, indeed, still remaining in the country, 
 jEfrid. like IMalmesbury or Glastonbury, but whether from 
 87^1. the shock of the Danish inroads, or from the ten- 
 — dency of popular feeling, or from the circumstances 
 of their original foundation, they either were or had 
 become groups of unmarried clerks, bound together 
 by the common endowment of the house, but re- 
 fusing obedience to any definite rule/ " Regulars," 
 as those who lived by rule were called, seem to have 
 been looked on with scorn in Wessex, and i^lfred 
 found no West Saxon willing to become, in this 
 sense, a monk. He could only meet the difficulty 
 by a settlement of strangers. John, the Old Saxon, 
 who was among the foreign scholars at his court, 
 was sent into Somerset as abbot, a few priests and 
 deacons were hired from abroad to join him, and, 
 by an expedient that marks the time, slaves were 
 bought in Gaul to serve as lay -brethren, and chil- 
 dren from the same quarter to fill up, as they grew 
 to manhood, under the abbot's teaching, the thin 
 ranks of his monks.' The experiment, however, 
 
 > The passage in Asser (ed. Wise), p. 61, is most important in its 
 bearing on our later monastic history. '* Quia nullum de sua pro- 
 pria gente nobilem ac liberum hominem, nisi infantes ... qui mo- 
 nasticam voluntarie vellet subire vitam habebat, nimirum quia per 
 multa retroacta annorum curricula monasticae vitae desiderium ab 
 ilia tota gente, nee non et a multis aliis gentibus funditus desierat, 
 quamvis perplurima adhuc monasteria in ilia regione constructa 
 permaneant, nullo tamen regulam illius vitae ordinabiliter tenente 
 (nescio quare) aut pro alienigenarum infestation ibus quae saepissime 
 terra marique hostiliter irrumpunt, aut etiam pro nimia illius gen- 
 tis in omni genere divitiarum abundantia (propter quam multo 
 magis id genus despectae monasticae vitae fieri existimo), ideo di- 
 vers! generis monachos in eodem monasterio congregare studuit." 
 
 ' "Johannem presbyterum monachum, scilicit Eald Saxonum 
 genere, Abbatem constituit, deinde ultramarines presbyteros quos- 
 
 proved an unsuccessful one. John was driven back chap.iv. 
 to court by an attempt of some monks to assassi- JEifrid. 
 nate him, and we hear nothing of Athelney, as a sTfiMsoi. 
 school, in later days. — 
 
 In spite, however, of this luckless experiment, <^^^'^''^'^"'^ 
 strangers were as welcome as ever at Alfred's ^^"^'^'^''"' 
 court, and we can still see in the king's own words 
 with how keen an attention he listened to the tales 
 of far-off lands that they brought him. Othere 
 must have been one of the Wikincrs that the kine 
 had gathered about him for aid in fight against 
 their brother plunderers ; it was to " his lord' King 
 i^lfred " that he told how long and narrow a land 
 was the Northman's land. "All that man can past- 
 ure or plough lies by the sea," hard pressed by the 
 " wild moors," the broad fells, where Fin and Cwen 
 carried on their warfare with the men of the fiords. 
 Here Othere dwelt, " northernmost of all the North- 
 men," in waste Halgoland, no one to the north of 
 him save a few scattered Fin-folk. He was '• one 
 of the first men in that country, though he had not 
 more than twenty horned cattle and twenty sheep 
 and twenty swine, and the little that he ploughed, 
 he ploughed with horses;" but he was wealthy in 
 the wealth of the north, in his six hundred reindeer, 
 in his whale-fishery, and in his share of the tribute 
 the Fins paid the men of his country, the skins of 
 martens, reindeer, and bear, cloaks of bear or other 
 
 dam et diaconos ; ex quibus cum nee adhuc tantum numerum quan- 
 tum vellet haberet, comparavit etiam quamplurimos ejusdem gentis 
 Gallicae, ex quibus quosdam infantes in eodem monasterio edoceri 
 imperavit et subsequente tempore ad monachicum habitum sub- 
 levari."— Asser (ed. Wise), p. 62. 
 
172 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ^n 
 
 878-901. 
 
 cHAP^iv. si^in, and eider-down and whalebone, and ship-ropes 
 iEifred. of whale-skin or seal -skin. Othere's cruise had 
 been alone the western coast northward from Hal- 
 goland ; and in his longing *' to try how far that 
 country lay to the north, and whether any lived 
 north of the waste," he had done a feat of seaman- 
 ship which found no rival till the days of the Tudors, 
 by rounding the North Cape and penetrating into 
 the bay of Archangel, the then country of "the 
 Beormas." " Thither he went chiefly, besides his 
 craving to see the country, on account of the wal- 
 ruses, because they have very noble bone in their 
 teeth, some of which they brought to the king." 
 Wulfstan's was a less daring cruise, though it told 
 i^lfred of the Baltic and its huge rivers and the 
 stranire customs anions: the tribes of the " East- 
 land," where " there are many burhs, and in each is 
 a king, and there is much honey and fish, and the 
 kine and the richest men drink mares' milk, and the 
 poor and the slaves drink mead."' But both helped 
 yElfred to realize the lands from which his assailants 
 came — lands where, as he notes, " the Engle dwelt be- 
 fore they came hither to this country," and the far- 
 reaching energy of the men who had pushed to Nova 
 Zembla and the Neva before swooping upon Britain. 
 With all this restless activity Alfred was a thor- 
 ough man of business, careful of detail, industrious, 
 methodical. Each hour of the day had its appointed 
 task; there was the same order in the division of his 
 revenue and in the arrangement of his court. The 
 more definite organization which the court, the per- 
 sonal following of the monarch, was taking marked 
 
 * See -Alfred's insertion in his " Orosius." 
 
 jElf red's 
 court. 
 
 the steady development of the monarchy. It is now cuAr.iv. 
 that we see coming into view the great officers who JEifrid. 
 were to play so prominent a part in after politics : gv^soi. 
 the Horse-Thegn, or Constable ; ' the Cup-Thegn,^ — 
 or Butler, whose rank may be seen from the fact 
 that the office' was held by the father of Osburga, 
 i^thelwulf s first wife and the mother of Alfred ; 
 and the Hordcr, or Treasurer/ The last of these 
 was fast rising into importance as the growth of 
 the royal revenue enabled .Alfred to enlarge more 
 and more the sphere of his expenditure. His 
 budget is the first royal budget we possess; and 
 though the fact that the national expenses were 
 still in the main defrayed by local means renders 
 any comparison of it with a modern budget impos- 
 sible, it is still of interest as indicating the wide 
 range of public activity which even now was open 
 to an English king.' 
 
 A sixth of the royal income was devoted to what ^^^fred^s 
 would be called the military and civil services. '^'''^''' 
 Though the main cost of war had not as yet fallen 
 on the State, since the fighting man was bound to 
 serve without pay, and provide his own arms and 
 supplies," while works of fortification were a burden 
 on buhr and township,' the new course of warfare 
 with the Danes had already thrown some expenses 
 on the royal hoard, for it can only have been from 
 his own resources that ^tlfred drew the means of 
 building the *4 ong ships" which formed the nucleus 
 
 * Ecgwulf was King's Horse-Thegn in 897.— Eng. Chron. a. 897. 
 ' Sigewulf Pincerna in 892.— Cod. Dip. 320. 
 
 ' Asser (ed. Wise), pp. 4, 5. 
 
 * "^Ifric thesaurarius'' in 892.— Cod. Dip. 320. 
 ' Asser (ed. Wise), pp. 65-67. 
 
 " Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 220, note 3. ' Ibid. i. 108. 
 
 I 
 
174 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. of his fleet, or of maintaining their Frisian crews. 
 jmred. Civil administration was still more a matter of local 
 87M01. expenditure, while justice was one of the most lu- 
 crative sources of the royal revenue ; but the hoard 
 had to defray the cost of the household itself, the 
 privy purse of the king, and the pay of his officers 
 and thegns. Another sixth of the royal funds was 
 devoted to public works, with such expenses as 
 those involved in the restoration of London and 
 its walls, or in the bringing of workmen and arti- 
 ficers from foreign lands ; while as large a sum was 
 devoted to what we may roughly term the diplo- 
 matic services and foreign affairs, though under 
 this head we must include the reception and en- 
 tertainment of the strangers who thronged the 
 court, as well as the expenses incurred by the 
 king's envoys and negotiators. The public ser- 
 vices, public works, and diplomacy thus formed the 
 main branches of ^^Ifred's expenditure. An eighth 
 of his revenue, however, was devoted to the relief 
 of the poor, and another eighth to education, to his 
 literary enterprises, the books which he distributed 
 to various churches, and mainly, no doubt, to the 
 maintenance of the palace school. The remainder 
 formed the ecclesiastical side of his budget, half of 
 it sfoinor to the tw^o monasteries founded by the 
 king at Shaftesbury and Athelney, half to religious 
 houses in other parts of the realm, such as that 
 which he was raising at Winchester, as well as in 
 gifts to abbeys among the Welsh, in Ireland, and 
 even in Brittany and Gaul. Gifts such as these had 
 no doubt a political as well as a religious end, for in 
 all these quarters it was needful for Alfred to find 
 friends in the strife that he looked for with the Dane. 
 
 175 
 
 That resistance to the pirates was a matter not cur. ,v. 
 only of English but of European concern was as ^^e. 
 clear to Alfred as to ^thelwulf, and at the end of „r^, 
 h.s hfe we find him striving to take up again the ^7^ 
 threads of h.s father's policy, and opening a system S/ 
 ot alliances which was to be carried out by his sue- '"''"■''■ 
 cessors. The counts who were now rising up in 
 Flanders were, through their hold upon the Scheldt 
 from which the Danish squadrons had so often is- 
 sued, among the most important of /Elfred's neio-h- 
 bors ; and with the marriage of his younger daughter 
 ^Ifthryth to Baldwin the Second,' began that close 
 political and industrial connection between En<dand 
 and the Low Countries, which has through so'^long 
 a course of centuries influenced the fortunes of both. 
 Ihe connection was no doubt due to Judith the 
 daughter of Charles the Bald, who, after her two 
 former marriages with ^thelwulf and yEthelbald 
 recrossed the Channel to become the wife of Bali 
 win Iron-arm, the first Count of Flanders, and the 
 
 T,l ';,''y ^'"^ ""^ *'"' ^^'^^"" the Second, while as 
 Alfred s step-mother and sister-in-law she probably 
 maintained relations with the English court which 
 at last brought about the marriage of yElfthryth. 
 It IS only in this marriage, however, and the cease- 
 less intercourse with the Papal court, to which he 
 seems to have sent money and gifts every year, that 
 we can find indications of Alfred's foreign policy. 
 
 His main work had, in fact, to be done nearer ^//w 
 V "'^- , J? t'^^ ^vestward he had to deal with the b^^^^,,. 
 iNorth Welsh, whom he had severed from the Danes 
 by the interposition of English Mercia, but whose 
 hos tility remained a danger hardly le ss than that 
 
 ' Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (ed. Hardy), i. 193. 
 
 II 
 
176 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 •7S-901. 
 
 CHAP. IV. from the heathen. From the first, however, his pol- 
 iEifred. icy in this quarter was served by divisions amongst 
 the Welsh themselves. During the early years of 
 his reign the house of Roderic the Great, which re- 
 mained the dominant power among them, still mam- 
 tained its friendship with the Northmen; but the 
 petty chieftains, whose freedom it threatened, pre- 
 ferred the distant supremacy of Wessex to the 
 nearer rule of the house of Roderic, and in 885 the 
 kings of Demetia and Brecknock, with the princes 
 of Gwent, owned .Alfred as their lord, in exchange 
 for his pledge of defence against their enemy.' Ten 
 years later the war with Hasting widened into a 
 war with the northern Welshmen, and in 897 the 
 submission of the house of Roderic at the close of 
 the strife left all North Wales subject to the king. 
 Though we know less of his diplomacy in the States 
 to the northward of the Danelaw, we can see that 
 itlfred was busy both with Bernicia and the king- 
 dom of the Scots. The establishment of the Dane- 
 law in Mid-Britain, the presence of the pirates in 
 Caithness and the Hebrides, made these States his 
 natural allies; for, pressed as they were by the 
 Wikings alike from the north and from the south, 
 their only hope of independent existence lay in the 
 help of Wessex. Of the first State we know little. 
 The wreck of Northumbria had given freedom to 
 the Britons of Strath-Clyde, to whom the name of 
 Cumbrians is from this time transferred. The same 
 wreck restored to its old isolation the kingdom of 
 Bernicia. Deira formed part of the Danelaw, but 
 the settlement of the Danes did not reach beyond 
 the Tyne, for Bernicia, ravaged and plunde red as it 
 
 • Asser (ed. Wise), p. 49- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 
 
 177 
 
 had been, still remained English, and governed, as it 
 would seem, by the stock of its earlier kincrs The 
 weakness of this State drew it to yElfred s side ; and 
 we know that the Bernician ruler, Eadwulf of Bam- 
 borough, was /Elfred s friend.' 
 
 The same dread of the Danes drew to him the 
 kingdom o the Scots. The Scot kingdom, which 
 at Its outset lurked almost unseen among the lakes 
 ot Argyle, now embraced the whole of North Brit- 
 ain from Caithness to the Firths, for the very name 
 of the I lets had disappeared at a moment when the 
 power of the Picts seemed to have reached its 
 height. The Pictish kingdom had risen fast to 
 greatness after the victory of Nectansmere in 68. 
 In the century which followed Ecgfrith's defeat, its 
 kings reduced the Scots of Dalriada from nominal 
 dependence to actual subjection; the annexation of 
 Angus and Pife carried their eastern border to the 
 sea while to the south their alliance with the North- 
 umbrians in the warfare which both waged on the 
 Welsh extended their bounds on the side of Cum- 
 bna or Strath-Clyde. But the hour of Pietish Ln-eat- 
 ness was marked by the extinction of the Pich'sh 
 name. In the midst of the ninth century the direct 
 hne o their royal house came to an end, and the 
 under-king of the Scots of Dalriada, Kenneth Mac- 
 Alpin. ascended the Pictish throne in riVht of his 
 '^^^^^^r^^^ ^.,^^.^ more Kenneth 
 
 dilectVsTuit r^gi ulToJ^'' ''^"^'^' ^''^" " ^"^^ ^""^ ^^^"^^- 
 scu J'!t"'T''''"'P''''^ ^^^''""^ ^^ P'^^'^h h'^t^T during this ob- 
 Kenneth s accession was in 844. 
 
 12 
 
 aiAP. IV. 
 
 .£lfred. 
 
 878-901 
 
 dom of the 
 
 Scots. 
 
 •I 11 
 
178 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. and his successors remained kings of the Picts. At 
 jEifTed. the moment we have reached, however, the title 
 STsTdOi. passed suddenly away, the tribe which had given its 
 — chief to the throne gave its name to the realm, and 
 " Pict-land " disappeared from history to make room 
 first for Alban or Albania, and then for "the land 
 of the Scots.'" With these internal revolutions its 
 English neighbors had little concern. But a com- 
 mon suffering drew the new monarchy in the north 
 to the new monarchy which was rising in the south, 
 for the storm of invasion had broken more roughly 
 over Alban than over England itself. Shattered by 
 a strife in which its northern and western districts 
 had become almost independent, and menaced with 
 the danger of actual extinction, it was natural that the 
 kingdom of the Scots should look for friendship, if not 
 for actual succor, to the West Saxons and their king. 
 The strife, however, for which this diplomacy was 
 preparing the way, was to be wrought by hands 
 other than the king's. Hardly four years, in fact, 
 had passed since the triumph over Hasting when 
 the "stillness" he had sighed for came to him. 
 .Alfred died on the 28th of October, 901. "So 
 long as I have lived," he wrote, as life was closing 
 abo'iit him, " I have striven to live worthily." It 
 is this height and singleness of purpose, this con- 
 centration of every faculty on the noblest aim, that 
 lifts Alfred out of the narrow bounds of Wessex ; 
 for if the sphere of his action seems too small to 
 
 179 
 
 1 *!J 
 
 Alfred's 
 death. 
 
 » Skene, Celtic Scotland, i. 335- The first instance of the use of 
 '•Scotti " for any inhabitants of " Pict-land" proper seems to be in 
 877.-Skene. Celtic Scotland, i. 328. "Pictavia" becomes "Alba- 
 nia" from 889.— Ibid. 335. 
 
 justify a comparison of him with the few whom the chap.iv. 
 world owns as its greatest men, lie rises to their ilSed. 
 level in the moral grandeur of his life. And it is st^oi. 
 this that still hallows his memory among English- — 
 men. He stands, indeed, in the forefront o? his 
 race, for he is the noblest as he is the most com- 
 plete embodiment of all that is great, all that is 
 lovable in the English temper, of its practical en- 
 ergy, its patient and enduring force, of the reserve 
 and self-control that give steadiness and sobriety 
 to a wide outlook and a restless daring, of its tem- 
 perance and fairness, its frankness and openness, its 
 sensitiveness to affection, its poetic tenderness, its 
 deep and reverent religion. Religion, indeed, was 
 the groundwork of /Elfred's character. His temper 
 was instinct with piety. Everywhere, throughout 
 his writings that remain to us, the name of'^God, 
 the thought of God, stir him to outbursts of ecstatic 
 adoration. But of the narrowness, the want of pro- 
 portion, the predominance of one quality over an- 
 other, which commonly goes with an intensity of 
 religious feeling or of moral purpose, he showed not 
 a trace. He felt none of that scorn of the world 
 about him which drove the nobler souls of his day 
 to monastery or hermitage. Vexed as he was by 
 sickness and constant pain, not only did his temper 
 take no touch of asceticism, but a rare geniality, a 
 peculiar elasticity and mobility of nature, gave color 
 and chariTi to his life. He had the restless outlook 
 of the artistic nature, its tenderness and suscepti- 
 bility, its quick apprehension of unseen danger, its 
 craving for affection, its sensitiveness to wrong. It 
 was with himself rather than with his reader that 
 he communed, as thought of the foe without or of 
 
i8o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IV. ingratitude and opposition within, broke the cahii 
 ^"ifred. pages of Gregory or Boethius ; but the loneliness 
 STglioi that breathes in such words never begot in him a 
 — contempt for men or the judgment of men. Nor 
 could danger or disappointment check for an hour 
 his vivid activity. From one end of his reign to 
 the other every power was bent to the work of 
 rule. His practical energy found scope for itself 
 in a material and administrative restoration of the 
 wasted land ; his intellectual energy breathed fresh 
 life into education and literature; while his capacity 
 for inspiring trust and affection drew the hearts of 
 Englishmen to a common centre, and began the up- 
 buifding of a new England. Little by little men 
 came to recognize in Alfred a ruler of higher and 
 nobler stamp than the world had seen. Never had 
 it seen a king who lived only for the good of his 
 people. Never had it seen a ruler who set aside 
 every personal aim to devote himself solely to the 
 welfare of those whom he ruled. It was this grand 
 self-mastery that won him love and reverence in 
 his own day, and it is this that has hallowed his 
 memory ever since. " I desire," said the King, " to 
 leave to the men that come after me a remembrance 
 of me in good works." His aim has been more than 
 fulfilled. His memory has come down to us with a 
 living distinctness through the mists of exaggeration 
 and iegend which time gathered round it. The in- 
 stinct of the people has clung to him with a smgular 
 affection. The love which he won a thousand years 
 ago has lingered round his name from that day to this. 
 While every other name of those earlier times has all 
 but faded from the recollection of Englishmen, that 
 of Alfred remains familiar to every English child. 
 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF /ELFRED. 
 901-937. 
 
 With the death of Alfred the work for which he £.:^ward 
 had so long prepared passed into the hands of his ''^'''^'''^''■• 
 son.' Eadward seems only partially to have shared 
 his fathers taste for letters; while his younger 
 brother, ^thehveard, mastered both Latin and Eng- 
 lish in the palace -school,' Eadward s studies, like 
 those of most of the young nobles, were restricted 
 
 • For Eadward's reijrn the great authority is the English Chron- 
 icle. The portion of this work due to Alfred's pen, or written un- 
 der his supervision, probably ends in 891 (Earle, Parallel Chron. 
 Intr. xv.-xvii.). but from 891 to Eadward's death in 924 the annals 
 are carried on by a writer of singular force. Of the years from 894 to 
 897 Earle says, " This is the most remarkable piece of writing in the 
 whole series of Chronicles. It is a warm, vigorous, earnest narra- 
 tive, free from the rigidity of the other annals, full of life and orig- 
 inality. Compared with that passage every other piece of prose, 
 not in these Chronicles merely, but throughout the whole range of 
 extant Saxon literature, must assume a secondary rank."— Parallel 
 Chron. Intr. xvi. But the years that follow, though told with less 
 warmth and fulness, are told in the same spirit. From 901 to 910. 
 indeed, the narrative is scanty; but from 910 to 924 "we have a 
 steady, regular, well-written narrative, homogeneous and unmixed 
 in matter, like the head-piece of this section, and unlike all the rest 
 of the Chronicle. It is all sieges and battles, and fortifications and 
 garrisons, and surrenders and armed pacifications. It is a model of 
 uniformity, both in matter and manner." — Earle, Parallel Chron. 
 Intr. xviii. 
 
 ' " In qua schola utriusque linguae libri, Latinae scilicet et Saxoni- 
 cae, assidue legebantur."— Asser (Wise), p. 43. 
 
 HP 
 
l82 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.v. to books and songs in his own tongue.' But he 
 Thi was already famous as a warrior who had rivalled 
 ^red' the glory of ^thelred in the storm of the pirate 
 9or737 camp on the Colne as well as in the victory of But- 
 — ' tington ; and with his father's warlike ardor he m- 
 herlted his political capacity. Like i^lfred, he was 
 able to set aside for years the dreams of mere war- 
 like enterprise, and his earlier reign, though troubled 
 for a while by the revolt of a claimant of his throne, 
 was in the main a time of peace. The failure of 
 their last attack had left the English Danes little 
 minded to quarrel with Wessex, while the strength 
 of their Wiking allies was thrown for some years 
 into the strife on the other side of the Channel, 
 where Hrolf was establishing himself in the valley 
 of the Seine. The peace, indeed, was far from being 
 unbroken. Alfred's death had revived the question 
 of the succession; the order established under .Ethel- 
 wulf, by which his sons followed one another to the 
 exclusion of their children, was now exhausted; and 
 it can only have been by a decision of the Wite- 
 nagemot that the children of .tthelwulf's elder sons 
 were set aside and the royal stock settled in the 
 descendants of Alfred, the youngest. That this 
 decision expressed the national will was shown at 
 Eadward's accession. When his cousin, ^thelwald, 
 King ^thelred's son, rose to claim the crown, he 
 found himself without support, and forced to fly 
 from Wessex.' The shelter which he found among 
 
 » He and his sister ^Ifthryth. who married Count Baldwin, "et 
 psalmos et Saxonicos Hbros et maxime Saxonica carmina studiose 
 didicere."— Asser (Wise), p. 43- 
 
 > E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 901. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 183 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 
 iElfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 the Danes of Northumbria, and his acceptance as chap. v. 
 their king, marks the first step in that union of 
 Danes and Englishmen which was to be the work 
 cf the coming century ; and the impression of this 
 must have been strengthened when, in 905, he moored 
 off the eastern coast and roused the Danes of East 
 Anglia to follow him in an attack on Wessex/ Ead- 
 ward, however, anticipated the blow by appearing 
 with an army on the Ouse ; and the fall of ^thef- 
 wald in a fight with the Kentish division of this 
 force ended the war. The Wedmore Frith was re- 
 newed at Ittingford in 906,' and Wessex enjoyed 
 four years more of undisturbed tranquillity.' 
 
 That Eadward's patience, however, by no means King of 
 implied any abandonment of yElfred's policy, above '%fJonf,' 
 
 * E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 905. 
 
 " E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 906. 
 
 ^ For this period the earHer English Chronicle of Winchester is 
 largely supplemented by a Chronicle drawn up at Worcester (that 
 known as Tiber. B. iv. of the Cotton Collection, and the D of Mr. 
 Earle.— Parallel Chron. Intr. xxxix. etc.). What distinguishes this 
 Worcester Chronicle is a large insertion of northern annals, begin- 
 ning in 737; the earlier of which may be due (Stubbs, Archa^ol. 
 Journ. No. 75, p. 236, note) to Bishop Werfrith of Worcester, one of 
 Alfred's literary assistants, who sate from 873 to 91 5. But for ^thel- 
 flaed's campaigns we have, inserted, a wholly independent Mercian 
 Chronicle, ending with her death, and equal in fulness of detail to 
 the parallel Winchester Chronicle, which restricts itself to Eadward's 
 exploits and omits those of his sister. There are difficulties, indeed, 
 in reconciling these accounts chronologically. The death of ^thcl- 
 flaed is placed in the Mercian Chronicle at 918; in the Winchester 
 Chronicle at 922. The latter is probably the more correct, for we 
 find Leicester, whicji, according to the Mercian Chronicle, had sub- 
 mitted to the lady in 918. still Danish, and leading a Danish here 
 against her brother in 921 ; and as the preceding dates, at any rate 
 from v^thelred's death, are linked in series with this final one, I have 
 ventured to place them also four years later than the year assigned 
 to them by the Worcester chronicler. 
 
1 84 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.v. all, of his plans for a national union, was shown in a 
 Thi change of the royal style. With yElfred the connec- 
 ^^J^ tion of his two realms had remained to the last a 
 £or937 purely personal connection. He had been Mercian 
 — king among the Mercians ; he had remained West- 
 Saxon king among the men of Wessex. But, from 
 the first moment of his reign, Eadward showed his 
 resolve to look on the two dominions he ruled as a 
 single realm, and to blend their peoples in some sort 
 into a single people. He is no longer king of the 
 West Saxons or of the Mercians, but " King of the 
 Angul-Saxons." ' The title is no doubt a transitional 
 one ; it represents the effort of the king to look on 
 the Mercian Engle and the Saxon Gewissas as a 
 single folk rather than any actual fusion of the one 
 with the other; we know, indeed, that the separate 
 life of Mercia under ^thelred and ^thelflaed re- 
 mained undisturbed for all the change in the royal 
 style. But the change was none the less a signifi- 
 cant one. If no such people as " the Anglo-Saxons " 
 existed, or could be made to exist, the effort to create 
 such a people had its issues in an after-time, when 
 not only West Saxon and Mercian, but every man 
 from the Forth to the Channel should be looked on 
 by his king, and regard himself, as one of an English 
 people.' 
 
 > " Angul-Saxonum rex" is his common description in the char- 
 ters of his reign, a description almost confined, as we shall see, to 
 Eadward. See Kemble, Cod. Dip. 333. 335- 1080. 1083. 1084, 1090, 
 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096. In a charter of 901, his first year 
 (Cod. Dip. 1078). his " Angul-Saxonum rex" explains itself by an 
 after-phrase, " Omnium judicio sapientum Gewissorum et Mercen- 
 
 sium." 
 « It may be well to note that the word " Angul-Saxon " is of purely 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 185 
 
 Home of 
 ^fred. 
 
 901 9C7. 
 
 Chester 
 rebuilt. 
 
 Nor did the kings policy of inaction extend to chap. v. 
 his Mercian realm, for it must have been with his Th^ 
 sanction or at his command that the Mercian rulers 
 took at this moment what proved to be a first step in 
 the final struggle with the Danelaw. In the Peace 
 of Wedmore one of the main aims of y^lfred had 
 been to cut off the Danelaw from the Welsh ; and 
 he had secured this by retaining all of the older 
 Mid-England westward, as was roughly said, of the 
 Watling Street, as a new English Mercia. But in 
 its northern portion the barrier was a weak one ; for 
 the extremity of the tract which now formed the 
 Mercian ealdordom — the northern part, that is, of 
 our modern Cheshire — was little more than a strip 
 of land across which the Dane of the Five Boroughs 
 could easily push to call his old allies on the Welsh 
 border to arms. To strengthen this barrier had 
 been the purpose of its rulers from the first. At its 
 weakest point lay the ruined city of Chester — to 
 whose military importance the recent harborage of 
 Hasting within its walls had probably drawn their 
 attention. Commanding, as it did, the passage over 
 the lower Dee, and the main roads from Mid-Eng- 
 land to North Wales, or from South Encrland into 
 the wild country which had once been Cumbria, 
 Chester furnished also a port where a f^eet could be 
 stationed to hold the mastery of the Irish Channel, 
 and cut off the English Danelaw from the Danes 
 
 political coinage, and that no man is ever known, save in our own 
 day, to have called himself "an Anglo-Saxon." The phrase, too, 
 applied strictly to the Engle of Mercia and the Saxons of Wessex, 
 not to any larger area. For the general use of " Engle " and " Sax- 
 on," I must refer my readers to Mr. Freeman's exhaustive treatise, 
 Norm. Conq. i. app. A. 
 
1 86 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. V. of the Irish coast. Nor was it hard to restore it to 
 
 The its older strength. Ruined and deserted as the town 
 
 ^^^ had lain since its surrender to .^thelfrith in 607/ 
 
 «/.77«., the military strencrth of its position was such as could 
 
 901 937. -^ . 1 '-ni 
 
 — be little harmed by time and neglect. The huge 
 trench which severed the block of sandstone on which 
 it stood from the rest of the higher ground, the mas- 
 sive walls which girt in its site, the marshy level and 
 the river-course which formed an outer barrier round 
 them, were still ready to hand ; and in their " re- 
 newal " of the town' in 907 Ealdorman /Ethelred 
 and his wife seem to have done little more than give 
 protection to the passage across the Dee, by raising 
 a mound with a stockade or fort on its summit in 
 the low ground beside the bridge, and by extending 
 the older walls in this quarter to the river. It was 
 probably to aid in the repeopling of the town that 
 a secular house of the Mercian saint, Werburgh, was 
 founded in the northeastern quarter of the city: and 
 the security of the little settlement may have been 
 provided for by a custom which we find existing in 
 later days, that bound every hide in the shire about 
 it to furnish a man at its town-reeve's call to repair 
 walls and bridge.' 
 Outbreak Small as the settlement was, the end of the Mer- 
 Danes. cian rulcrs was gained by their seizure of the town, 
 
 * It was still a "waste Chester" when Hasting took refuge there. 
 — E. Chron. a. 894 ; Flor. Wore. (Thorpe), p. 1 13. 
 
 "^ This is only recorded in two of the later copies of the Chronicle, 
 Mr. Earle's B and C, at 907. " Her waes Ligceaster geedneowad." 
 —Flor. Wore. (Thorpe), p. 120. 
 
 ' It was only by slow degrees that the new town extended itself 
 over the ruins of the old. St. Werburgh 's house stood alone in its 
 northeastern quarter ; and only the southern half of the city, where 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 187 
 
 The 
 Honie of 
 
 Alfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 for the shortest road between Wales and the Dane- chap. v. 
 law was now in their hands. That the check was 
 felt by the Danes was shown by a growing restless- 
 ness which broke out at last in open warfare. A 
 raid of the pirates over Mercia in 910' had to be 
 repulsed at Tottenhale by a joint force of Mer- 
 cians and West Saxons under Eadward himself, who 
 avenged the attack by following the beaten host 
 across the border and harrying their land there for 
 five weeks.' The blow seems to have roused the war- 
 like spirit of the whole Danelaw. In 91 1 Eadward was 
 drawn southward by danger from the sea, where in 
 the preceding year a pirate force had landed in the 
 Severn and been repulsed with difficulty by the fyrds 
 of the neighboring shires. It marks the quiet work 
 that had been done in the years of rest which yEl- 
 fred had gained that Eadward was able to muster a 
 hundred ships, and to ride master of the Channel. 
 But with his stay in the south Mercia was left to its 
 own resources ; and the Northumbrians resolved to 
 avenge the losses of their brethren across Trent. A 
 " frith " like that of East Anglia had bound them till 
 now to Wessex, but this was broken, and setting aside 
 the offers of accommodation made by Eadward and 
 
 •we find on either side of Bridge Street the churches of St. Bridget 
 and St. Michael, can represent the town of ^thclflaed, for yet more 
 to the south the church of St. Olaf marks a later extension, which 
 can hardly be earlier than the days of Cnut. 
 
 ' E. Chron. (Wore), a. 910. The raid is told in greater detail by 
 -^theUveard, whose Chronicle, till now a mere version of the Eng- 
 lish Chronicle of Winchester, becomes independent from about 
 893 to its close in 975. His whole work, however, is all but worth- 
 less. 
 
 ' E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 910. 
 
1 88 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 Alfred. 
 
 901 937. 
 
 his Witenagemot; the pirate host, under its kings 
 Ecwils and Halfdene, poured ravaging over Mercia. 
 But, distant as Eadward himself was, his forces were 
 already on the march, and as the Danes fell back 
 loaded with spoil they were overtaken and attacked. 
 The English victory was complete, and thousands 
 of Danes fell round their two kings on the field. 
 Eadward If Ealdomian .^thelred led the host to this tri- 
 Thinus umph, the effort must have been his last; for he 
 Valley, ^j^j '^^ ^^^^ ^^^ the changcs which followed on his 
 death told on the whole character of the conflict. 
 Within Mercia itself the change was little, for ^thel- 
 flsed, who remained its sole governor, had acted 
 throughout as joint ruler with ^thelred. But for 
 Wessex it was great. The death of yEthelred en- 
 abled Eadward to take a new step in the disintegra- 
 tion of the shrunken Mercian realm, and he now took 
 from Mercia London and Oxford, " and the lands 
 that belonged to them'"— in other words, the lower 
 valley of the Thames. The annexation was impor- 
 tant, not only as pointing forward to Eadward's 
 plans of a yet wider reunion, but as doing away 
 with the barrier which /Elfred had set between 
 Wessex and the Danelaw by the interposition of 
 the Mercian ealdormanry. In bringing his border 
 into contact with that of the Danelaw, Eadward an- 
 nounced that the time of rest was over, and that a 
 time of action had begun. His course, however, was 
 marked by extreme caution. It was easy to secure 
 the line of the Thames by renewing, as yElfred had 
 done, the older walls of London, a work of repara- 
 
 » E. Chron.(Winch.),a. 911. 
 
 E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 912. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 189 
 
 tion which has left its mark everywhere among the 
 Roman brickwork and masonry; while the deep 
 morasses along the valley of the Lea still offered 
 a fair check to any attack from the Danes in Essex. 
 But at the point where the boundary of the Dane- 
 law struck to the northwest from the Lea, across the 
 bare uplands of the Chilterns, the way lay open to 
 an inroad, and it was to guard this open ground 
 that Eadward seized the ford over the Lea, first by 
 a fort or stockaded mound on the northern side of 
 the river, between the little streams of the Maran 
 and the Beane, and then by a like fort on the south- 
 ern bank, two " burhs," which have since grown into 
 our Hertford/ The bend of its present shire-line 
 eastward along the upper course of the Stort, and so 
 round by the crest of the Chilterns, may represent 
 the land which Eadward took across the line fixed 
 by the frith to form a district for his new fortress ; 
 but its seizure was not the only sign of a break with 
 East Anglia. Essex, shorn as it was of its western 
 half along the Thames and the Chilterns, still re- 
 mained a part of Guthrum's kingdom ; but Ead- 
 ward now proceeded to shear away a fresh por- 
 tion of it by entering its southern districts with an 
 army, and taking post at Maldon on the Blackwater, 
 while his men reared a "burh"a little inland, at 
 With am. 
 
 With the erection of this fortress the Danes were 
 thrown back on the valley of the Colne, and cut off 
 from all access to the mouths of the Thames or the 
 Blackwater, while southern Essex passed into Eng- 
 
 ClIAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 HOQM of 
 
 Alfred. 
 901-937. 
 
 /Ethelflad 
 
 and the 
 
 VVatling 
 
 Street. 
 
 » E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 913. 
 

 190 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND, 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 191 
 
 House of 
 JSlfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 cHAP.v. Hsh hands. The line of Guthrum's Frith was no\\% 
 therefore, abandoned, and Eadward's frontier led 
 from the sea along the valley of the Chelm, straight 
 westward to Hertford, and thence along the brink of 
 the Thames valley. For the next four years, how- 
 ever, the king made no further advance, though he 
 was doubtless busy throughout them in organizing 
 his later campaigns and in aiding the more active 
 enterprise of his sister. While yEthelflaed strength- 
 ened her western frontier against any inroad from 
 the Welsh by the erection of forts at Scargate and 
 Bridgenorth,' she barred any further raids of the 
 Danes upon Mercia by firmly establishing herself on 
 the flank of the Danelaw, and seizing the line of the 
 Watlincr Street. None of the roads that traversed 
 Roman Britain have remained so famous as this 
 great line of communication. It stretched from 
 London over the chalk downs of Hertfordshire 
 through a lonely and thickly wooded country to Ver- 
 ulamium, and, descending into the low clay-lands of 
 the Ouse at Dunstable, again mounted the North- 
 amptonshire slopes at Stony Stratford to pass over 
 the clearer tract beyond Towcester into the basin of 
 the Trent. From the moment that it stooped to the 
 lower eround of central Britain its course was die- 
 tated by the woodland of Arden. It ran closely 
 along the edge of this great forest, by the bounds of 
 our Leicestershire, and, bending round its northern 
 skirt to pass through the narrow gap of open coun- 
 try which parted Arden from Cannock Chase, struck 
 
 ' E. Chron. a. 912. This entry, however, is only preserved in two 
 chronicles, Earle's B and C, the older Cott. Tib. A, vi. and B, i., both 
 of Worcester origin. 
 
 over the central water-shed of Britain to Wroxeter, chap. v. 
 in the Severn valley. From this pomt its line seems S^ 
 originally to have been prolonged to the Welsh coast ^^Zt 
 near Anglesea ; but the size and importance of Ches- g^— 3^ 
 ter under the Roman occupation show that a branch — ^* 
 road from Wroxeter to that city must soon have 
 come into existence, and along this branch road the 
 main stream of traffic, both to Wales and to north- 
 western Britain, was from that time directed.' As 
 the English conquerors crossed its course, however, 
 the track must have sunk for a while into disuse and 
 silence. But the strangers were awed by the long 
 line that they met so often in their progress, and 
 which their fancy associated with the Milky Way, 
 whose white line of stars was thrown athwart the 
 sky as the white line of the road was thrown athwart 
 Britain. In their after-legend it became " the road 
 that King W^tla's sons made over England from 
 the eastern sea to the sea in the west;" and the 
 memory of this long-lost myth lingers in its later 
 name of the Watling Street' 
 
 ^ For Watling Street see Guest, Origines Celticae, ii. 218 r/ jr$r. 
 It is doubtful whether the road from Dover to London can claim 
 the name. 
 
 » The name is, at any rate, as old as i^lfred and Guthrum's Frith 
 in 897. Their boundary ran from Bedford '* upwards on the Ouse 
 unto WaUing Street."— Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 153. Flor. Wore. a. 
 loi 3. explains the name, "id est, strata quam filii Wa^tlai regis ab 
 oricntale mare usque ad occidentale per Angliam straverunt." 
 Chaucer, in his " House of Fame," says : 
 
 " So there, quoth he, cast up thine eye. 
 See yonder, lo, the galaxie. 
 The which men clept the Milky Way, 
 For it is white, and some — par fay — 
 Y-callin it han Watlinge Street." 
 

 192 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 193 
 
 ciiAP.v. While Eadward was guarding his flank against 
 i^e the East Engle, y^thelfla^d wrought a like work for 
 
 ^^f"d' ^lercia by the fortification of two burhs which com- 
 
 3^^^" manded this road.' The first was Tamworth, whose 
 — * site marked the point where the new and direct line 
 
 ^T,T'' to Chester diverged from the older Watling Street. 
 
 s^.rforJ. ^ j.j^^ ^f ground (now known as the Castle Hill) 
 breaks the swampy levels at the junction of the An- 
 ker with the Tame ; and a vill of the Mercian kings 
 had been established here at an early time, which, 
 with the little "worth" that grew up about it, com- 
 manded what was then the only practicable passage 
 over either river to the plains of the Trent. On this 
 rise ^thelfla^d threw up a huge mound, crowned 
 with a fortress, portions of whose brickwork may 
 still be seen as one zig-zags up the steep ascent. 
 From Tamworth, however, she soon turned to a yet 
 more important point. As the road struck to the 
 northeast, it entered a narrow pass between the 
 heights of Cannock Chase and the channel of the 
 Trent, across which ran the little stream of the Sow, 
 on its way to the greater river. The road crossed 
 this stream at a "stone ford," or paved point of pas- 
 sage; and in guarding this point by the fortress 
 which has grown into our Stafford,^ ^thelflaed not 
 only blocked all access to the upper Trent, but occu- 
 pied what, in the physical state of England at the 
 time, was the most important strategical point of 
 middle Britain.' 
 
 
 Dr. Guest, however, prefers, I cannot see why, a derivation from 
 "gwyddel," the "broken men" or robbers in the woods along its 
 course.— Orig. Celt. ii. 234, 235. ^ 
 
 ' E. Chron. (Wore), a. 913. ' I^'^- 
 
 » Its importance was recognized by the two successive castles 
 
 
 To the north of Arden the Mercian border was 
 now fairly secure. Chester blocked all passage over 
 the Dee ; Stafford, all passage along the Trent val- 
 ley; Tamworth, any march along the older line of 
 Watling Street on the upper Severn. But to the 
 south of the great forest Mercia still remained acces- 
 sible by the Fosse Road. The Fosse Way was one 
 of the two great lines of communication which ran 
 .athwart Britain from the northeast to the south- 
 west. Its course was roughly parallel to that of its 
 fellow-road, the Icknield Way,' and it closely resem- 
 bled it in character. As the Icknield Way ran along 
 the face of the chalk range, from the Gwent of East 
 Anglia to the Gwent about Old Sarum, so the Fosse 
 Way ran from Lincoln to Bath along the face of the 
 oolitic range which stretched across midland Britain 
 from the estuary of the Severn to the estuary of the 
 Humber.' Its course thus led direct from Leicester 
 into the valley of the Avon, and by the Avon valley 
 to the lower Severn and South Wales. It was to 
 block this road and secure central Mercia that ^thel- 
 fla^d turned as soon as she had ended her work on 
 the Watling Street.' After erecting a fortress at 
 Eddisbury, she chose as her main barrier the settle- 
 ment of the Wa^rings, on a little rise near the slug- 
 gish waters of the Avon, about midway along its 
 course, and here she fortified the burh which has 
 grown into our Waeringawic, or Warwick. For the 
 
 which the Conqueror built here, one in the town itself, the other on 
 a more distant height. — Freeman, Norm. Conq. iv. 318. 
 
 ' See Making of England, p. 121. 
 
 ^ For the Fosse Way, see Guest, " Four Roman Ways," Orig. Celt, 
 ii. 236. 237. 
 
 ' E. Chron. (Wore), a. 914. 
 
 13 
 
 CHAP. v. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 .Slfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 ALthelflad 
 
 on the 
 Fosst Way, 
 
194 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 195 
 
 House of 
 Jilfred. 
 
 901 937. 
 
 •iil 
 
 cHM'.v. defence of this settlement she reared* between town 
 Thi and river one of those mounds which marked the 
 defensive warfare of the time, and which, stripped as 
 it is of every trace of the fortress with which she 
 crowned it, and covered with works of far later date, 
 still remains to witness to the energy of the lady of 
 Mercia. 
 Eadrvar<rs But, though the Hncs of Trent and Avon were 
 uftTmd- alike secure, and the roads to Wales on either side 
 Byitain. ^f Ardcu wholly in her hands, yEthelflaed's caution 
 was not yet satisfied, and two years more were spent 
 in setting up burhs at Cherbury, Warbury, and 
 Runcorn,' at the confluence of the Weaver and the 
 Dee. Meanwhile, in southern Britain the long- 
 delayed contest became more and more imminent. 
 The king s course w^as still a slow and cautious one. 
 He had cleared his eastern flank by the conquest of 
 southern Essex, and secured his border-line in that 
 quarter by the burhs at Witham and Hertford. 
 But his warfare in the east had probably ended in a 
 new frith with the East Anglians ; for after a rest of 
 four years we find his advance directed not against 
 East Anglia, but against the Danes of Mid-Britain, 
 or the Five Boroughs. The nearest of their settle- 
 ments lay just northward of the valley of the Thames, 
 in the upper valley of the Ouse. Here, in earlier 
 days, the house of the Bokings had planted their 
 "ham" of Buckingham on the little stream; and 
 since the making of the Danelaw this " ham '' had 
 been the southernmost of the Danish settlements in 
 Mid-Britain ; with Bedford and Hu ntingdon, in fact, 
 
 » "In fine autumni."— Flor. Wore. i. 123. 
 » E.Chron. (Wore), a. 915. 
 
 it formed a line of towns, each with its jarl and 
 army, which held the valley of the Oase. It was in 
 the hands of Jarl Thurcytel "and his holds" when, 
 in 918, Ead ward marched to attack it. A siege of 
 four weeks made him its master;' and here, as else- 
 where, he built burhs on either side the river to 
 guard its passage, as well as to bar any raid upon 
 the valley of the Thames. The capture of the town, 
 however, was followed by the submission of its jarl 
 and its holds; and the severity of the blow was 
 shown by a like submission of " almost all the chief 
 men that belonged to Bedford, and also many that 
 belonged to Northampton." 
 
 Their submission drew the king onward, both to 
 the eastward and to the north. In 919 he marched 
 along the Ouse through the flat meadows of Olney 
 upon Bedford,' which offered no resistance, and 
 which he guarded by a burh on the southern bank 
 of the stream. Tw^o years later, in 921, he pushed 
 forward on to the upland of Mid-Britain, and seized 
 and fortified the site of the ruined Towcester. 
 Meanwhile, he was providing, w^ith his old caution 
 against danger, at either end of his long line, by 
 erecting fresh fortresses at Maldon in Essex, and at 
 Wigmore in our Herefordshire. But, cautious as his 
 advance had been, its real import could no longer 
 be disguised, and the seizure of Towcester roused 
 the Danes of Mid -Britain into action. Not only 
 the Danes of Northampton and of Leicester, but the 
 whole force of the Five Boroudis made a fierce on- 
 set on the burh at Towcester. Fierce as it was, 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 
 Alfred. 
 
 901 937. 
 
 Cotiquest 
 of Mid- 
 Britain. 
 
 * E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 918. 
 ' E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 919. 
 
196 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 
 Jllfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 Conquest 
 pf East 
 Au^lici. 
 
 however, it was beaten off by the new townsmen. 
 Eadward hastened to secure the town, which must 
 have been guarded as yet only by a trench and 
 stockade, with a wall of stone ;^ and the presence of 
 his arms brought about the submission of North- 
 ampton, with Jarl Thurfrith and its host, as well as 
 the district which obeyed it, a district which stretched 
 as far as the Welland. 
 
 But, while the king was thus pressing on the Five 
 Boroughs, a far fiercer conflict was raging on his 
 flank. "^ The Danes of East Anglia had sprung to 
 arms even before their fellow Danes in central Brit- 
 ain ; and in this quarter fighting had been going on 
 through the whole year. Early in the spring the 
 Danes of Huntingdon threw themselves fruitlessly 
 on the new burh at Bedford ; and then, quitting 
 Huntingdon, set up a fresh encampment at Temps- 
 ford, where they were soon attacked by the English 
 fyrd' of the neighboring districts. The capture of 
 Tempsford, with its king, jarls,' and warriors, gave 
 fresh heart to the assailants ; and a force of English- 
 men drew together from Kent, Surrey, and Essex 
 for the siege of Colchester. Their success was again 
 complete ; the town was stormed, and its defenders 
 slain ; while a counter-raid of the Danes upon Mai- 
 don ended in the utter rout of the pirates. It was 
 at this moment that the completion of the walls of 
 Towcester and the submission of Northampton set 
 Eadward free to act in the east. His first blow was 
 at the district about the Fens. A few miles' march 
 over the flat Ouse countr y brought him to the spot 
 
 » E. Chron.(Winch.),a. 921. 
 ' Toglos and Manna.— Ibid. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 197 
 
 House of 
 JElfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 where the English village of Godmanchester was chap.v 
 rising by the ruins of the Roman Durolipons on the ^ 
 road that skirted the Wash. On a rise across the 
 river which was then the " Hunters-down," stood the 
 fortress which the owners had so lately abandoned 
 — a fortress of importance as commanding the pas- 
 sage of the Ouse— whose site, as well as those of the 
 burh with which Eadward replaced it, are still marked 
 by the mounds which rise over the river.' Master of 
 the whole Ouse valley, a fresh march of the king to 
 Colchester, and his rebuilding of the town, was fol- 
 lowed by the sudden submission of all the Danes of 
 East Anglia and Essex, as well as of the here which 
 found its centre at Cambridge ; and no part of the 
 Fen country remained to the Danelaw save the 
 northern tract about Stamford. The town stood on 
 a stone ford over the Welland, and was one of the 
 Five Boroughs, with its twelve lawmen and Danish 
 burghers and common land beyond the walls. But 
 it submitted when the king and his fyrd marched on 
 it in 922 ; and its obedience was secured by a mound 
 and fort which Eadward raised over against it on 
 the opposite bank of the river, in what became a 
 southern burh of lesser size.' 
 
 What had made the king's triumph in Mid-Britain ^^^'^^A^ 
 so easy and complete was, to a great extent, no doubt, TfL 
 the energy of his sister in the west. While the Eng- ^'''"s^''' 
 lish shire-levies cleared East Anglia on one flank 
 of his advance, yEthelfla-d was mastering the Five 
 Boroughs on the other. The march of Eadward on 
 Northampton ha d, in fact, been made possible by the 
 
 ' E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 921. 
 "^ E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 922. 
 
198 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. V. triumphs of the Mercian host in the valley of the 
 The Trent. As the river curves from the heights of Can- 
 
 ^iZd.^ nock Chase to the eastward, it receives the water of 
 — i two important affluents from the north and south. 
 
 ^— '" The Derwent flows down to it from the crags of the 
 Peak, while the Soar wanders to it through the grassy 
 levels of our Leicestershire. On one of these rivers 
 the earlier English conquerors had planted their 
 settlement of North-weorthig, whose position in the 
 waste among the wild animals of the chase was 
 marked by the new name it had received from the 
 Danes, the name of Deora-by, or Derby.' ^ Under 
 the Danes the place became one of the Five Bor- 
 oughs round which the Danelaw of Mid -Britain 
 grouped itself, and it was the first of the five to bear 
 ^them^ed s attack. In the August of 91 7 it passed 
 into her hands,' and in 918 she marched up the val- 
 ley on her other flank, that of the Soar, to attack the 
 second of the Five Boroughs, Leicester. Again her 
 attack was successful, and within the walls of her 
 own conquest she is said to have heard of the sub- 
 mission of York." 
 Mu/. The news of this last triumph, however, had hard- 
 
 ,TnqiTered\^ rcachcd Eadward when it was followed by the 
 news of i^thelflaid's death.* But the blow came 
 too late to save the Danelaw. Only two of the Five 
 Boroughs, indeed, now remained unconquered ; and 
 
 « i^thelweard. a. 870, lib. iv. c. 2. 
 
 « E. Chron. (Wore), a. 917. 
 
 ' E. Chron. (Wore), a. 918. says of the Yorkmen : " Some gave her 
 pledge, some bound themselves with oath, that they would be at her 
 reding" (command). 
 
 * Eadward was at Stamford at this time. E. Chron. (Winch.). 
 
 a. 922. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. jqq 
 
 Eadward's siege of the first of these, Nottingham, 
 completed the work of the year. The tow^n stood 
 on the bend of the Trent, a few miles eastward of 
 the confluence of the Derwent and the Soar. It 
 was here that the road from the south crossed the 
 great river, for further along its course the marshes 
 of Axholme hindered all passage ; and the impor- 
 tance of the place had been shown at the very out- 
 set of the Danish wars, when its seizure by the 
 pirates foiled the efforts of y^thelred and i^lfred 
 to save the north from their grasp. In size and 
 wealth it was probably, with Lincoln, the most im- 
 portant of the Five Boroughs, while as a strategical 
 point it was more important than any ; for it com- 
 manded the navigation of the Trent, while it was 
 the key alike of Northumbria and central Britain. 
 The closing of Eadward's forces upon Nottingham' 
 in 922 was thus the crisis of the war. The town 
 yielded, and was secured, for the while, by a fortress 
 on the southern bank of the river; while the king 
 reaped the fruits of his success in the submission of 
 the whole Mercian Danelaw, for Lincoln, whose fate 
 is not mentioned, no doubt submitted on the fall of 
 Nottingham. 
 
 With the clearing of the Trent valley the con- 
 quest of Mid -Britain was complete. Guthrum's 
 kingdom and the Five Boroughs had alike bowed 
 to Eadward's sw^ord. But the w^ork of conquest was 
 far from being the only w'ork of Eadward during 
 these memorable years. It is, indeed, the adminis- 
 trative reconstruction which went hand in hand with 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 
 iElfred. 
 
 £01 937. 
 
 The prin- 
 ciple of 
 personal 
 allegiance. 
 
 * E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 922. 
 
200 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The 
 
 Hoate of 
 
 Alfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 cHAP.v. the king's campaign that accounts for the slowness 
 and caution of his advance. How firmly he clung 
 to the idea which his title of " King of the Anglo- 
 Saxons " embodies, the idea of a single people ruled 
 directly by a single king, was shown in his dealing 
 with the Mercian ealdormanry. On the death of 
 i^thelfla^d the last traces of Mercian independence 
 were suppressed ; the girl whom his sister had left 
 behind her was sent to a nunnery; and the king- 
 dom, with its Welsh dependencies, brought under 
 Eadward's direct government.' The districts of the 
 conquered Danelaw were in the same way brought 
 into the general realm ; but they were brought into 
 it in a very different way from Mercia. The condi- 
 tions of the struggle, indeed, were giving a wholly 
 new character to the relations of the people towards 
 its rulers. The war had violently hastened forward 
 a revolution which had long been silently changing 
 the whole structure of English society. Even at the 
 time of their first settlement in Britain the invaders 
 had passed beyond the stage of merely personal 
 j-ight — the stage in which freedom, law, and govern- 
 ment are regarded as inherent in the freeman him- 
 self, and in which a share in the common land of the 
 tribe falls to the share of the freeman because he is 
 free. Though traces of this older personal bond re- 
 mained in the gathering of the kin in their separate 
 villages, as in the allotment of the soil to the heads 
 of families, yet land had even then become the insep- 
 
 » "And all the people of the land of Mercia . . . submitted to him ; 
 and the kings of the North Welsh, Howel and Cledauc and Jeoth- 
 wel and all the North- Welsh people sought him to be their lord." 
 — E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 922. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 201 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 
 JSlfred. 
 
 901 937. 
 
 arable accompaniment of the freeman, the badge and chap, v 
 test of his freedom : he was a freeman because he 
 was a land-owner.' But it was long before the rela- 
 tion of the freeman to the land wholly obliterated 
 the older conception of personal freedom. In ear- 
 lier English history the small holder and the big 
 holder stood equal in law-moot or in witenagemote, 
 and even the landless man mii^ht choose what lord 
 he would. But at the close of the Danish wars we 
 find a new organization of the people almost com- 
 plete. The tendency towards personal dependence, 
 and towards a social organization based on personal 
 dependence, had received an overpowering impulse 
 from the strife. The long insecurity of a century 
 of warfare had driven the ceorl, the free tiller of the 
 soil, to seek protection more and more from the 
 wealthier land -owner or theG:n beside him. The 
 poorer freeman " commended " himself to a lord 
 who promised aid ; and as the price of this aid sur- 
 rendered his freehold, to receive it back as a fief 
 laden with condition of military service. Hence- 
 forth his lord owns the land he tills ; he is his leader 
 to the host ; he is the lord of the court at which 
 he seeks for justice. The military, the judicial, the 
 political organization of the people had thus become 
 inseparably linked to the ownership of land.' 
 
 How quickly the principle of personal allegiance nsinfln- 
 to a lord of land widened into a general theory oi'^Engm 
 dependence we see from the changes it brought ^'"'^^^^P- 
 about in the English kingship. Whatever bonds 
 of the older tribal sort might link the children of 
 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 194. 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 217-222. 
 
202 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 House of 
 Alfred. 
 
 901 937. 
 
 CHAP. V. Alfred to the men of their own Wessex, it was only 
 m as possessors of the soil, as lords of the land, that 
 they could claim the obedience of Mercian or North- 
 umbrian. To the tribal character of the kingship, 
 which blended the king with those whom he ruled, 
 was thus added a territorial character in which he 
 stood wholly apart from them, and in which the rela- 
 tion was no longer one of traditional loyalty, but of 
 actual subjection. Still more was this the case with 
 the conquered Dane. No tie of traditional loyalty 
 bound the northern settler on the Ouse or the Trent 
 to the kings who had struck him down. The only 
 possible tie could be that of acknowledging the new 
 master as a lord, and claiming his " peace " or pro- 
 tection in exchange for allegiance. It is thus that 
 the conquest of the Danelaw was followed by the 
 earliest instances of those oaths of allegiance which 
 mark the substitution of a personal dependence on 
 the kincr as lord for the older relation of the freeman 
 to the king of his race. 
 The oath Eadward had already proposed to the witan of his 
 
 allegiance, owu Wcsscx," that for the maintenance of the public 
 peace they should '' be in that fellowship in which the 
 kino- was, and love that which he loved, and shun that 
 which he shunned, both on sea and land ;" and this 
 principle of personal allegiance he applied to his new 
 conquests. As he pushed over the country, the Dan- 
 ish hosts who yielded to him swore to hold him for 
 their lord, to be one with him, to will all that he 
 willed, to keep peace with all in his peace. At Buck- 
 ingham, Jarl Thurcytel "sought to him to be his 
 
 > Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 163. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 203 
 
 The 
 
 Houw of 
 
 jElfred. 
 
 901 937. 
 
 lord, and all the holds, and almost all the chief men ^J^ak v 
 who owed obedience to Bedford." Farther north, 
 "Thurferth the Jarl and the captains and all the 
 army which owed obedience to Northampton as far 
 north as the Welland . . . sought him to be their lord 
 and protector." At Huntingdon, all who were left 
 of the Danes "sought his peace and protection." 
 Finally, "all the army among the East Anglians 
 swore union with him that they would do all he 
 would, and would observe peace towards all to which 
 the king should grant peace, both by sea and land ; 
 and the army which owed obedience to Cambridge 
 chose him specially to be their lord and protector, 
 and confirmed it with oaths, even as he then decreed 
 it."' In this way no change was made in the actual 
 organization of the country within the Danelaw. 
 Its jarls, its holds, were left gathered round their 
 towns as before. But they had taken Eadward for 
 their lord, and bound themselves by a bond of alle- 
 giance to him. As the English could not be less 
 closely connected with their king than the Danes, 
 such an allegiance soon spread beyond the limits of 
 the Danelaw, and became the bond of the nation at 
 large. In Eadmund's day all men swore to be faith- 
 ful to the king as a man is faithful to his lord, loving 
 what he loves, and shunning what he shuns.'' The 
 king has, in fact, become the lord ; the freeman has 
 become the king's man ; the public peace, or observ- 
 ance of the customary right by man towards man, 
 has become the king s peace, the observance of which 
 
 * E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 918, 921. 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 252. 
 
204 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 Honse of 
 
 2Elfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 Ead-iuard 
 
 and the 
 
 north. 
 
 is due to the will of the lord, and the breach of which 
 is a personal offence against him. 
 
 The caution of Eadward, however, in his advance 
 over the Danelaw, was dictated not only by these 
 administrative difficulties, but by a sense of the mili- 
 tary difficulties of his task. Fight his way onward 
 as he might, and firmly as he secured every step in 
 his path by mound and burh, he knew that the 
 Danes of Mid-Britain were still far from being defi- 
 nitely conquered. After all the triumphs of Ead- 
 ward and of his son, we shall see the Five Boroughs 
 break out in a fierce revolt against their successor, 
 and for a while drive the West Saxons back over 
 the Watling Street. With the existing military sys- 
 tem, in fact, it was impossible to bridle the Danes by 
 efficient garrisons, while to bring them to a content- 
 ed acquiescence in English rule was necessarily a 
 work of time. We can hardly doubt that it w^as a 
 sense of this danger in his rear, as well as of the for- 
 midable nature of the work to be done in the north, 
 which made Eadward halt for a while at the Trent. 
 Instead of a direct march on Northumbria he turned 
 to a distant line of operations, whose aim seemed 
 rather that of defence than of attack. From any 
 direct onset of the Northumbrian Danes on his front 
 the king was nearly secure. The fortresses at Not- 
 tingham and Stafford, with the other burhs on their 
 flank and rear, made a passage of the Trent difficult, 
 if not impossible. But on his northwestern flank 
 the king felt more open to attack. Not only might 
 the Danes of Northumbria break over the western 
 moors by the old Roman road from York to the 
 Ribble, to call the North Welsh to arms, but the 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 205 
 
 House of 
 .Slfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 northwest. 
 
 Ostmen from Ireland might, by a short march across chap. v. 
 the same wild tract, bring aid to their brethren in Thi 
 Northumbria. It was, indeed, this constant succor 
 from Ireland which made the after-conquest of the 
 northern Danelaw so long and arduous a task : and 
 we can hardly doubt that it was a sense of the need 
 of isolating Northumbria from both Welshmen and 
 Ostmen, ere he could safely attack it, which guided 
 the work of Eadward in the northwest. 
 
 In seizing the estuaries of the Dee and the Mer- ^^'' 
 sey by her burhs at Chester and Runcorn, /Ethel- '/>/7ir 
 floed had closed the natural landing-places by which 
 the Ostmen could make their way to York ; but the 
 king aimed at barring their path by fortresses which 
 commanded every road across the moors. While, 
 with his own host, therefore, he set about the build- 
 ing of a town at Thelwall in 923, he sent a Mercian 
 force to occupy the old Roman town of Mancunium. 
 To the north of the estuary of the Mersey a trian- 
 gular mass of hill and moorland juts out from the 
 Pennine range towards the sea, a tract whose slopes 
 and stream-valleys are now the homes of a mighty 
 industry, but which then was silent and desolate.' 
 On the southern side of this tract its waters gath- 
 ered together at a point where the road over the 
 moors from Eboracum came down upon the plain; 
 and at this point had grown up, under the Roman 
 occupation, the town of Mancunium. Since /Ethel- 
 frith's day the town had doubtless lain in ruin ; but 
 life was probably already flowing back to a site 
 marked out for the dwelling of man, when in 923 
 
 ' It still formed part of Northumbria. E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 923. 
 " Manchester in Northumbria." 
 
2o6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cuAP.v. Eadward renewed and "manned" the walls of Man- 
 She Chester.' In the following year he linked these out- 
 'STed' lying strongholds with his general line, by a biirh at 
 90^937. Bakewell, on the upper Derwent among the hills of 
 — the Peak, a point about midway between Manches- 
 ter and the new English conquest of Derby, while 
 he strengthened the key of his position on the Trent 
 by throwing a bridge over the river at Nottingham, 
 and securing it by a second mound and stockade on 
 the southern bank." 
 mss^x Efficient as these fortresses were for purposes of 
 'Tort/i! defence, they were as efficient for purposes of attack ; 
 for from Manchester, or Bakewell, or Nottingham 
 alike the forces of Eadward could close upon York, 
 whether by the western moors or through the fast- 
 nesses of the Peak, or by the marshy levels along 
 the Don. Eadward seems, in fact, to have been 
 preparing for a more formidable struggle than any 
 he had as yet undertaken, a struggle not with the 
 Danes of Northumbria only, but with the leagued 
 peoples of all northern Britain. His victories had 
 wholly changed the political relations which had till 
 now^ existed between the northern states of Britain 
 and the West-Saxon kings. During yElfred's days, 
 as through the earlier days of his son, fear of the 
 Danes had driven the Britons of Strathclyde, with 
 the Bernicians under the house of Eadwulf, to seek 
 the friendship, if not the aid, of the house of Cerdic. 
 The same fear had told even more powerfully on the 
 kingdom of the Scots. Pirate raids had been shat- 
 tering the Scot realm for a hundred years, when in 
 
 » E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 923. 
 » E. Chron. (Winch.), a. 924. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 207 
 
 .Alfred's days' a Norse earldom was set up in the chap. v. 
 Orkneys and became the base for a more systematic iii 
 attack. From this base the " black strangers " had ^j^^^J^ 
 ever since been conquering and colonizing the west- ~ 
 ern Hebrides and winning inch by inch the main- ^°— "^^ 
 land.' From Caithness and the tract to which they 
 have left their name of "Southern-land," or Suther- 
 land, they pushed over Ross and Moray, till, under 
 its present king, Constantine, the Scot kingdom had 
 practically shrunk to little more than the basin of 
 the Tay. Pressed between the Northmen of the 
 Orkneys and the Danes of the Danelaw, the Scots, 
 and in a lesser degree, their western and southern 
 neighbors in Strathclyde and Bernicia, looked nat- 
 urally with friendship to the power in the south 
 which held the Danes at bay. 
 
 But with the triumphs of Eadward and his shier, Sn3,;nssion 
 the dread of the Danes was lifted from these north- j{/t„ 
 ern states ; and no sooner was it removed than it ^"'^'''^ 
 was replaced by a dread of the West Saxons them- 
 selves. As yEthelflaed pushed the Danelaw further 
 from the Welsh border, we see Welsh princes aban- 
 doning the West-Saxon alliance, and turning, though 
 unsuccessfully, to the Dane. And at this moment 
 the approach of Eadward, the steady closing round of 
 his West-Saxon and Mercian hosts, seems to have 
 worked as complete a change of policy in the north. 
 In the gathering of 924 we catch the first signs of 
 that general league of its states which was again and 
 again to front the West-Saxon sovereigns, till it was 
 finally broken by the statesmanship of Eadmund. 
 
 ' Soon after 883. Skene, Celtic Scotland, i. 344, note. 
 ' Skene, Celtic Scotland, i. 341 e/ seq. 
 
208 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Hoase of 
 JBlfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 cHAP.v. While Eadward was establishing his base of opera- 
 Si tions along the southwest of Northumbria, the 
 Scot-king Constantine, with the princes of Strath- 
 clyde and the lord of Bernicia, seem to have 
 gathered to the aid of the Northumbrians. But if 
 this were so, panic must have broken the dream of 
 war, for we know only of this gathering by the sub- 
 mission to which it led. Eadward was already on 
 his march by the route which led through the hills 
 of the Peak, when his advance was arrested, probably 
 at the point whose significant name of " Dor " or 
 " door " marked the pass that opened from them on 
 to the Northumbrian border, and where a hundred 
 years before the north had submitted to Ecgberht. 
 Instead of fighting, the motley company of allies 
 sought Eadward's camp among the hills and owned 
 him as " father and lord/^^^ 
 
 ' " Andliinrchose there to father and lord the Scot-king and all 
 Scot-folk and Regnald, and Eadulf's son. and all that dwelt in 
 Northumbria. whether Englishmen or Danish or Northmen or oth- 
 er and eke the King of the Strathclyde Welshmen, and all Strath- 
 clvde Welshmen."-Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 924. No passage has 
 been more fiercely fought over than this, since the legists of the 
 English court made it the groundwork of the claims which the 
 English crown advanced on the allegiance of Scotland ; and it has 
 of late been elaborately discussed by Mr. Robertson on the one side 
 (Scotland under her Early Kings, ii. 3«4) and Mr. Freeman on the 
 other (Norm. Conq. i. Appendix G). The entry cannot be contem- 
 porarv' for Regnald, whom it makes king in Northumbria. had died 
 three years before, in 921 ; nor is there, indeed, ground for placing 
 the compilation of this section of the Chronicle of Winchester 
 earlier than 975. or the end of Eadgar's reign, some fifty years after 
 the " Commendation " (Earle, Introd. pp. xix.-xxii.) ; and as the " im- 
 perial " claims of the English crown seem to date pretty much from 
 the later days of Eadgar or the beginning of ^thelred's reign, an 
 entry made at that time would naturally take its form from them. 
 I cannot see any difference between this submission of the league 
 in 9-4 and the subsequent submissions of the same confederates 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 209 
 
 The triumph over the northern league was hardly chap. v. 
 won when, in the opening of 925, Eadward died at Si 
 Fearndun in Mercia,' and his son ^thelstan ^Jfed"' 
 mounted the throne.^ After- tradition preserved ^— , 
 lovmgly the memory of ^thelstan's outer aspect — 
 of his slight though vigorous frame, and of ],i^^'''''''"- 
 golden hair.^ Nor did it dwell less lovingly on the 
 character of his rule. In outer greatness, indeed, in 
 his exploits at home as in the position he occupied 
 in the European world, no king of Cerdic's line 
 could vie with the son of Eadward. Nor was his 
 temper less great. The sudden failure of our infor- 
 mation leaves his reign in some ways darker than 
 those of his predecessors ; for the Chronicle of Win- 
 chester breaks down into meagre annals with Ead- 
 ward's death, and from brilliant historic light we 
 pass suddenly into almo st utter darkness.* But the 
 
 after their later outbreaks against ^thelstan, which are clearly 
 mere episodes in the struggle for supremacy in the north. 
 
 ' For date, see Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 925 ; for place. Eng. Chron. 
 (Wore. D.), a. 924. 
 
 ' In the Eng. Chron. of Worcester (or Mercia), we are carefully 
 told that ^thelstan was " chosen king by the Mercians, and hal- 
 lowed at Kingston." The entry shows how stubbornly the Mercian 
 kingdom clung to its separate existence, and how far it was still 
 from regarding itself as fused in a single England. As King of the 
 West Saxons, ^thelstan was doubtless chosen and hallowed at 
 Winchester. 
 
 'Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 213. See also the tradition 
 of his learnmg. ibid. p. 209.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 * From 925 to 975 is the most meagre section of the Winchester 
 Chronicle ( Earle. Par. Chron.. Introd. pp. xviii.-xxii.). The first 
 twelve annals of this period only fill as many lines; and the story 
 becomes even more jfju^t^ as it proceeds, till in Eadgar's day the 
 historic thread is almost wholly lost, though the meagre entries are 
 broken by four great pieces of verse. For ^thelstan's reign we are 
 a little helped by a few insertions in the Worcester copy of the 
 Chronicle (Earle's D). Our main aid is from William of Malmesbury. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 Hoase of 
 
 JEIfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 2IO THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 kincr's acts speak for themselves. Through a reign 
 of fifteen years we see no sign of weakness. At 
 home /Ethelstan proved himself worthy of the 
 knightly sword with which Alfred had girded hmi 
 in his childhood: he was a great soldier and a firm 
 ruler But his ability found a wider sphere than m 
 his own island realm. His temper, indeed, was Eu- 
 ropean rather than merely English.; and m his for- 
 eign policy he showed a breadth of conception, a 
 faculty of combination, a diplomatic adroitness, 
 which was new in the history of our kings. From 
 yEthelwulf onwards the royal house of Wessex had 
 drawn closer to a union with the states of the Con- 
 tinent- but ^thelstan carried out this tendency 
 with a large and well -devised scheme of policy 
 which bound western Europe together against the 
 
 common enemy. . 
 
 League of Bcforc him, at the very outset of his reign, lay the 
 s'^Z'ali difficulty of the north. Eadward's plans for its con- 
 '^'"^'- quest had been checked, first, by the submission of 
 its chieftains to his supremacy, and then by his 
 death ; and the reduction of this remaining half ol 
 the Danelaw thus fell to the lot of his son. For 
 the moment ^thelstan seemed content with the 
 same acknowledgment of his supremacy which had 
 satisfied his father, but the tie was drawn closer by 
 a matrimonial alliance. In January, 925. ^^^^^7^] 
 of the Danes of York, Sihtric, appeared at ^thel- 
 Stan's court, which was then at Tamworth, and took 
 the king s sister to wife.^ The bond, h^owever^^i 
 
 who had before him a life of ^thelstan which is now lost. Williams 
 enthusiasm for ^thelstan. however, is P^^^^y ^"^^b^fJ^/^^^;;^ ^ f 
 bounty to Malmesbuiy. ' Eng. Chron. (Wore.), a. 9-5- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 211 
 
 snapped; for in 926 Sihtric died, as it would seem, chap. v. 
 by a violent death, which may have been provoked Thi 
 by this submission to the English king; and a re- ^^^^t. 
 newal of the old confederacy which had met his ^^—^^ 
 father warned ^thelstan that the time had come to 
 complete his work. His armies marched over the 
 border; the northern Danelaw passed into his 
 hands without a blow,' and its allies bowed to him 
 with as little resistance. In July, ^thelstan was 
 met at a place called Eamot by Howel, King of the 
 North Welsh, and Owen of Gwent, as well as by the 
 Bernician Ealdred from Bamborough and the Scot- 
 king Constantine, " and with pledge and with oaths 
 they bound fast the peace.'" But the Welsh had 
 still to make amends for their disaffection. Sum- 
 moning the chiefs of the North Welsh before him at 
 Hereford, ^thelstan forced them to own his over- 
 lordship as Mercian king, to pay a yearly tribute of 
 corn and cattle, and to accept the Wye as a bound- 
 ary between Welshmen and Englishmen. The 
 West Welsh must have shared in the restlessness of 
 their race, for from Hereford the king marched to 
 Exeter, and, driving the Britons from the half of the 
 
 ' Guthferth, Sihtric's son and successor, was driven out, says Sim. 
 Durh., Gest. Reg. a. 927. The Canterbury Chronicle (Earle, E) 
 places this in 927. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 926. Mr. Skene (Celtic Scotland, i. 351) 
 thinks that by some after-words, "and they renounced all idolatry, 
 and after that submitted to him in peace," the Chronicle "stamps 
 its own statement with doubt." The words, however, may be only 
 a misplaced bit of the actual convention with the Danes of Deira. 
 As to the submission itself, I think it may fairly be questioned 
 whether this is not the real transaction which the Winchester 
 Chronicler (here of no great authority) has transferred to the last 
 year of Eadward the Elder. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 ■ The 
 House of 
 JElfred. 
 
 901-937 
 
 A'l/ig of 
 
 2\'orthuni - 
 
 b) ia. 
 
 2 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 town they had hitherto occupied, girded it with a 
 wall of stone/ Then pushing forward to the Land's 
 End, he forced the Cornwealas to an engagement 
 on a field which tradition places at the hamlet of 
 Bolleit by St. Buryan's, where two huge stones are 
 said to mark the burial-place of those who fell in 
 the final overthrow of their race. The Tamar was 
 fixed as a boundary for the West Welsh of Corn- 
 wall, as the Wye had been made a boundary for the 
 North Welsh of our Wales. From this moment, 
 indeed, we may look upon both peoples as integral 
 parts of the English kingdom, owning their oneness 
 with it by tribute, though, in North Wales at least, 
 breaking their allegiance by occasional revolt. 
 
 That ^thelstan's campaigns in the west did their 
 work is plain from the fact that in the later troubles 
 of his reign we hear no more of West -Welsh or 
 North- Welsh risings. His work, too, seemed fairly 
 done in the north. As yet all was quiet there, 
 ^thelstan carried out his father's policy of a na- 
 tional union in the person of the king by taking to 
 himself the throne of Northumbria ; already King 
 of Wessex and King of Mercia, he became, in 926, 
 after Sihtric's death. King of the Northumbrians.^ 
 The new realm showed no signs of disaffection ; the 
 jarls of the Danelaw indeed, Guthrum and Urm, 
 Odda and Anlaf, Regnwald and Scule, Thurferth 
 and Halfdene, Haward and Gunner, sat peacefully 
 in Witenagemots among .^thelstan's ealdormen. In 
 the same great assemblies Rodward, the Archbishop 
 of York, sat sidebysidejvith ^ the Archbishop of 
 
 ' Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 214. 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 926. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 213 
 
 Canterbury.' We have already seen the importance chap. v. 
 which the destruction of the neighboring sees, and 5^ 
 his lonely position as representing the Engle and ^^i^J' 
 the Christianity of the north, had given to the north- — " 
 ern primate. It was through him, above all, that — 
 ^^thelstan could win hold on the newly conquered 
 kingdom ; and in 934 the death of Rodward enabled 
 the king to secure, as it seemed, this support by the 
 appointment. of a new archbishop of his own, Wulf- 
 stan,^ while grants to Beverley and Ripon ' secured 
 the loyalty of the northern clergy. But ^thelstan 
 was as eager to win over Danes as Englishmen. 
 As we have seen, the fusion of the two races had al- 
 ready begun. Even in yElfred's day we find a young 
 Dane among the scholars at Athelney, Frisian sail- 
 ors manning the royal long-ships, and Norwegians 
 like Othere at court, owning the king as their lord. 
 
 ' In 929, perhaps in a Witenagemot at York, we find among the 
 signatures of "duces et caeteri optimates" those of Guthrum Urm 
 Odda. Anlaf, as well as of " Rodeward quoque Archipr^sul cum 
 Eboracensis sufTraganeis " (Cod. Dip. 347). The Archbishop signs 
 another charter of the same year with " Urmus Dux " and " Guthrum- 
 mus dux" (Cod. Dip. 348). At Lewton, in 931, Orm, Guthrum Ha- 
 ward, Gunner, Thurferth, Hadd, and Scule sign as "duces" (Cod 
 Dip. 353)- In the great Witenagemot of Colchester, in 931, we find 
 Guthrum, Thurum, Haward, Regenwold. Hadd, and Scule as "du- 
 ces" (Cod. Dip. 1 102), and the Archbishop of York. Archbishop 
 VVulfstan agam appears, in 932. in an equally large Witenagemot at 
 Middleton with Uhtred, Thesberd, Guthrum, Urm, Regnwald Hatel 
 Scule, Thurferth, and " Imper" (Cod. Dip. 1107), and in the Wite- 
 nagemot of Wmchester, 934, with " Inhwccr, Halfdene, Oswulf. 
 Scule. and Hadd" (Cod. Dip. 364). 
 
 'The first charter with his signature, if genuine, must belong to 
 this year.— Cod. Dip. 350, with note. 
 
 ' Cod. Dip. 358 (spurious), and the equally spurious riming char- 
 ters to Beverly, Cod. Dip. 359, 360, preserve the memory of these 
 grants. 
 
214 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 215 
 
 cHAP.v. The earlier days of Eadward saw the Danes of 
 
 Si Northumbria take a West-Saxon aetheling for their 
 
 ^^,f kincr, and the Danes of East Anglia follow him as 
 
 — thei> war-leader. The war brought the Northmen 
 
 — ' into close relations, if not with the English, at any 
 
 rate with their royal house ; and the personal rela- 
 tion which the oath of allegiance had established 
 between the king and his new subjects was more 
 than maintained by ^thelstan. Odo, one of his 
 favorite clerks and counsellors, whom he raised 
 about 926 to the bishopric of Ramsbury,' and who 
 afterwards became Archbishop of Canterbury, was 
 certainly of Danish blood, and said to be the son 
 of one of the pagan warriors who landed with Ivar 
 and Hubba.' In all the northern sagas he is repre- 
 sented, in contrast to his successor, as a friend to 
 the Northmen; and though tales like that in the 
 saga of Egil Skallogrimson, of the service of Egil 
 and his brother Thorolf under .^thelstan's banner, 
 can hardly be accepted as history, they at any rate 
 preserve the belief of the north that i^thelstan 
 maintained a force of its warriors at his court, and 
 loved to listen to its skalds. 
 His Wite- As yet this policy of fusion seemed fairly success- 
 n^semots. ^^^ ^ ^^^ Northumbria showed no signs of resistance, 
 and the king's peaceful march on York was followed 
 by eight years of as peaceful acquiescence in his 
 rule. "^The submission of the Welsh , too, seemed 
 
 » Stubbs, Registr. Sacr. Anglic, p. 14- 
 
 ' " Dicunt quidam quod ex ipsis Danis pater ejus esset, qui cum 
 classica cohorte cum Huba et Hinwar veniebant."— Vit. S. Oswaldi 
 Anon., Raine's Historians of Ch. of York, i. 404. " Hie. ut fertur. 
 Ethelstano regi valde carus esset et acceptus."— Eadmer, Life of Os- 
 wald, Angl. Sac. ii. 192. 
 
 complete; for their " under-kings," Howel and Jud- chap. v. 
 wal, Morcant and Owen, sat in the great Witenage- The 
 mots' which mark this period of ^thelstan's reign. mx%^. 
 In ^thclstans Witenagemots, indeed, in the number 901I9S7; 
 and variety of their attendants, England saw some- — 
 what of a foreshadowing of national life." Never 
 before had Danish jarls and Welsh princes, the 
 primate of the north and the primate of the south, 
 nobles and thegns from Northumbria and East 
 Anglia, as from Mercia and Wessex, met in a com- 
 mon gathering to give rede and counsel to a com- 
 mon king. As witan from every quarter of the 
 land stood about his throne, men realized how the 
 Kinoj of Wessex had risen into the Kins: of Ens:- 
 land. Such assemblies could not fail to gather 
 rights about them, though the rights of the witan 
 were determined rather by their actual power as 
 great lords and prelates than by any constitutional 
 theory. But the old Germanic tradition, which as- 
 sociated " the wise men " in all royal action, gave a 
 constitutional ground to the powers which the W^ite- 
 nagemot exercised more and more as English so- 
 ciety took a more and more aristocratic form ; and 
 it thus came to share with the crown in the higher 
 justice, in the imposition of taxes, the making of 
 
 * In that of Lewton, in 931, we find Howel and Jud wal ; in anoth- 
 er of 931, Howel, Judwal, Morcant, Eugenius ; in one of 932, Howel, 
 Judwal, Morcant, Wurgeat ; in the Winchester Witenagcmot of 934, 
 Howel, Judwal, Teowdor ; in the Frome Witenagemot of 934, Howel 
 alone. — Cod. Dip. 353, 1 103, 1 107, 364, 1 1 10. 
 
 ' The Witenagemot at Lewton, in 931, numbered ninety-four per- 
 sons: two archbishops, two Welsh under-kings, seventeen bishops, 
 fifteen duces, and fifty-nine " ministers.' — Cod. Dip. 353. That of 
 Colchester (March, 931) numbered sixty-nine attendants; that of 
 Middleton (August, 932) eighty-six.— Cod. Dip. 1102, 1107. 
 
2l6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 order. 
 
 cHAP.v. laws, the conclusion of treaties, the control of war, 
 
 The the disposal of public lands, the appointment of 
 
 ^^X bishops and great officers of state. There were 
 
 80^937. times when it claimed even to elect or depose a 
 
 — king/ 
 
 Public Under /Ethelstan, however, its work was simply 
 a work of order. The disturbance of society which 
 had been brought about by the Danish wars had 
 forced this work on the king from the very outset 
 of his reign.' The laws enacted in a " great synod" 
 at Greatley, near Andover, for the central provinces, 
 repeated at a Witenagemot at Exeter' for the prov- 
 inces of the west, and again promulgated in like 
 meetings of witan at Feversham and Thunresfeld 
 for Kent and for Surrey, were in effect a code for 
 the regulation of public order,* and above all for the 
 defence of property. The defiance of justice by 
 nobles and thegns, before which the local courts 
 were helpless, stood foremost among the evils of the 
 time. It was an evil which only the growing de- 
 velopment of the "king's justice " could meet. " If 
 any be so rich or of such great kindred," ran the 
 
 ' Kemble, Saxons in Eng. vol. ii. cap. vi. 
 
 "^ " That they would all hold the frith, as King ^thelstan and his 
 witan had counselled it, first at Greatanlea and again at Exeter and 
 afterwards at Feversham, and a fourth time at Thunresfeld before 
 the archbishop and all the bishops and his witan, whom the king 
 himself named who were thereat." — Dooms of London, Thorpe, 
 Anc. Laws, i. 241. " All the witan gave their weds together to the 
 archbishop at Thunresfeld, when iElfeah Stybb and Bryhtnoth 
 Odda's son came to meet the Witenagemot by the king's command." 
 — Ibid. 239. 
 
 ' " At midwinter." — Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 221. 
 
 ♦ We may note that their scope extends only to Wessex : Mercia 
 and the Danelaw had still their separate systems of legislation and 
 government. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 217 
 
 Exeter law, " that he cannot be kept back from rob- chap. v. 
 bery or the defence of robbers, let him be taken out The 
 of that country with wife and child and all his goods ,wfred. 
 into that part of this kingdom that the king wills, be gol-^?. 
 he who he may, whether one of the thegns or vil- 
 leins, on terms that he never return into his own 
 land." ' Nor could any save the king deal with the 
 abuses of the sokes, or private jurisdictions like the 
 later manorial courts, with " the lord who denies 
 justice and upholds his evil-doing men," the " lord 
 who is privy to his theows theft," or the "reeve 
 who is privy to the thieves who have stolen."' 
 Other regulations furthered the social revolution 
 which was replacing the freeman by the lord and his 
 man. For the lordless man, " of whom no law can 
 be got," his kindred were to find a lord in the folk- 
 moot, or he was to be held for an outlaw and slain 
 like a thief.' On the other hand, a lord " who has 
 so many men that he cannot personally have all in 
 his own keeping," was bound to set over each de- 
 pendent township a reeve, not only to exact his 
 lord's dues, but to enforce his justice within its 
 bounds.* 
 
 The growth of public wealth in the midst of this ^"^/'f 
 
 o i. ^ ^ wealth. 
 
 violence was shown by the prominence which the 
 king gives to laws affecting property. Theft be- 
 comes one of the greatest of crimes ; no thief was 
 to be spared who was taken " red-handed," or who 
 strove to defend himself or to flee from arrest' 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 218. 
 
 » Ibid. 201. Mbid. 
 
 * " Praeponat sibi singulis villis praepositum unum.'' — LI.yEthelst, 
 Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 217. 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 199. 
 
2l8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. V. Trade dealings were protected by regulations whose 
 Thi severity defeated its own end. No man might "ex- 
 ^Mu7ed^ change any property without the witness of the 
 907937 ^^^""'^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ mass-priest, or of the land-lord, or of 
 — the hordere, or of other unlying man." The regula- 
 tion that all marketing was to be " within port " or 
 market town, nor was any bargaining lawful on Sun- 
 days,' had but a brief life, for in the mid-winter 
 meeting at Exeter it was explicitly repealed : " Let 
 all the dooms made at Greatley be kept, save those 
 about marketing within port and selling on Sun- 
 days.'" Another enactment shows us that the 
 growth of trade to which these regulations point 
 was o-iving a new importance to the question of the 
 coinage. In the early ages of the English occupa- 
 tion we find only a coarse imitation of the later 
 Roman coinage ; and rude and base as this money 
 was, it probably sufficed for a land whose exchange 
 was mainly conducted by barter. The laws against 
 mutilation of cattle— laws really directed against the 
 damage done to a beast which in a perfect state 
 was the general medium of exchange — and the fact 
 that these laws are embodied in Ine's code, prove 
 that such a mode of payment was still common in 
 the opening of the eighth century in Wessex. But 
 in Kent, the neighborhood of Gaul and the growth 
 of trade would narrow the sphere of such cattle- 
 barter; and the assessment of the ''wer" through- 
 out i^thelberht's law in coin shows that specie-pay- 
 ment was common there a century before Ine's day. 
 It was not, however, till Offa's reign that the grow- 
 ing commerce, as well, no doubt, as the g ro wth of 
 
 * Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 205, 207, 213. 
 
 " Ibid. 218. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 219 
 
 internal trade, forced the regulation of the coinage cHiU'.v. 
 on the English kings as a political matter; and it is t^ 
 significant that Offa drew his standard of value ^?^°^ 
 from the coinage of the Prankish kincrs.' But the ^^r^, 
 union of the kingdoms had now made the substitu- — 
 tion of a national coinage for these local mintages 
 a necessity. " Let there be one money over all the 
 king's land," ran the new law; "and let no man 
 mint save within port." The list of towns where 
 mints were established gives us a rough indication 
 of the comparative greatness of the boroughs in 
 southern Britain. London stood at their head with 
 eight moneyers, Canterbury followed with seven, 
 Winchester with six, Rochester had three coiners, 
 Lewes, Southampton, Wareham, Exeter, and Shaftes- 
 bury two, Hastings, Chichester, and "other burhs'* 
 but one." 
 
 The real difficulty, however, lay not in making, ^'.'VA- 
 but in enforcing the law ; for strong as the crown ^' 
 might be, its strength lay in the king's personal ac- 
 tion, and it w^as far from possessing any adequate 
 police or judicial machinery for carrying its will 
 into effect. To supply such a machinery was the 
 aim of the frith-gilds. Society and justice, as we 
 have seen, had till now rested on the basis of the 
 family, on the kinsfolk bound together in ties of 
 mutual responsibility to each other and to the law. 
 As society became more complex and less station- 
 ary, it necessarily outgrew these ties of blood, and in 
 England this dissolution of the family bond seems 
 to have taken place at the very time when Danish 
 
 ' See Robertson, Histor. Essays, p. 63. 
 ^ Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 207, 209. 
 
220 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. V. incursions and the growth of a feudal temper among 
 a:, the nobles rendered an isolated existence most peril- 
 =Xd°' ous for the freeman. His only resource was to 
 „„— , seek protection among his fellow-freemen, and to re- 
 ^'L!"'- lace the older brotherhood of the kinsfolk by a 
 voluntary association of his neighbors for the same 
 purposes of order and self-defence. The tendency 
 to unite in such " frith-gilds," or peace-clubs, became 
 general throughout Europe during the nmth and 
 tenth centuries, but on the Continent it was roughly 
 met and repressed. The successors of Charles the 
 Great enacted penalties of scourging, nose-slittmg, 
 and banishment against voluntary unions, and even 
 a league of the poor peasants of Gaul agamst the 
 inroads of the Northmen was suppressed by the 
 swords of the Prankish nobles. In England the 
 attitude of the kings was utterly different. The 
 system known at a later time as " frank-pledge," or 
 free engagement of neighbor for neighbor, was ac- 
 cepted after the Danish wars as the base of social 
 order ^.Ifred recognized the common responsi- 
 bility of the members of the " frith-gild " side by side 
 with that of the kinsfolk, and ^thelstan accepted 
 " frith-o-ilds " as a constituent element of borough 
 life in "the dooms of London.' In the frith-gild an 
 oath of mutual fidelity among its members was sub- 
 stituted for the tie of blood, while the gild-feast, held 
 once a month in the common hall, replaced the 
 gathering of the kinsfolk round their family hearth. 
 But within this new family the aim of the gild was 
 to establish a mutual res ponsibility as close as that 
 
 Tfi;^;;perAii^rUws, vol. i., Ine, pp. 113. « 17; Alfred, pp. 79. «> J 
 .lEthelstan. pp. 229. 237- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 221 
 
 lbs 
 
 Honse of 
 
 SUni. 
 
 e01-9S7. 
 
 of the old. "Let all share the same lot," ran its chap. v. 
 law; "if any misdo, let all bear it." A member 
 could look for aid from his gild-brothers in atoning 
 for any guilt incurred by mishap; he could call on 
 them for assistance in case of violence or wrono: ; if 
 falsely accused they appeared in court as his com- 
 purgators ; if poor they supported, and when dead 
 they buried him. On the other hand, he was re- 
 sponsible to them, as they were to the State, for 
 order and obedience to the laws. A wronsr of 
 brother against brother was a wrong against the 
 general body of the gild, and was punished by fine, 
 or in the last resort by expulsion, which left the 
 offender a " lawless " man and an outcast. The one 
 difference between these gilds in country and town 
 was that in the latter case, from their close local 
 neighborhood, they tended inevitably to coalesce. 
 Imperfect as their union might be, when once it was 
 effected the town passed from a mere collection of 
 brotherhoods into an organized community, whose 
 character was inevitably determined by the circum- 
 stances of its origin. 
 
 While the frith-gild w^as thus supplying one, at Theshhe. 
 least, of the elements of a new municipal life within 
 English boroughs, a new organization of the country 
 at large was going on in the institution of the shire. 
 In the earlier use of the word, "shire" had simply 
 answered to " division." The town of York was 
 parted into seven such shires. There were six 
 " small shires " in Cornwall. The old kingdom of 
 Deira has left indications of its divisions in our 
 Richmondshire, Kirbyshire, Riponshire, Hallam- 
 shire, Islandshire and Norhamshire ; just as their 
 
222 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cu^v. lathes and rapes represent, perhaps, the old shires 
 ^e of the kingdoms of Kent and of Surrey. The name 
 ""^J^ was used even for ecclesiastical divisions of tern- 
 ^r^ tory--a diocese is a " bishop's shire," ^ a parish is a 
 ^^- u i^jj-i, shire." But in its later form of a territorial 
 division for purely administrative purposes, the shire 
 was, in fact, the creation of an artificial ^'folk." Its 
 judicial and administrative forms were all those of 
 the " folk " transferred within artificial boundaries ; 
 and the representative life of folk-moot and hun- 
 dred-moot was thus preserved in the shire, with all 
 its incalculable consequences in later English his- 
 tory. • n • 
 neivest. The shire,'so far as we can see historically, is 
 
 Sr specially a West-Saxon institution. The first traces 
 of it, indeed, may probably be found in the earliest 
 acres of West-Saxon history. The original Wessex 
 was, as we have seen, the region of the Gwent, and 
 the earliest portion of West-Saxon conquest within 
 that area was the region we call Hampshire. For 
 this reo-ion we possess no earlier name, and in the 
 name ftself we find traces of a very early date, for 
 Hampshire is but an abridged Hamtonshire, the 
 district that found its centre in the tun that is now 
 represented by our Southampton. Had the forma- 
 tion of this district taken place after the revival of 
 Winchester, and the settlement of the West-Saxon 
 kings and bishops there in the time of Cenwalch, 
 the"" district would naturally have taken such a 
 
 > That of Ealdhelm is styled " Selwoodshire." ^thelweard, a. 
 70Q On the other hand, we may note that Bieda knows only of 
 -dioceses" in Wessex, as he knows only " regiones" in Mercia. 
 
 ' Cenwalch reigned from 643 to 672.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 223 
 
 name as Winchestershire, like our Leicestershire chak v. 
 or Gloucestershire ; but its name of Hamtonshire The 
 points necessarily to an earlier date than this, and ^Eifred. 
 one which cannot be later than the first half of the 9oi~937. 
 seventh century. The name, however, has more to 
 tell us. A shire is necessarily a district " shorn " off 
 from some neighbor district ; and the artificial char- 
 acter of such a "shearing" between Hampshire and 
 Wiltshire is shown in the absence of any distinctly 
 marked local divisions in the bounds between the 
 two shires, while a close connection between the two 
 districts is shown in the similarity of their naming. 
 Not only does Hampshire draw its name from the 
 " tun " of the first Gewissas at Hamton, but the " t " 
 in our Wiltshire shows that the word is only a con- 
 tracted form of Wiltonshire, or the shire that found 
 its " tun " in our Wilton, the settlement made by the 
 Gewissas in the valley of the little W^il or Wiley. 
 It is possible that each tun may have been a gather- 
 ing-place of its shire-folk for moots and sacrifices ; 
 but, however this may have been, we cannot fail to 
 see in the relations of the two an indication not only 
 of the very early existence of the shire institution 
 among the West Saxons, but of the formation of the 
 shire in its earliest shape round a central " tun." 
 
 The West -Saxon origin of the " shire " is con- ^•^^^^'^^^'''' 
 firmed by the fact that its name first occurs in the •f'^"''^- 
 laws of the West-Saxon Ine.' The shire already 
 has its shireman, or shire-reeve, whose primary busi- 
 ness must have been the collection of the royal farms 
 and dues from each district, but who, in assessing 
 these and deciding on clai ms of exemption and the 
 
 * Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 107. 
 
224 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.v. like, must, from the first, have tended to become the 
 Thi judicial officer we find him under Alfred, and to 
 ^mhJ^ take his place in the shire-moot in that capacity be- 
 901^7. side bishop and ealdorman. It is possible, however, 
 — that in Ine's day this shire-organization did not ex- 
 tend beyond the area of the Gwent, with, perhaps, 
 its dependency of the present Berkshire. Wessex, 
 indeed, was already spreading beyond its older 
 bounds ; besides Sussex or Surrey or the districts 
 across the Thames, the West Saxons to the east of 
 Selwood saw a new Wessex to the west of that for- 
 est, in the regions of the Dorsaetan and of the Som- 
 ersaitan. Their conquests, however, in this quarter, 
 were far from being completed in the reign of Ine ; 
 the conquest, in fact, of the southwest, dragged on 
 until the reign of Ecgberht, and it is likely enough 
 that, amid the troubles of the kingdom during this 
 period, the organization of the loosely compacted 
 folks of "ssetan," or settlers, that spread over its va- 
 rious regions, did not receive any definite form till 
 that time. From Ecgberht's day, however, we have 
 grounds for believing that the whole of the West- 
 Saxon kingdom was definitely ordered in separate 
 ♦*pagi," each with an ealdorman at its head, and 
 these " pagi" can hardly have been other than shires.' 
 In the names of the bulk of them, however, we note 
 a striking difference from the names of the two ear- 
 
 » In the course of the Danish descents, at this time, the Chronicle 
 mentions ealdormen of Hamtonshire, of the Wilsaetan. of Surrey, and 
 of Berkshire to the east of Selwood ; of Dorset, Somerset, and Dev- 
 on to the west of it. Asser mentions " Wilton-scire " in 878. He 
 speaks of Chippenham " quae est sita in sinistrali parte Wiltun-scire '' 
 — (ed. Wise), p. 30. In his translation of Orosius, ^Elfred speaks of 
 Halgoland as a *' scyr." 
 
 225 
 
 her shires. The district no longer draws its name chap. v. 
 from the central ''tun." In the case of Somerset, ^. 
 mdeed, such a tun seems to have existed at Somer- ^Z7J^ 
 ton, but it does not give its name to the shire. The .rJ-^, 
 Somerscetan, like the Dorsaetan, had, perhaps, never — * 
 arrived at even the rude unity which, in the Wilsse- 
 tan, is seen raising their central township to an im- 
 portance that enabled it to supersede their name, 
 and to give its own name to the district; while far- 
 ther west the settlement was so sparse that even the 
 settlers failed to print their name exclusively on the 
 land, and it retained its old Welsh title of Devon, or 
 Dyvnaint, side by side with Defnsa^tan. 
 
 In the eastern dominion of the West-Saxon kings n^s/ure 
 the new institution adapted itself equally to the older'" ^^''"'''' 
 kingdoms. Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Essex, became 
 shires equally with the " saetan " of the west, though 
 the retention of their older names showed the 
 strength of their national tradition.' That the 
 shire had spread over them by ^thelstan's time, 
 we may gather from the tenor of his laws, which 
 speak of the shire as the settled political and judicial 
 division throughout Wessex at large." It is more 
 doubtful when it spread over Mid- Britain. Into 
 
 ' Kent, however, is "Kent-shire" in the record of its folk-moot 
 under ^:thelstan.— Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 216. 
 
 » ^thelstan's laws, as I have before pointed out. only concern 
 Wessex ; but they concern all Wessex, as their reception in Kentish 
 and Surrey Witenagemots proves. The "shire-' is always referred 
 to as an old and settled thing. At Thunresfeld, probably in Surrey, 
 the witan pledged themselves "that each reeve should take the wed 
 m his own shire."— Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 241. The London gild- 
 brothers trace a track " from, one shire to another."— Ibid. 237. 
 " Let forfang everywhere, be it in one shire, be it in more, be fifteen 
 pence."— Ibid. 225. 
 
 15 
 
 I 
 
226 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 House of 
 901-937. 
 
 cHAP.v. English Mercia it can hardly have been introduced 
 STe before the annexation of that district by Eadward in 
 qiQ- ' and as the few remaining years of that king 
 are spent in warfare, it probably dates from the days 
 of /Ethelstan. The Mercian kingdom, as its bish- 
 ops' sees show, had been arranged in five distinct 
 resions— the land of the Lindisvvaras, that of the 
 Hwiccas, the original Mercia with its dependencies 
 and its royal city at Tamworth.the land of the Mid- 
 dle Engle about Leicester, and the land of the South 
 Engle, with its see at Dorchester. None of these 
 bore the name of shires ; and in the earliest shire- 
 orcranization their existence is only partially recog- 
 nized The land of the Lindiswaras, indeed, became 
 1 incolnshire.that of the Middle Engle may be equiv- 
 alent -to Leicestershire ; but the other divisions are 
 broken into smaller districts. Thus, in the new or- 
 derincr of English Mercia, the land of the Hwiccas 
 was broken into the shires of Gloucester and Worces- 
 ter while that of the Hecanas became Hereford- 
 shire ; the clearings of the Hwiccas, in the south of 
 Arden, were formed into a shire about /Ethelflaed s 
 new fortress of Warwick, as the dependent districts 
 of the original Mercia along the Dee were made a 
 shire for the fortress of Chester, and the lands of 
 the old South Mercians at the head-waters of the 
 Trent a shire for the fortress of Stafford. All these 
 districts drew their names, like the earlier West- 
 Saxon shi res, from their central " to\v n^;;^ave_Shrop- 
 
 " ■ r^a^t agree with the suggestion that Alfred may have formed 
 the shires of English Mercia. In that case the bounds of the Mer 
 c^n sh res would correspond with the then bounds of the Danelaw 
 Th^they do not do ; which makes a date after the conquest of the 
 Danelaw pretty certain. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 227 
 
 shire, among whose "scrob," or bush, no local centre chap. v. 
 may as yet have grown into life. The 
 
 This connection of the shire with its town centre ^ii^ed!' 
 would necessarily be strengthened when yEthelstan, qq— ^ 
 or his successors, extended the shire system over — . 
 Guthrum's kingdom, or the Five Boroughs; for, as ///^r 
 we have seen, the Danes, with their jarls and holds, ^""'^'''''' 
 had, for the most part, clustered in the towns, and 
 ruled from thence the districts about them. The 
 historic continuity of these districts, indeed, re- 
 mained for the most part unbroken. The land of 
 the Lindiswaras became Lincolnshire ; Nottingham- 
 shire may represent a people of the North Engle, 
 as Derbyshire the northern, and Staffordshire the 
 southern divisions of the original Mercians ; Leices- 
 tershire included the land of the old Middle Ende, 
 as Northamptonshire, it may be, that of the South 
 Engle ; while North-Gyrwa and South-Gyrwa land 
 reappeared as Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire. 
 But here, as in the rest of Mid-Britain, the shire- 
 names are wholly different in character from those 
 to the south of the Thames. The two " folks " of 
 East Anglia alone recall the folk-districts and an- 
 cient kingdoms of southern Britain; Gainas and 
 Hwiccas, Hecanas and Magesaetas, Middle Engle 
 and South Engle, the very name of Mercia itself, 
 alike disappeared from local nomenclature. What, 
 however, distinguishes this district from the rest of 
 Mid-Britain is that here we find a trace of purely 
 artificial divisions. When Eadward, in 91 2, annexed 
 London and Oxford, each town already had " lands 
 which owed obedience thereto," ' lands which could 
 
 * Eng. Chron. a. 912. 
 
228 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAV. V. 
 
 reeve. 
 
 hardlv have been other in extent than the present 
 „. M ddlesi and Oxfordshire, though the phrase itsel 
 H»- <* W hir evidence that they had not, as yet, been brought 
 "- ■ iA n u'e shire system. Middlesex, as we have seen, 
 '^- '• Ted its being to the severance of London from the 
 ri o^Essexf and in the " lands " about Oxford we 
 m-iv possibly see the district won at a tunc when it 
 ;Sed as a'frontier town against Gv^hrums realm. 
 Hertfordshire. Buckinghamshire, and Bedfordshire 
 are other instances of purely military creahon, dis- 
 Sts assigned to the fortresses which Eadward 
 raised at these points.' , 
 
 ne.Hin. In one important point the organization of t e 
 West-Saxon shires does not seem to have been fully 
 carried out in those of the rest of Britain. In \\ es- 
 sex each shire had its ealdorman, the representative 
 no doubt, of its old local independence, and the head 
 
 . ( ♦u^ wV.nlp kingdom in shires is, of course, 
 
 " " T"= ^"f "^Zrl co^P^ ed u'n'u it was permanently uni- 
 
 awork ^^-h'^hc""'*^ "° f" '°^tting subdivisions of southern Eng- 
 
 tcd under Eadgar; and the existing s ,.,_sjubbs, Const. 
 
 Und are all ^-ceable back o h . d,y t the ^lat^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ 
 
 Hist. i. ..9. In ^tdtd'itcln hardly hive been definitely settled 
 
 late '""«'""'°"- „^ p„'^;est as its divisions seem to have been 
 before the Norman Conquest, as retention 
 
 often regarded as a sing e ^^-J^^.^'^'^.^VXlk^nstead of names 
 of the tribal nomenclature m N°'^olkana ^^^ ^ 
 
 drawn from its town centres, -P -^ Jf^^^^i,,, .^e of yet later 
 weaker hold than elsewhere Jhe nortner Conquest, 
 
 date; we only hear of "Yo'-k^h.re on the je e ^_^.^^^ 
 . Durham is the county palatmeoahe Conquer ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ .^ 
 
 out of the patrimony o St. Cuthbert. Lan ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 the twelfth century by )°'"'"VnHred, which in Doomsday, were 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 229 
 
 of its armed force. In Midland Britain, where eald- chai». v. 
 ormen had been accustomed to rule over wider re- The 
 gions than those of the shires, it was, perhaps, im- ^M^^f. 
 possible to identify ealdormanries with each shire, 90^937 
 and we find groups of shires falling under the rule — 
 of the same great officer.' But the shireman, or the 
 shire-reeve, was present in all ; and his presence 
 gives us the clue to the real grounds of the shire 
 system.^ Though its main issues were political, and 
 though its yet more immediate issues probably in- 
 volved the first great national reconstruction of our 
 judicial system, there can be little doubt that its orig- 
 inal aim was strictly financial.' The king's reeve, 
 like the reeve of any one else, was simply the agent 
 through whom the king received whatever was ow- 
 ing to him, whether the customs of a port, or the 
 dues of his thegns, or the customary " firm " and 
 services of a town which lay in his immediate lord- 
 ship. When the shire was once constituted, such 
 an agent was necessary to receive that portion of 
 the proceeds of the shire-court which fell to the 
 crown, and, by a natural extension of this duty, the 
 various sums payable within the limits of the shire 
 as customary dues, heriots, and the like. Each shire 
 was bound to provide, not only a stated number of 
 men for the fyrd, but a stated sum by way of com- 
 position for the revenue which the king would have 
 drawn from what had been the folk-land within its 
 bounds, and at a later time a stated number of ships, 
 or their equivalent in *' ship-money." The gatlier- 
 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 131. 
 
 • For shire-reeve, see Kemble, Sa.x. in Eng. ii. 157 ct seq, 
 
 ' See Cod. Dip. 1323. 
 
2 30 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.v. ing of these sums, as well as of the forfeitures and 
 The fines incurred for absence from moot and host, was 
 ^eu^J! the work of the shire-reeve/ His business, however, 
 8oiu937. ^^'^^ necessarily judicial as well as financial, for half 
 — the work of a shire-court came to consist in the as- 
 certainment, the assessment, and the recovery of 
 such royal dues, as well as fines and forfeitures owed 
 to the crown ; and from presiding over the trial of this 
 class of cases, the shire-reeve could not fail to pass, 
 like the later Barons of the Exchequer, into the posi- 
 tion of a standing judge of the court. The presence 
 of the ealdorman and the bishop, who legally sat 
 with him in the shire-moot, and whose presence re- 
 called the folk-moot from which it sprang, would 
 necessarily be rare and irregular, while the reeve was 
 bound to attend ;' and the result of this is seen in 
 the way in which the shire-moot soon became known 
 simply as the sheriff s court. It is difficult to fix 
 the position of the early shire-reeve, or to trace the 
 steps by which he rose to be a great executive offi- 
 cer, while he absorbed the judicial authority of bish- 
 op and earl' But, from the very nature of the case, 
 it is clear that the process must ha ve been contin- 
 
 » " I command all my reeves," says Cnut, " that they justly pro- 
 vide for me as my own and maintain me therewith ; and that no 
 man need give them anything as farm -aid unless he choose."— 
 Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 413. 
 
 '' It was, in fact, the shire-reeve and not the ealdorman who was 
 the constituting officer^ of the shire-moot.— Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 
 
 134. 
 
 " ^thelstan's laws imply in the reeves a duty of puttmg royal en- 
 actments in force, as in the provisions of the synod of Greatanlea ; 
 and by ^thelred's day this executive character was clearly recog- 
 nized. " If there be any man who is untrue to all the people, let the 
 king's reeve go and bring him under surety," etc.— Thorpe, Anc. 
 Laws, i. 283. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 23 1 
 
 ually going on, and that with the very close relation 
 of finance to government in those early times, the 
 presence of the royal reeve in a shire, and his regu- 
 lar presidency of its court, must, from the first, have 
 brought home to a Mercian or an East Anglian the 
 sense of a national king in a more personal and con- 
 tinuous way than any other agency. 
 
 As the years passed in this work of peaceful or- 
 ganization, and the realm remained unstirred about 
 him, we can hardly wonder that the king looked on 
 hnnself more and more as " Lord of Britain." At 
 his accession he had adopted the style of his prede- 
 cessor as " King of the Angul-Saxons;"' but once 
 master of Northumbria the consciousness of a larger 
 rule blends oddly with the effort to find a common 
 name for the lands beneath his sway. In 927 he 
 calls himself " Monarch of all Britain ;" " two years 
 later, in 929, he is administering " the kingdom of all 
 Albion ;'' " then, after two more years of fluctuation 
 between these titles, we find him, in 933, viewing him- 
 self in a more literal way as " King of the English- 
 folk and of all the nations dwelling with them on 
 every side.'" But in the next year this sobriety of 
 tone is set aside for styles of a more high-flown 
 sort, and ^thelstan announces himself not only as 
 " King of the Angul-Saxons and of all Britain," but 
 as "Angul-Saxon King and Brytenwealda of all 
 these island s, " ' an d by a yet higher reach of language 
 
 ' A grant of 926 says " Angul-Saxonum rex."— Cod. Dip. 1099. 
 I Cod. Dip. 1 100. 3 j5j(j 3^7 
 
 * '' Angligenarum omniumque gentium undique secus habitantium 
 rex."— Cod. Dip. 1 109. In one shape or other this form of the royal 
 style seems to have clung to the English chancery through several 
 reigns. Its real meaning we shall see in Eadred's day. 
 
 * His subscription to the Latin charter, " Angul-Saxonum necnon 
 
 CHAP. v. 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 
 iSlfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 ^theU 
 statis style. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 Home of 
 
 ^tlfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 statis di- 
 plomacy. 
 
 232 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 as '' Basileus of the English and at the same time 
 Emperor of the kings and nations dwelling within 
 the bounds of Britain." ' 
 
 What the worth of such claims really was we see 
 from the fact that at the moment he used them the 
 pompous fabric of his " Empire " was crumbling at 
 ^thelstan's feet. Northumbria had risen,' and with 
 its rising had begun a struggle which was to tax the 
 energies of the West-Saxon kings for thirty years to 
 come, and to end in the virtual disintegration of 
 the English state. In some measure the strife was a 
 result of i^thelstan's own diplomacy. He saw that 
 his holding of the English Danelaw was not merely 
 dependent on himself and the English Danes. The 
 settlement of the Northmen across Watling Street 
 was flanked by like settlements in Ireland and in 
 Gaul ; and no lasting peace could be secured with 
 northern Britain which did not provide against the 
 revival of the struggle by aid from either quarter. 
 The Danes of Deira were closely linked with those 
 of Dublin and W^aterford ; their kings were drawn, 
 in fact, from the same stock, and were often only 
 driven from th e one realm to be o wned a s^rulersjn 
 
 ct totius Britannise rex," is rendered in the English copy, " Ongol- 
 Saxna cyning and brytenwealda ealles thyses iglandaes."— Cod. Dip. 
 1 1 10. The word "brytenwealda" occurs here for the first time; I 
 find no other instance of it in this reign. It is probably borrowed 
 from the entry in the Chronicle which we have before noticed 
 (Making of England, p. 306 ct seq.)\ and, in spite of the ingenious 
 arguments built on it, seems to me merely an instance of the litera- 
 ry archaism and affectation of the time. 
 
 > Cod. Dip. 349. 
 
 ' The imperial style is used in a grant to the Church of Worces- 
 ter, by which i^thelstan hopes to win the favor of the saints in his 
 war with " Anolafa rege Norrannorum, qui me vita et regno privare 
 disponit."— Cod. Dip. 349' 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ^2>Z 
 
 The 
 
 Home of 
 
 J-:ifred. 
 
 901-987. 
 
 the other.' Thus, Sihtric had been king of Dublin, chap. v. 
 and when driven out thence, in 920, became king at 
 York. His son, Olaf, and his brother, Guthferth, 
 had sailed for Dublin on .^thelstan's annexation of 
 Deira. From the actual incidents of the later strug- 
 gle, the danger seems, in fact, mainly to have come 
 from this quarter ; but though Eadward s work in 
 the Ribble country may have been directed to pro- 
 viding against descents from Ireland, we know noth- 
 ing of the policy which was pursued by the English 
 kings in this quarter, and it is clear that the danger 
 from the Northmen in Ireland occupied ^thelstan's 
 mind far less than the danger from the Northmen in 
 Gaul. 
 
 In Gaul, the work of the pirates had long been //''^{/v 
 shrinking within narrower bounds. They had with- ^Sf 
 drawn from the Garonne. They were now little 
 heard of in the Loire. But the movement of defeat 
 was also a movement of concentration; and their 
 attacks fell more heavily than before on the valley 
 of the Seine. Ever since the peace of Wedmore, 
 the Seine valley had been the field of the Northman 
 Hrolf, or, as later story called him, Rollo, a friend of 
 Guthrum of East Anglia, and who drew, no doubt, 
 much of his strength from the English Danelaw. 
 His work had already produced weighty results on 
 the aspect of French politics; for it is to Hrolfs 
 forays along the Seine that France owes her capi- 
 tal and the line of her kings. Paris rose into great- 
 ness as the guard of the Seine valley against his at- 
 tacks, and with it rose the line of Robert the Strong, 
 a warrior to whom the l and round Paris as far as 
 
 ^ Skene, Celtic Scot. i. 351. 
 
2 34. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 235 
 
 cHAP.v. the sea had been granted as a border-land against 
 
 Th^ the Northmen. The defence of Paris by Robert's 
 
 ^STed' son, Odo, in 885, raised his house into rivalry even 
 
 — ^ with the descendants of Charles the Great ; and, in 
 
 — ' the confusion which followed on the death of the 
 
 successor of Lewis and Carloman, Odo became King 
 of the western Franks. But his throne was dis- 
 puted by a Karolingian claimant, Charles the Sim- 
 ple ; and a strife for the crown, which opened be- 
 tween the king at Paris and this rival king at Laon, 
 hindered the first from doing his work against the 
 pirates of the Seine. Beaten off again and again, 
 Hrolf, with Northern stubbornness, still made his 
 way back to Rouen, and in 912 his obstinacy found 
 its reward, for in the treaty of Clair-on-Epte, Charles 
 the Simple granted to the Northmen the coast at the 
 mouth of the Seine, from the sea to the Epte. 
 Its results. No cvcut of the time can compare in importance 
 with the settlement of Hrolf and his comrades in 
 their new " Northman's land." In France its effects 
 were felt at once. What mainly brought about the 
 treaty was, no doubt, the rivalry between the Karo- 
 lingian house and the house of Robert the Strong. 
 Charles, in fact, sought to weaken the duchy of Paris 
 by carving Hrolf s country out of it, and by cutting 
 off his rivals from the sea. But the settlement not 
 only weakened his rivals, it strengthened Charles 
 himself. The dread that the Parisian dukes would 
 strive to win back again the best part of their duchy, 
 bound the Normans to the cause of the Karolingian 
 kings ; and that the house of Charles the Great still 
 kept a hold on western Frankland for more than 
 seventy years was due mainly to the help it drew 
 
 from the Normans of the Seine. But all thouo-ht chap. v. 
 of the effects which Hrolf's settlement produced on Thi 
 the fortunes of France is lost for Englishmen in the ^l^^f, 
 thought of its effect on the fortunes of England. 90II937. 
 From the hour when the Northmen settled at the — 
 mouth of the Seine, the story of the country which 
 then became Normandy interweaves itself with the 
 story of the English people. As we pass nowadays 
 through the Northman's land it is English history 
 which is round about us. The names of hamlet af, 
 ter hamlet have memories for English ears ; a frag- 
 ment of castle wall marks the home of the Bruce ; a 
 tiny village preserves the name of the Percy ; while 
 English religion and English literature look back 
 with a filial reverence to the valley buried deep in 
 its forest of ash-woods, through which wanders the 
 rivulet of " Bec-Herlouin." In the huge cathedrals 
 that lift themselves over the red-tiled roofs of Nor- 
 man market towns we recognize the models of those 
 mightier fabrics which displaced the lowly churches 
 of early England. On the windy heights that look 
 over orchard and meadow-land rise the square, gray 
 keeps which Normandy gave to the cliffs of Rich- 
 mond and the banks of the Thames. One thought is 
 with us as we pass from Avranches to the Bresle, and 
 this thought, the thought of England's conquest by 
 the Norman, becomes a living thing as we stand with- 
 in the minster which the Conqueror raised at Caen. 
 
 But long before William's day the fortunes of the "^^'^ 
 one people had told on those of the other. From ^ormmt- 
 the first hour of the Norman settlement in the val- '^* 
 ley of the Seine, the history of Normandy linked 
 itself closelv with that of Eno^land, for the rise of a 
 
 ! 
 
2 36 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 '^11 
 
 CHAP. V. Danelaw across the Channel gave a new force to the 
 ^e Danelaw in Britain.' Whatever hopes of preserving 
 "^^^r^f peaceful relations with the Northmen over Watling 
 901^37 Street may have been cherished by the house of 
 — ■ Alfred passed away with the settlement of their 
 brethren in this new Northman's land.' As help 
 from the Danelaw had created Normandy, so help 
 from Normandy was likely to give a new strength 
 to the Danelaw ; and the part which the Irish Ost- 
 men had played till now in succoring and re-arous- 
 ing the English pirates would probably from this 
 time be played by the followers of Hrolf. The dan- 
 ger grew with the rapid growth of the new settle- 
 ment Hrolf was a statesman as well as a warrior ; 
 and throughout the reign of Eadward he was building 
 up a state by policy as well as by arms. It was with 
 a statesman's instinct that he clung to the king who 
 had given him the Northman's land. It was Hrolf's 
 sword that supported Charles the Simple against his 
 enemies— against Odo's son, Duke Robert of Pans, 
 and against Robert's son, Hugh the Great. Amidst 
 all the king's misfortunes the Norman leader stood 
 firm to the Karolingian cause ; it was as a loyal sub- 
 ject that he carried his raids over the Parisian duchy 
 
 » According to all the Norse sources. Gonguhrolf, or Hrolf, was of 
 Norse bloodrthough in Norman and French accounts Dudo and his 
 successors, who called him Rollo, make him a Danish prince. But. 
 though the accounts that make Hrolf a Norwegian are probably 
 rieht. Steenstrup holds, and Maurer on this point agrees with him. 
 that the overwhelming majority of the host that followed him into 
 Normandy were of Danish descent. See K. Maurer's review of 
 Steenstrup in the Jenaer Literatur-zeitung, 4th series. No. 2, Jan. 13, 
 1877. p. 2;.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 ' For Hrolf "s help to Guthrum against Alfred, see Lappenbcrg. 
 
 ii. 7^72. 
 
 and penetrated even to Burgundy, till his energy and chap. v. 
 fidelity were rewarded by the addition of the i3essin, Th^ 
 the district about Bayeux, to the Northman's land. ^^^^^^ 
 In extent, therefore, as in warlike fame, the power ^oilw? 
 of the Normans had almost doubled at the opening ~ 
 of ^thelstan's reign ; and while the stern hand 0} ^^!^ 
 their leader had fashioned his pirates into a people, '''"'"'* 
 whose numbers, no doubt, grew with an influx of 
 Northmen from the English Danelaw as it passed 
 under West-Saxon sway, his political ability was shown 
 in the ease with which the settlement was completed 
 and the peace that he made throughout the land. 
 Nor were the power and ability of his son, William 
 Longsword, less than those of Hrolf himself. Will- 
 iam's attitude in the strife between king and duke 
 was that of his father ; while within he earned on 
 with even greater vigor the conversion and civiliza- 
 tion of his people. But of this civilization of the 
 Normans, this instinctive drawing closer to the Christ- 
 endom about them, which was to be the key-note of 
 their history, the France and the England of the 
 day knew nothing. They saw simply a settlement 
 in the heart of Western Christendom of men who 
 had, for a hundred years past, been slaughtering and 
 ravaging over Christian lands. The French spoke 
 of them for years to come as " pirates," and called 
 their chieftain " the Pirates' Duke." Endand nat- 
 urally looked on them as a political danger of the 
 gravest sort. The growing extension of their terri- 
 tory along the coast fronted her southern shore with 
 a Danelaw more powerful than the Danelaw she had 
 struck down ; a Danelaw which threatened the hold 
 of England on the Channel, and cut off its commu- 
 
 I 
 
2,8 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciur.v. nications with the rest of Christendom. Powerful, 
 too, as Hrolf's duchy was in itself, it was yet more 
 
 901 937. 
 
 ™"ed°' formidable as giving a new centre to the energy ot 
 ■ the Northmen. Beneath all the wild talk of the ear- 
 liest Norman chroniclers, we see that Normandy be- 
 came from the f^rst the centre of the pirates' life. It 
 the boast that English and Irish obeyed the com- 
 mands of William Longsword, or the dukes that fol- 
 lowed him, may be safely set aside, it points to a 
 real influence which the dukes wielded over the body 
 of the Danes in England as in Ireland. It was this 
 unitv of life and action among the Northmen which 
 made Normandy so formidable a foe. Every pirate 
 settlement was in a state of constant ebb and flow. 
 The Northman who fought to-day on the Littey 
 mic'ht settle to-morrow on the Trent, while a year 
 after he might be ravaging along the Seme or the 
 Rhine That Hrolf's men were tilling their lands 
 in the Bessin or the Pays de Caux gave no surety 
 that when harvest was gathered in their boats might 
 not be swarming in the H umber or the Colne. And 
 with help such as this the work of the house of /El- 
 fred micrht be undone in an hour ; for, conquered as 
 it was, the Danelaw waited only for the call of Nor- 
 man or Ostman to rise against its conquerors. 
 
 From the moment of their settlement, therefore, 
 at the mouth of the Seine, the eyes of the English 
 kino-s had been fixed anxiously on the Normans; 
 and°the result of their anxiety had already been seen 
 in the birth of a foreign policy. It was dread of the 
 Normans which first drew England into connection 
 with lands beyond the sea. Northward, eastward, 
 and southward the Norman pressure was felt by the 
 
 EttgUsh 
 alliances. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 239 
 
 States which girt in the new duchy, by Flanders and 
 Vermandois, as by the great French duked(3m and 
 the wilder Bretons. All had in turn felt the Norman 
 sword ; all dreaded, even more than Endand itself, 
 attack from Normandy ; and all sought to strength- 
 en themselves against it by bonds of kinship and di- 
 plomacy. While facing the Danes at home, the 
 English kings had sought to guard themselves 
 against attack from abroad by joining in this move- 
 ment of union. The marriage of .Alfred s daugh- 
 ter, yElfthryth, with Count Baldwin, of Flanders, vvas 
 the first instance of a system of marriage alliances 
 which the English kings directed from this moment 
 against the common foe; and the same purpose may 
 be seen in the marriage of Eadwards daughter, 
 Eadgifu, with the Frankish king, Charles the Simple.' 
 ^thelstan not only adopted his fathers policy, 
 but carried it out on a far wider scale. He had 
 hardly mounted the throne when he wedded one of 
 his sisters, Eadgyth, to Otto, the son of the German 
 king Henry," and two years later a fresh political 
 marriage linked him to a power nearer home. The 
 second marriage followed on a change which passed 
 at this moment over French politics. Whatever 
 hopes of aid against the Normans yEthelstan may 
 have drawn from his sister's marriage with Charles 
 were foiled by the claim to the Frankish crown which 
 w^as now made by Rudolf of Burgundy, a brother- 
 in-law of Duke Hugh of Paris ; for this fresh attack 
 of the Parisian house necessarily threw^ Charles back 
 
 ' Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 197. 
 
 "^ Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 924. " Offic Eald Seaxna cynges suna." 
 But see, for date, Lappenberg, Hist. Angl. Sax. ii. 134. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 Houie of 
 
 -Klfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 
 yEthd- 
 
 stall's early 
 
 folicy. 
 
240 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 241 
 
 cHAP.v. on his old policy of seeking aid from the pirates at 
 S; Rouen. The English king, therefore, turned at once 
 ^^b^ to the house which this new phase of politics marked 
 ,-,; out as the pirates' foe; and in 926 a marriage was 
 "'il''- ^^rranged, through the intervention of the Count of 
 Boulogne, the son of Baldwin of Flanders and the 
 English .^Ifthryth, between .tthelstan's sister Ead- 
 hild and Hugh the Great/ The splendid embassy 
 with which the Duke of Paris sought Eadhild's hand 
 shows the political importance of the match ; and its 
 weicrht may have told on the renewal of the strug- 
 gle between Rudolf and Charles, which followed it 
 But it told more directly on the strength of England 
 by absorbing the forces of William Longsword in 
 the years during which ^thelstan was annexing the 
 Danelaw over the Humber, and turning into a prac- 
 tical sovereignty his supremacy over the Welsh. 
 ^a^is^rn Abroad, therefore, /Ethelstan's schemes seemed 
 ^:^'i^'^- as successful as at home. His French confederates 
 ' not only held their own against the Karolingian king, 
 but gave full occupation to the Norman duke. In 
 029, indeed, the death of Charles the Simple left Will- 
 iam Longsword alone in the face of his foes. Ru- 
 dolf was now the unquestioned master of France ; 
 and in the following year his victory over the North- 
 men of the Loire was a signal for a combined attack 
 on the Normans of the Seine. While Hugh the 
 Great pressed them from the south, the Bretons over 
 whom Hrolf and his son had asserted vague claims 
 of supremacv, and from whom they had wrested the 
 Bessin put the Norman colonies in the newly-won 
 land to the sword and attac ked Bayeux. But the 
 
 — X Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 216, 217. 
 
 sword. 
 
 hopes of i^thelstan were foiled by the vigor of Will- 
 iam Longsword. Not only were the Bretons swept 
 back from the Bessin, but their land of the Coten- 
 tin, the great peninsula that juts into the British 
 Channel, became Norman ground, while their lead- 
 er, Alan, fled over sea to the English court.' The 
 choice of his refuge points to the quarter from whence 
 this attack on Normandy had probably come. If 
 direct attack, however, had broken down, ^thelstan 
 was more fortunate in the skill with which he wove 
 a web of alliances round the Norman land. Flan- 
 ders was already knit to the new England through 
 Count Arnulf, a grandson of ^^Ifred, like ^thelstan 
 himself. The Count of Vermandois was on close 
 terms with the English king. The friendship of 
 the Parisian duchy came with the marriage of Duke 
 Hugh; while Brittany was still at the kings ser- 
 vice, and ^thelstan could despatch Alan again to 
 carry fresh forays over the Norman border. Already- 
 troubled with strife within his own country, William 
 Longsword saw a ring of foes close round him and 
 threaten a renewal of the struggle for life. But the 
 quickness and versatility of the duke were seen in 
 the change of front with which he met this danger. 
 The claims of the Karolingian house on his fidelity 
 had ceased with the death of Charles the Simple; 
 no Karoling claimant for the throne appeared, and 
 William was able, without breach of faith, to sell his 
 adhesion to Rudolf of Burgundy. By doing hom- 
 age to Rudolf, in 933, he not only won peace with 
 
 ' Alan was Eadward's ward, and had come, in 931, from the Eng- 
 lish court. See Lappenberg, ii. 138, with the note, and p. 107, with 
 note. 
 
 16 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 
 JEUfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
242 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 c,..r. V. the Parisian dukes, but a formal cession of his new 
 ST. conquests in the Cotentin ; and the dissolution of 
 "ir;' the leacjue left him free to deal with A-thelstan. 
 "^•^ A descent of the Ostmen from Ireland on the 
 '"'-^"- shores of Northumbria warned the English king of 
 r3t.f William's power to vex the land ; and while it woke 
 ""T""- fresh dreams of revolt in the Danelaw, encouraged 
 ""• the Scot king, Constantine, to weave anew the threads 
 of the older confederacy against the English king. 
 In 034,' though the presence of the northern pnmate 
 and some of The Danish jarls at his court show that 
 Northumbria still remained true to him, the grow- 
 ing disturbance forced ^thelstan to march with an 
 army into the north,' and to send a fleet to harry the 
 Scottish coast. But its ravages, if they forced Con- 
 stantine to a fresh submission, failed to check h'^V\- 
 trigues, or to hinder him from leagumg with Eadred 
 of Bernicia and the Irish Ostmen to stir up a fresh 
 rising of the Danelaw. With the Ostmen Constan- 
 tine was closely connected through their leader An- 
 laf or Olaf, a son of the Northumbrian king, Sihtric, 
 who had found refuge at the Scottish court on his 
 fathers de^th^^ndjoiwEthelst^^ 
 
 "Sk^i^eltic Scotland, i. 352. 
 
 2 Fncr rhron (Wore), a. 934 ; (Winch.), a. 933. , . , , 
 
 . The grant'lo Worcester iust before his march agamst " AnoUifa 
 
 reee Norrannorum qui me vita et regno pnvare d.spomt Cod J^P^ 
 
 ?io^ is attested by •' Rodewoldus archiep.scopus " (a blunder for 
 
 w^u !,n\ ^nd • Healden du.v" Wulfstan is again present m a W.t- 
 
 o, at Frome at the close of the year, on the king's return 
 
 rf Xe "onrDeclm'bL, 934-. but n^ northern names appear 
 
 rSi'm''Du'rrHT^.tu''neU'E°cc.. lib. ii. c. ,8 (T.^sden, p^.5). 
 
 * ^'"'- ^".' hL nlwino reee Cumbrorum et Constantino rege Scot- 
 
 ;'rurt:rS e?rauTerdtu Scotiam sibi subiugando perdo- 
 
 muit." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 243 
 
 realm. Constantine had first shown the change chap. v. 
 which had taken place in his political sympathies Ly lae 
 giving Olaf his daughter to wife ;' and after the ear- ^SSd^' 
 lier failure of their plans Olaf had sailed to Ireland, oni «^- 
 and, placing himself at the head of the Ostmen, again — 
 lent himself to the plots of the Scottish king. The 
 influence of Olaf was seen in the withdrawal of the 
 northern jarls from the English court within a year 
 or two after the campaign of 934 ;' and when, in 937, 
 he appeared with a fleet off the Northumbrian coast, 
 the whole league at once rose in arms. The men 
 of the northern Danelaw found themselves backed 
 not only by their brethren from Ireland, but by the 
 mass of states around them — by the English of Ber- 
 nicia, by the Scots under Constantine, by the Welsh- 
 men of Cumbria or Strathclyde. It is the steady 
 recurrence of these confederacies which makes the 
 struggle so significant. The old distinctions and 
 antipathies of race must have already, in great part, 
 passed away before peoples so diverse could have 
 been gathered into one host by a common dread of 
 subjection, and the motley character of the army 
 pointed forward to that fusion of both Northman 
 and .Briton in the general body of the English race 
 which w^as to be the work of the coming years. 
 
 At the news of this rising, /Ethelstan again marched ^''««'^''- 
 into the north. He met his enemies on the unknown 
 
 field of Brunanburh,' and one of the noblest of Ene- 
 
 ^ ^ o 
 
 ' Skene, Celtic Scotland, i. 352. 
 
 ' We find no Danish names among the attesting duces through- 
 out the rest of ^thelstan's reign. 
 
 " The Winchester and other Chronicles insert under 937 the first 
 of the four poems which treat of the annals of this period, the Song 
 of Brunanburh. The only other detailed account of the strife is in 
 the Egils Saga (in Johnstone, Antiq. Celto-Scandicae, p. 42, etc.); 
 
 ij 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 
 Jilfred. 
 
 901-937. 
 
 2. . THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 lish war-songs has preserved the memory of the fight 
 that went on from sunrise to sunset. The stubborn- 
 ness of the combat proves that brave men fought on 
 either side. The shield-wall of the Northmen stood 
 long against the swords of ^thelstan and his brother 
 Eadmund ; the Scots fought on till they were "weary 
 with war." But the West Saxons, " in bands of cho- 
 sen ones," hewed their way steadily through the mass- 
 es of their foe, their Mercian fellow-warriors '' refused 
 not the hard hand-play," and at sunset the motley 
 host broke in wild flight. " The Danes," shouts the 
 exulting singer, " had no ground for laughter when 
 they played on the field of slaughter with Eadward's 
 children." Five of their kings and seven of their jarls 
 lay among the countless dead. Olaf ' only saved his 
 life by hastily shoving out his boat to sea and steer- 
 ing for Dublin with the remnant of his men, while 
 Constantine left his son covered wdth death-wounds 
 in the midst of his slaughtered war-band. The old 
 king's faithlessness had stirred a special hatred in 
 the conquerors. " There fled he— wise as he was— 
 to his northern land ! No cause had he, the hoary 
 fighting man, for gladness in that fellowship of 
 swords^! no cause had he, the gray-haired lord, the 
 old deceive r, for boastfulness in the bill-crashing."' 
 
 but the saga is of too late a date and too romantic a character to be 
 used as an historical authority. The site of Brunanburh is still un- 
 determined. Mr. Skene (Celtic Scotland, i. 357) would fix it at Aid- 
 borough ; but Mr. Freeman and Professor Stubbs abandon the effort; 
 to localize it in despair. The " Brunanburh " of the song becomes 
 in the saga " Vinheidi," and in Simeon of Durham (Gest. Reg. and 
 Hist. Dunelm.) " Wendune " and " Weondune." Flor. of Worcester 
 places it by the mouth of the H umber. 
 
 ' Skene distinguishes this Olaf of Dublin from Olaf, Sihtric's son. 
 who seems to have returned to Scotland with Constantine.— Celtic 
 Scotland, i. 357. ' E"g- ^h^^"' ^- 937- 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WESSEX AND THE DANELAW. 
 
 937-955. 
 
 ^ From the battle-field of Brunanburh, where "dun 
 kite and swart raven and greedy war-hawk" were 
 sharing the corpses with the "gray wolf of the 
 wood," ^thelstan turned with a glory such as no 
 English king had won. The fight, sang his court- 
 singer,' was a fight such as had never been seen by 
 Englishmen, " since from the east Engle and Saxon 
 sought Britain over the broad sea." A hundred 
 years later, indeed, men still called it " the great 
 fight." ' Nor was the victory a doubtful one. " The 
 two brothers, king and astheling, sought their own 
 land,^ the land of the West Saxons, exulting in the 
 war." But, victory as it was, Brunanburh marks the 
 beginning of a great defeat. The national union 
 which had been conceived by Alfred, and partially 
 carried out by Eadward and ^thelstan, could only 
 be embodied in the king himself; it was only by a 
 common obedience to one who was at once King of 
 the West Saxons, King of the Mercians, King of the 
 Northumbrians, and Lord of the Jarls of Mid-Britain, 
 that West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, and Dane 
 couldjorget their distinctions of locality and race, 
 
 severance 
 of the 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 937. 
 
 ' .^Ethelweard, lib. iv. c. 5. 
 
 B 
 
246 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Wesiex 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-955. 
 
 CHAP. VI. and blend in a common England. Such a three- 
 "~ fold kingship and lordship of the Dane i^thelstan 
 had won in his earliest years of rule; and the years 
 of peace which had passed since the submission of 
 Northumbria seemed the beginning of a time of 
 national union. But wit^ the rising under Olaf the 
 prospect of union vanished like a dream. Van- 
 quished as it was, Northumbria was still strong 
 enough to tear itself away from the king's personal 
 grasp, and to force ^thelstan to restore its old un- 
 der-kingship, with the isolated life which that king- 
 ship embodied. The hard fighting of his successors, 
 if it forced the north to own their supremacy, never 
 succeeded in bringing it again within their personal 
 sovereignty: the under -kingdom was, indeed, re- 
 placed later by an earldom, but the land remained 
 almost as much apart from the kingdom at large 
 under earl as under under-king; and on the very 
 eve of the Norman Conquest, no king's writ ran in 
 the Northumbria of Siward. 
 The system ^hc sevcrancc of the north, in fact, was the first 
 %!amies. step in a process of reaction which was to undo much 
 that the house of .Alfred had done. The growth of 
 the monarchy, aided as it was by the strife against 
 the Dane and by the personal energy of the kings 
 themselves, had carried it beyond the actual bounds 
 of English feeling. The national sentiment which 
 the war had created, real as it was, was as yet too 
 weak to set utterly aside the tradition of local inde- 
 pendence, and to look solely to a national king. It 
 had carried the monarchy, too, beyond the actual pos- 
 sibilities of government. Government, as we have 
 seen in .^thelstan's efforts to restore order in Wes- 
 
 247 
 
 sex, rested, from the very necessities of the time, on chap. vr. 
 the presence and personal action of the king. The w^tix 
 administrative machinery by which later rulers. Nor- Da^Uw 
 man or Angevin, brought the land within the grasp 'ttJ* 
 of a central power was still but in its beginning. — 
 Their great creation of a judicial machinery for the 
 same purpose had as yet hardly an existence. The 
 disorder which taxed the king's energies south of 
 the Thames must have been even greater in the 
 tract over which the war had rolled to the north of 
 It ; and his occasional visits to Mercia or the Dane- 
 law could give little of the succor which Wessex felt 
 from his presence within it. It was the weight of 
 these political and administrative needs that was felt 
 in the second decisive step towards the disintegra- 
 tion of the realm, the creation of the great ealdor- 
 manries. yElfred, indeed, had led the way in this 
 creation by his raising ^thelred into the Ealdorman 
 of English Mercia. But the danger of such a meas- 
 ure at once disclosed itself; for though yEthelred 
 acted strictly as an officer of the king, summoning 
 the witan by his license, and seeking confirmation 
 from him for judgment or grant, yet the tradition of 
 local kingship and of individual life in the country 
 itself raised him into a power which Eadward felt 
 to be inconsistent with any union of the peoples 
 round a common king. At ^thelred's death, there- 
 fore, he found no successor; and on the death of the 
 Lady, his wife, Mercia was taken under the direct 
 rule of the crown. The policy of Eadward was in 
 his earlier years the policy of ^thelstan himself. 
 There was no restoration of the Mercian ealdorman, 
 still less any indication of the extension of the sys- 
 
248 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VI. tern over other parts of the reahn. With the shock 
 wi^x of Brunanburh, however, and with the renewed iso- 
 
 D?neuw. lation of northern Britain, such an extension seems 
 
 937^35 ^o ^^^"^^ become inevitable ; and it was in the later 
 
 — ' years of itthelstan, or in the short reign of Ead- 
 
 mund which followed, that we find the system of 
 
 ealdormanries adopted as a necessary part of the 
 
 organization of Britain. 
 
 /fs limita' j3Qt though this revival of the old political divis- 
 ions seemed the only form of organization open to 
 the English kings, their subsequent measures show 
 that they were not blind to its defects. If the ear- 
 lier kingdoms were restored, the place of the king 
 in each was taken by an ealdorman, who, however 
 independent and powerful he might be, was still 
 named by the West-Saxon sovereign, and could be 
 deposed by that ruler and the national Witan ; while 
 his relation to the folk he governed was that of a 
 stranger, and had none of the strength which the 
 older kings had drawn from their position as repre- 
 sentatives of the blood of their races. In the sec- 
 ond place, these ealdormen were bound to the West- 
 Saxon throne by their own royal West-Saxon blood.' 
 As we have seen, the growth of Wessex had been 
 simply an extension of the West-Saxon race, and as 
 a result of this its various divisions had been com- 
 mitted to the charge of ealdormen chosen from the 
 one royal stock. Different as were the circum- 
 • stances before them, ^thelstan or Eadmund fol- 
 lowed the tradition of their house in committing the 
 states of Mid -Britain to ealdormen of their own 
 blood. Such an arrangement seemed a security 
 » Robertson, Hist. Essays, "The King's Kin." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 249 
 
 against their reviving the claims of the folks they chap. vi. 
 ruled to their old national independence, and in this w^z 
 respect it was certainly successful, for from this time ©"SfeUw 
 we hear of no attempt on the part of any of these 33^* 
 states to break away from the common English -- 
 realm. But, on the other hand, as the history of 
 Wessex itself in the past had shown, it brought with 
 it another danger. These princes of the blood, 
 with the weight of their states behind them, could 
 bring heavy pressure to bear on the royal govern- 
 ment. Their kinship drew them into close rela- 
 tions with the court, which soon became the scene 
 of their struggle for supremacy and of their mutual 
 rivalries, until the anarchy of early Wessex was re- 
 produced in that of England under ^thelred the 
 Second. 
 
 The aim of the crown in creating the first of these Creation 
 great ealdormanries, that of East Anglia,' was prob- e{!/ern 
 ably to weaken the Danelaw by detaching from it^'^t^r'' 
 all that was least Danish, and that could be thor- 
 oughly re- Anglicized as a portion of the English 
 realm. The ealdordom was intrusted to y^thel- 
 stan, a noble of the royal kin,' and stretched far be- 
 yond East Anglia itself to include the old country 
 
 ' The date of its creation is really uncertain ; but Lappenberg, 
 from the Hist, of Ramsey, assigns it to /Ethelstan's reign. 
 
 ' He "exchanged his patrimonial forty hides in his native prov- 
 ince of Devon for the forty hides at Hatfield, which Eadgar gave 
 to Ordmaer and his wife."— Robertson, Hist. Essays, p. 179. His 
 father's name was ^thelred (Cod. Dip. 338), but this "can hardly 
 be the king of that name who died eighty -five years before the 
 name of ^thelstan is missed from the charters.*' He may have 
 been his f^randson. ^thelstan's name "is found in connection 
 with the charters of his great namesake."— Robertson, Hist. Essays, 
 p. 180, with note. 
 
2 50 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-995. 
 
 CHAP. VI. of the Gyrwas about the fens,' with perhaps North- 
 wwiex amptonshire, and the district of Kesteven. Probably 
 about the same time was created the ealdormanry 
 of the East Saxons, by the elevation of ^^Ifgar, the 
 father of Eadmund's queen, /Ethelflaed, at Domer- 
 ham,' who was succeeded by Byrhtnoth as husband 
 of his daughter, i^lflaed. Essex' seems to have in- 
 cluded, besides the shire of that name, those of Ox- 
 ford and Buckingham, and also possibly that of 
 Middlesex with London/ Taken together, the two 
 ealdormanries formed, in fact, the kingdom of Guth- 
 rum in its largest extent, and as the East-Saxon eal- 
 dormen, whether from kinship or no, seem to have 
 uniformly acted in union with those of East Anglia, 
 iCthelstan became practically lord of all eastern 
 Britain, and his nickname of the " Half-king" shows 
 that he was soon recognized as a force almost equal 
 to that of the crown. 
 
 In the years that followed Brunanburh, however, 
 even if any ealdormanry were as yet created, the 
 results of its creation were unseen ; and the care of 
 
 Eric 
 
 Bloody- 
 
 axe. 
 
 * " The diocese of Dorchester, as it existed in the tenth century, 
 though once a portion of the Mercian kingdom, was not included 
 under the jurisdiction of the Mercian ealdorman. The shires of 
 Bedford. Hertford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Northampton, with 
 the district of Kesteven, seem to have belonged to the ealdordom 
 of ^thelwine of East Anglia ; and as in the reign of ^thelred the 
 reeves of Oxford and Buckingham were brought to task by Leof- 
 sige, Ealdorman of Essex, the remainder of the diocese would appear 
 to have been placed under the ealdorman of the East Saxons." — 
 Robertson, Hist. Essays, p. i8i. The boundaries of the eastern eal- 
 dormanries, however, must be regarded as very uncertain. 
 
 » iElfgar died about 951-953.— Robertson. Hist. Essays, p. 189 ; E. 
 Chron. a. 946. ' ^ee note, ante, 
 
 * This, however, is only an inference from facts m themselves un- 
 certain. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 251 
 
 i^thelstan was centred mainly in the north. As we ^HAP.vr. 
 have said, his victory was far from restoring his wi^x 
 original rule. Though eight years had passed ^since Da'neUw 
 he - took to the kingdom of the Northumbrians," gsTiw 
 the rising under Olaf showed that the attempt at a — ' 
 real union was premature, that the Danelaw over 
 Humber could only still be governed through a sub- 
 ject king, and he a king of northern blood. Such a 
 kmg, however, ^thelstan had ready to hand. His 
 diplomacy had long been as busy in the north as in 
 the south ; and he seems to have aimed at finding 
 aid against the Danes by seeking the friendship 
 of the new power which had risen up among the 
 Northmen of Norway. Harald Fairhair had^ died 
 in a hoar old age on the eve of Brunanburh ; and, 
 though his kingdom was disputed among his sons! 
 Eric Bloody-axe got mastery of most of it. Erie' 
 IS one of the few figures who stand out distinct for 
 us from the historic darkness which covers the north. 
 " Stout and comely, strong and very manly, a great 
 and lucky man of war, but evil-minded, gruff, un- 
 friendly, and silent," ' he and his witch-wife, Gunhild, 
 whom he had found, said the legend, in the hut of 
 two Lapp sorcerers, embodied all the violence and 
 guile that mingled with the nobler temper of the 
 Northmen. He was but a boy of twelve when his 
 father gave him five long-ships, and his next four 
 years were spent in Wiking cruises in the Baltic 
 and the northern seas. " Then he sailed out into 
 the West Sea, and plundered in Scotland, Bretland, 
 Ireland, and Walland," our France, for four years 
 
 ' Harald Fairhair's Saga; Laing, Sea Kings, i. 313. 
 
252 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAT. vr. more. A raid on the Finns ended these early cruises 
 ZrZ ^""^ '^'^^ ^'"^ Gunhild; and, still on the brink of 
 Danelaw, manhood, he came home to be welcomed by Harald 
 937-9W. I'^'iirhair as his successor on the throne of Norway. 
 — With his brothers, who stood in his way, he dealt 
 roughly. Rognwald, who was charged with witch- 
 craft, " he burned in a house along with eighty other 
 warlocks, which work was much praised." Biorn 
 the merchant-king, he slew drinking at his board' 
 But a younger brother, Hakon, still remained, and 
 when Hakon, at his fathers death, promised the 
 bonders their old udal rights back again, Norway 
 broke out in revolt. " The news " that their rights 
 were once more their own "flew like fire in "dry 
 grass through the whole land;'" all men streamed 
 to Hakon ; and Eric, left alone, had to give up the 
 strife, and " sail out into the western seas with such 
 as would follow him." 
 
 ^.tvi , ^V''-'^" '"} *^^ ^^y^ ""^^^^ Brunanburh that Eric's 
 umhia. plunder- raid brought him to the shores of North- 
 umbria; and ^thelstan seized the chance of balanc- 
 ing the Danish element in Northumbria by the Nor- 
 wegian element that was mingled with it.' A bargain 
 was soon struck, by which Eric submitted to bap- 
 tism with all his house, and received the kingdom 
 of Northumbria at /Ethelstan's hand on pledge to 
 guard It against Danes or other Wikings.' Little 
 as we know of the Dan elaw, we see that the life he 
 
 ' Hakon the Good's Saga ; Laing. Sea Kin^^T^iT 
 
 » In 924 the peoples in Northumbria who "bowed " to Eadwird 
 
 are separately named, •• either English, or Danes, or Northmen ■- 
 
 Eng. Chron. a. 924. 
 
 .'^""'^''l:'^^ ^^^^' of Harald Fairhair and of Hakon the Good 
 (Umg.Seakmgs,,.3oi-3o6,3i,-3i6);alsoSagaofEgilSkallagrimson. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 253 
 
 found there w^as a life as northern as that of his own 
 northern lands, for " Northumbria," runs the saga, 
 " was mainly inhabited by Northmen. Since Lod- 
 brog's sons had taken the country, Danes and North- 
 men often plundered there, when the power of the 
 land was out of their hands. . . . King Eric, too, had 
 many people about him, for he kept many Northmen 
 who had come with him from the east, and also many 
 of his friends joined him from Norway." In taking 
 the land he had pledged himself to hold it " against 
 Danes or other Wikings," and had received bap- 
 tism, " together with his wife and children and all 
 his people who had followed him." But pledge and 
 Christianity sat as lightly on Eric as they sat on his 
 fellow- Northmen in the Danelaw. If the Danes 
 had settled down in farm and homestead, they were 
 long before they ceased to vary their toil with the 
 Wiking's plunder-raid; and Eric, throned as he 
 was at York, was, like his subjects, a Wiking at 
 heart. " As he had little lands, he went on a cruise 
 every summer, and plundered in Shetland, the Heb- 
 rides, Iceland, and Bretland, by which he gathered 
 goods." ' 
 
 Though i^thelstan's rule over the north had 
 shrunk from a real sovereignty into a vague over- 
 lordship, it is notable that his efforts from this mo- 
 ment were aimed at other lands than the Danelaw. 
 He still remained bent on the ruin of the power which 
 was able to call the Danelaw to arms. Even in the 
 midst of his struggle for life with the great confed- 
 eracy of the north, the king had been busy planning 
 a more formidable attack than ever on the Normans. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Wenex 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-0W. 
 
 from 
 over- sea. 
 
 Saga of Hakon the Good ; Laing, Sea Kings, i. 316, 317. 
 
254 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 255 
 
 and the 
 DaneUw. 
 
 937-955. 
 
 cHAP.vr. During his father's last misfortunes, Lewis, the child 
 of Charles the Simple and of the king's sister ^Id- 
 gifu, had found with his mother a refuge in Eng- 
 land, and had grown up at his uncle's court. When 
 Rudolf died, and Hugh of Paris, with a cautious 
 policy which time was to reward, refused to grasp 
 the crown, the hearts of the West Franks turned to 
 the young Karoling " over-sea," and at Hugh's insti- 
 gation Lewis was chosen for their king. The envoys 
 who were sent, in 936, with the offer of the crown 
 found ^thelstan in his camp at York, holding down 
 the earlier disaffection of the Danelaw ; but the king 
 at once rode to the south, and an English embassy 
 crossed the Channel to prepare for the return of 
 Lewis to his father's throne. From the court of 
 Duke Hugh they passed to the court of W'illiam 
 Longsword, on a visit memorable as the first in- 
 stance of direct political communication between 
 England and Normandy. We know little of the ne- 
 gotiations which ended in the duke's assent to the 
 accession of the Karoling. William, no doubt, saw 
 through the aim of ^^thelstan in his nephew's ele- 
 vation ; but to refuse Lewis was to set a stronger 
 and more formidable neighbor, Hugh the Great, on 
 the throne. Through the life, too, of Charles the 
 Simple, the Normans had been the great support 
 of the Karolingian house ; and the duke may have 
 believed that, when once the crown was on his brow, 
 the old rivalry of the house of Paris would again 
 throw the son of Charles, whatever were his uncle's 
 plans, into the arms of the Normans. William, at 
 any rate, wrung from ^^thelstan a heavy price for 
 his assent to his nephew^'s crowning. Brittany had 
 
 Aithelstan. 
 
 been one of the king's readiest weapons against the chap.vi. 
 Normans ; and Alan, with a train of Breton refugees, weuex 
 was still at the English court. But peace was now Danelaw, 
 arranged between Breton and Norman, and Alan, 937, t^ 
 returning to his native land, pledged himself to 
 keep peace with W^illiam Longsword. 
 
 W^ith what aims yEthelstan had set his nephew z^w/vw 
 on the French throne, the action of Lewis was to 
 show. The boy had sworn to follow the counsels of 
 his nobles, and in the first days of his reign he sub- 
 mitted to the 2:uidance of Duke Husfh. But the 
 victory of Brunanburh soon followed his return, and 
 -^thelstan w^as now free to give his whole support to 
 his nephew's cause. The certainty of English aid at 
 once gave a new energy to the young king's action. 
 He broke utterly from his father's policy. Instead 
 of relying on the Normans against the pressure of 
 the house of Paris, he stood aloof from both these 
 powers. He declared himself independent of Hugh, 
 and summoned from England his English mother 
 to give into her charge his royal city of Laon. The 
 hand of the English king was seen in the political 
 combinations that followed this step. Between the 
 lands of i^thelstan's cousin, Arnulf of Flanders, and 
 the Norman duchy lay the county of Ponthieu, 
 then probably, as at a later time, an outpost of the 
 Norman power. In 939*Count Herlwin of Ponthieu 
 was attacked by Arnulf, his city of Montreuil taken, 
 and his wife and children, who were found in it, sent 
 as prisoners to ^thelstan " to be kept in hold over 
 sea." The attack was possibly made with the aid of 
 an English fleet which w^e shall soon see busy in the 
 Channel; and that it was really aimed at the Nor- 
 
 I 
 
 mm 
 
 mm .. 
 
256 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. vr. 
 
 Wetfex 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-955. 
 
 Failure 
 of their 
 league. 
 
 mans we gather from the action of their duke, for 
 William Longsword at once marched on Montreuil, 
 recovered the town, and ravaged Arnulf s borders. 
 The war with Arnulf, however, threatened to widen 
 into the larger contest which y^thelstan had no 
 doubt designed. Lewis drew towards the foes of 
 the Normans ; his bishops excommunicated William 
 Longsword ; and their sentence seemed the prelude 
 for a joint attack of the two kings and the count on 
 the Northmen in France. 
 
 But, at the moment of their execution, the com- 
 binations of the English king were again frustrated 
 by a turn in Prankish politics. The old loyalty of 
 Lorraine to the house of Charles the Great revived 
 at the sight of a Karolingian sovereign at Laon. On 
 the coronation of Otto as King of the East Franks 
 at Aachen, Lorraine threw off the German rule; and 
 though Lewis rejected the first offer of its allegiance, 
 he yielded to a second. The war with Otto, which 
 naturally followed, drew all the efforts of the Frank- 
 ish king from Normandy to his eastern borderland, 
 where for a time Lorraine passed into the hands of 
 Lewis. But his winning of it caused a sudden change 
 in the position of the young king in Frankland 
 itself. He had for three years stood aloof from the 
 control of the Parisian duke, and now the addition 
 of Lorraine to his realm threatened Hugh with a 
 master too great for his power to check. Parisian 
 duke and Norman duke, both equally threatened by 
 the king, drew together against their common enemy 
 at the moment when his force was spent by the con- 
 test for Lorraine ; and their league was soon joined 
 by a prince of almost equal strength. If Arnulf 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 257 
 
 of Flanders dreaded the growth of Normandy, he c»;^vi. 
 dreaded yet more the growth of a royal power ^eswx 
 strong enough to curb the new states which were Danelaw, 
 parting western Frankland between them ; and the 937 955. 
 winning of Lorraine by the young king drew him, 
 like his fellows, into revolt. But, though the ambi- 
 tion of Lewis had foiled the policy of i^thelstan, 
 the kins: cluncr to his nephew's cause. When rumors 
 of Arnulf s approaching defection and of the attack 
 he was planning on Laon reached England, an Eng- 
 lish fleet with forces on board appeared off the coast 
 of Boulosfne. Its ravao^es, however, failed to turn 
 Arnulf from his purpose ; and on the news that, in 
 the face of these dangers, Lewis was still fairly hold- 
 ing his own in Lorraine, it fell back to its English 
 harbor. 
 
 The recall of the fleet may have been due to the Eadmuud. 
 failing health of yEthelstan ; for on the twenty-sev- 
 enth of October, 940,' in the midst of these wide 
 projects, the king died at Gloucester; and the 
 troubles which followed the succession of his brother 
 Eadmund left little room for a display of energy 
 across the sea. Though he had fought by ^thel- 
 stan's side at Brunanburh, Eadmund, a child of Ead- 
 ward's third marriage with Eadgifu,' was a youth of 
 eiofhteen when he mounted the throne. But he had 
 already a policy of his own, and that a policy distinct 
 from the system of ^^thelstan.' '' He was no friend 
 
 » So the later Chronicles, probably from a lost annal in the Wor- 
 cester copy. The Winchester Chronicle dates it 941. 
 
 ' ^thelstan was the only son of Eadward's first marriage ; both 
 his sons by a second were dead ; there remained two young sons 
 by his third, Eadmund and Eadred. 
 
 * In .^thelstan's later years, a'fter some more experiments, such 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP^vi. to the Northmen/" or to the system of balances by 
 wenez which his brother had used the Norwegians of the 
 
 Danelaw. Danelaw to hold down the Danes. Eric, too, was in 
 937^. "^ favor with him. As southern England became 
 day by day a realm more peaceful and highly or- 
 ganized, the instincts of its statesmen must have 
 revolted more and more from the wild barbarism of 
 the north, where Eric, with his false and cruel Gun- 
 hild beside him, remained, in spite of his baptism, 
 the mere pirate he had landed. So " the word went 
 about that King Eadmund would set another chief 
 over Northumbria." The threat was enouiih for 
 Eric, who set off on new cruises of piracy, only 
 now adding the English coast to his former field of 
 prey; and at his departure the Danelaw rose once 
 more against the English king. 
 
 ^t/Mf"" ^^^^ revolt was even more formidable than that 
 
 £>a»^/,m. which .^thclstan had faced at Brunanburh, for the 
 rapidity with which the English army met Olaf and 
 Constantine on that bloody field seems to have pre- 
 vented the general rising of the English Danelaw 
 
 as in 935. "basileus Anglorum et acque totius Rritanniai orbis cu- 
 rapulus " (Cod. Dip. 1 1 1 1 ), or in 937, " rex Anglorum et jcque totius 
 Albionis gubernator" (Cod. Dip. 11 14; it is notable that he never 
 recurs to his " Imperator " and *' Br>-tenwealda "), the royal style had 
 at last settled down into a single form. From 938, at any rate, it is 
 almost uniformly "Basileus Anglorum cunctarumque gentium in 
 circuitu persistentium," and the signature, " rex totius Britanniae " 
 (Cod. Dip., a series of charters from 11 16 to 1 123, etc.). Eadmund 
 adopts and generally uses the same description, though breaking 
 out here and there, as in 940. into " rex Anglorum et curagulus 
 multarum gentium " (Cod. Dip. 384). or in 941, " regni Anglorum ba- 
 sileus " (he signs here, "totius Britanniae rex;" Cod. Dip. 1 139), or 
 in 946, " rex Anglorum necnon et Merciorum " (Cod. Dip. 409), but 
 signs almost uniformly " rex Anglorum." 
 » Hakon's Saga: Laing. Sea Kings, i. 317. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 259 
 
 937-95ff. 
 
 on which the Ostmen had reckoned. But with a ch.\p.vi. 
 boy-king on the throne the spell of terror which the wii«ex 
 great defeat had thrown over the north was broken; p^Vaw. 
 the Danes again called for aid from their kinsmen 
 in Ireland ; and on the reappearance of Olaf in the 
 Humber in 941 the Danelaw took fire/ The rising 
 was not merely a rising of the Danes north of Hum- 
 ber, for, after twenty years of quiet submission to 
 the English rule, even the men of the Five Boroughs 
 now threw off their allegiance and joined their kins- 
 men in Northumbria in taking Olaf for king; and 
 the danger was heightened by an unlooked-for de- 
 fection from the royal cause. In his appointment 
 of Wulfstan to the primacy at York in 934 v^thel- 
 stan had trusted to secure a firm support for his 
 rule in the north. We have already noted the new 
 and independent position which had been given to 
 the see of York by its isolation from the rest of the 
 English Church. Its occupant became, in fact, even 
 more the religious centre of northern Britain than 
 the Primate of Canterbury was as yet of southern 
 Britain ; and as the pagan settlers yielded to Chris- 
 tian influences, he rose to still greater importance as 
 the natural centre of union between Englishman 
 and Dane. The quick revolutions in the northern 
 kingship, as well as its occasional parting between 
 two rulers, must have still further heightened the 
 position of a spiritual head who remained unaffected 
 
 ' The Winchester Chronicle, a. 942, gives here a fragment of a sec- 
 ond poem on the deeds of Eadmund. As to Olaf, or Anlaf, Mr. Skene 
 thinks this Olaf to be the King of Dublin, and that on his death, soon 
 after, Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 942, he was succeeded by the second 
 Olaf, Sihtric's son, from Scotland.— Celtic Scotland, i. 361. 
 
26o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VI. by these changes; and In Archbishop Wulfstan the 
 w«tMz power of the primate rivalled the temporal authority 
 Danelaw, of the northern kings. Till now, Wulfstan's influ- 
 937~955 ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ steadily exerted in support of the 
 — English sovereignty; though the names of the Dan- 
 ish jarls are absent from ^thelstan's later Witena- 
 gemots, Archbishop Wulfstan was still present at 
 the English court ; and in the opening of Ead- 
 mund's reign his attitude seems to have remained 
 the same. He joined with his fellow -primate to 
 avert a conflict between the king and the Danes 
 at Lincoln ; and even in 942 we find him at Ead- 
 mund's court.' But whether he was swept away by 
 the strength of local feeling or alienated by the 
 king's West-Saxon policy, at this moment his course 
 suddenly changed. Not only did he adopt the 
 northern cause as his own, but in the after-struggle 
 he stood side by side with Olaf as commander of 
 the northern host. 
 
 Not content with freeing Northumbria, the Ost- 
 men and primate burst in 943 into Mid- Britain, and 
 their storm of Tamworth and of Leicester gave 
 them the valley of the Trent. Eadmund was strong 
 enough to regain the last city, and Wulfstan and 
 Olaf had some difficulty in escaping from his grasp; 
 but the work of even Eadward was undone, and, af- 
 ter two years of hard fighting, the primates of York 
 and Canterbury negotiated a peace, in which Olaf 
 bowed to baptism and owned himself Eadmunds 
 under-king, but which practically left Eadmund mas- 
 
 261 
 
 Ead- 
 mund' s dC' 
 feat. 
 
 * " Wulfstan archiepiscopus urbis Eboracae metropolitanus " attests 
 a royal grant in 942. — Cod. Dip. 392. 
 
 ter only of the realm that Alfred had ruled.' The 
 revival of the English Danelaw was the more for- 
 midable that with it went a revival of the Norman 
 power across the sea. The death of yEthelstan had 
 been as disastrous to his nephew as to his brother. 
 It left Lewis friendless at a moment when the war 
 on his eastern border turned suddenly against him, 
 and he was driven by Otto from Lorraine. Pressed 
 hard even in his own Frankland by Hugh the 
 Great and Herbert of Vermandois, deserted by Ar- 
 nulf of Flanders, the young king was thrown back 
 on the policy of his father. He looked for aid to 
 the Normans ; and William Longsword was as ready 
 to return to the policy of Hrolf as Lewis to that of 
 Charles the Simple. Lewis was saved from ruin by 
 Norman help ; his fortunes were restored by the 
 Norman sword ; Norman diplomacy brought about 
 a peace with Otto and a reconciliation with Hugh. 
 The power which ^thelstan had threatened with 
 destruction stood forward as the leading power in 
 West Frankland; and the greatness of Normandy 
 gave encouragement and, it may be, direct aid to the 
 struggle of the Danelaw against Eadward's son. 
 
 But if wider hopes of common action dawned on 
 the Northmen, they were foiled at this moment of 
 triumph by the murder of the Norman duke ; for 
 the wild vigor which had been turned into fighting 
 power by William Longsword crumbled into an- 
 archy as soon as his grasp was loosed ; and his son 
 Richard, a child of ten years old, was hardly seated 
 in the ducal chair, in 943, when strife broke out be- 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Wetsez 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-955. 
 
 Recovery 
 
 cfthe 
 Danelaw. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 943. 
 
262 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 263 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 WeMex 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-M5 
 
 Cumbria 
 
 and 
 
 Strath- 
 
 clydc. 
 
 tween the Normans who drew towards the religion 
 and civilization of the land in which they had settled, 
 and those who still clung to the old worship and 
 traditions of the north. Lewis, thankless for the 
 aid which had saved him, swung back at once to his 
 older purpose, and seized the opening which the 
 strife gave him for carrying out those plans of con- 
 quest over the Normans which had been so fatally 
 interrupted by his schemes on Lorraine. His suc- 
 cess was complete, for, marching upon Rouen under 
 pretext of aiding the young duke against the pagan 
 reaction, he became master of the whole of Nor- 
 mandy without a blow. The sudden turn of affairs 
 in France may have told on the other side of the 
 Channel; it was, at any rate, at this juncture, in 
 944, that Eadmund rallied to a new attack on the 
 Danelaw; and it was while Normandy lay at the 
 feet of Lewis that he succeeded in drivino- out 
 Olaf, Sihtric's son, and in again reducing it to sub- 
 mission.' 
 
 But the measures which followed its conquest 
 showed that the young king possessed the political 
 as well as the military ability of his house. What 
 most hindered the complete reduction of the Dane- 
 law was the hostility to the English rule of the states 
 north of it, the hostility of Bernicia, of Strathclyde, 
 and, above all, of the Scots. The confederacy 
 against ^^thelstan had been brouofht toQ:ether bv 
 the intrigues of the Scot king, Constantine ; and 
 though Constantine, in despair at his defeat, left the 
 throne for a monastery, the policy of his son Mal- 
 
 ' He drove out its two kings— Olaf, Sihtric's son, and Ragnald, son 
 of Sihtric's brother, Guthferth. — Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 944. 
 
 colm was much the same as his father s." Eadmund 
 was no sooner master of the Danelaw than he dealt 
 with this difficulty in the north. The English blood 
 of the Bernicians was probably drawing them at last 
 to the English monarch, for after Brunanburh we 
 hear nothing of their hostility. But Cumbria w^as 
 far more important than Bernicia, for it was through 
 Cumbrian territory that the Ostmen could strike 
 most easily across Britain into the Danelaw. The 
 Cumbria, however, with which Eadmund dealt was 
 far from being the old Cumbrian kingdom from the 
 Eden to the Ribble, the southern part of which 
 remained attached to the Northumbrian kingdom, 
 even in the hands of the Danes, while the northern 
 part, now known as Westmoringa-land — the land of 
 the men of the western moors — had been colonized 
 by Norwegian settlers.' 
 
 Though a fragment of the Cumbrian kingdom 
 which the sword of Ecgfrith had made' remained 
 to the last in the hands of Northumbria, its bounds 
 had been cut shorter and shorter. Under Eadberht 
 the Northumbrian supremacy had reached as far as 
 the district of Kyle in Ayrshire ; and the capture of 
 Alclwyd by his allies, the Picts, in 756, seemed to 
 leave the rest of Strath-Clyde at his mercy. But 
 from that moment the tide had turned ; a great de- 
 feat shattered Eadberht's hopes ; and in the anarchy 
 which followed his reign district after district must 
 have been torn from the weakened grasp of North- 
 
 ' Skene, Celtic Scotland, i. 360, 361. 
 
 ' In 966, "Thored, Gunner's son, harried Westmoringa-land.*' 
 
 -Eng. Chron. a. 966. 
 
 " Between 670-675. See Making of England, p. 358.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 CHAr. VI. 
 
 Wessez 
 and tb« 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-9M. 
 
 The land 
 
 of the 
 
 Western 
 
 Moors. 
 
264 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^vi. umbria, till the cessation of the line of her bishops 
 Wessez at Whithern' tells that her frontier had been push- 
 iHmeiaw. ^^ back almost to Carlisle. But even after the land 
 937^66 ^^^^^ remained to her had been in English posses- 
 — sion for nearly a century and a half, it was still no 
 English land. Its great land-owners were of English 
 blood," and as the Church of Lindisfarne was richly 
 endowed here, its priesthood was probably English 
 too. But the conquered Cumbrians had been left 
 by Ecgfrith on the soil, and in its local names we 
 find few traces of any migration of the Engle over 
 the moors from the east. There was little, indeed, 
 to invite settlers, save along the valleys of the Lune 
 or the Ribble ; elsewhere the huge and almost un- 
 broken stretch of woodland and moorland and marsh 
 which covered our Lancashire must have been al- 
 most as wild and unpeopled as the dales scattered 
 among the " Western - Moors," where St. Hubert 
 found a "desert" for his hermitage. Carlisle, in- 
 deed, had carried on an unbroken life from its 
 Roman and Celtic days ; but it is doubtful wheth- 
 er life had as yet returned to the "ceaster" on the 
 Lune, our Lancaster; and it was not till the tenth 
 century that Eadward could set up his fort amidst 
 the ruins of Mancunium. 
 The Ji-ie "parting:," however, of Deira in 876 amonor 
 settitts. Halfdenes warriors drove English fugitives for ref- 
 uge into the desert land. One such we see in a 
 certain Alfred, who "came, fearing the pirates, over 
 
 * Badulf, the last bishop of Whithern of the Anglo-Saxon succes- 
 sion whose name is preserved, was consecrated in 791. Sim. Durh 
 ad. ann. — (A. S. G.) 
 
 ' Robertson, Scotland under Early Kings, ii. 434. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 265 
 
 the western hills, and sought pity from S. Cuthbert chap. vi. 
 and Bishop Cutheard, praying that they should give we-ex 
 him some lands." ^ But it was only to meet other Danelaw, 
 assailants. Along the Irish Channel the boats of ^^^^^ 
 the Norwegian pirates were as thick as those of the 
 Danish corsairs on the eastern coast ; and the Isle 
 of Man, which they had conquered and half col- 
 onized, served as a starting-point from which the 
 marauders made their way to the opposite shores. 
 Their settlements reached as far northward as Dum- 
 friesshire, and southward, perhaps, to the little group 
 of northern villages which we find in the Cheshire 
 peninsula of the Wirral. But it is in the Lake dis- 
 trict and in the north of our Lancashire that they 
 lie thickest.' Ormside and Ambleside, Kettleside 
 and Silverside, recall the "side" or settle of Orm 
 and Hamel, of Ketyl and Soelvar, as Ulverston and 
 Ennerdale tell of Olafr and Einar. Buthar survives 
 In Buttermere, Geit in Gatesgarth, and Skogul in 
 Skeggles Water. The Wikings Solvar and Boll 
 and Skall may be resting beneath their " haugr " 
 or tomb-mound at Silver How, Bull How, and Scale 
 
 How.' , , . n 1 • 
 
 While this outlier of northern life was being ^-f- 
 planted about the lakes, the Britons of Strath-Clyde MaUcim. 
 were busy pushing their con^uests^tojhe^oi^^ 
 
 « Sim Durh., Hist. S. Cuthb. (Twysden). p. 74- , 
 
 » " The Lake district seems to have been almost exclusively peo- 
 pled by Celts and Norwegians. The Norwegian suffixes, gill, garth, 
 Lugh, thwaite. foss, and fell, are abundant -^-^^^'^f^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 thorpe and toft, are almost unknown ; and the Anglo-Saxon test- 
 words, ham, ford, worth, and ton, are comparatively rare. -laylor. 
 
 Words and Places, p. 1 1 5. , ♦!,« lat^c qp** 
 
 » Ibid 116 For the Norwegian settlements in the lakes, see 
 Ferguson's Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland. 
 
266 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^vi. Eadmund's day, indeed, we find their border carried 
 SSTa ""^ ^""^ ""^ ^^^ Derwent;' but whether from the large 
 Danelaw, space of Cumbrian ground they had won, or no, the 
 937-955. p^"^e of Strath-Clyde from this time disappears,'and 
 — is replaced by the name of Cumbria.^ Wliether as 
 Strath-Clyde or Cumbria, its rulers had been amono- 
 the opponents of the West -Saxon advance; they 
 were among the confederates against Eadward as 
 they were among the confederates against yEthel- 
 Stan ; and it was no doubt in return for a like 
 junction in the hostilities against himself that 
 Eadmund, in 945, ''harried all Cumberland." But 
 he turned his new conquest adroitly to account by 
 using it to bind to himself the most dangerous 
 among his foes ; for he granted the greater part of 
 it to the Scottish king, on the terms that Malcolm 
 should be "his fellow- worker by sea and land.'" 
 In the erection of this northern dependency we see 
 the same forces acting, though on a more distant 
 field, which had already begun the disintegration 
 of the English realm in the formation of the great 
 ealdormanries of the eastern coast. Its immediate 
 results, however, were advantageous enough. Scot 
 and Welshman, whose league had till now formed 
 the chief force of opposition to English supremacy 
 m the north, were set at variance ; the road of the 
 Ostmen was closed, while the fidelity of the Scot- 
 king seemed to be secured by th e impossibility of 
 
 * Skene, Celtic Scotland, i. 362. 
 
 ' Westmoringa-land survives, little changed in area, in our West- 
 moreland ; our Cumberland is the fragment of the Strath-Clyde or 
 Cumbrian kmgdom which remained to England after the rest had 
 gone to the Scottish kings. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 945. 
 
 267 
 
 holding Cumbria against revolt without the support 
 of his "fellow-worker" in the south. 
 
 Hard as Eadmund had been pressed by these 
 outer troubles, he had been far from neglecting 
 the work of government at home. While the efforts 
 of ^thelstan had been mainly directed to the se- 
 curity of order and of property, Eadmund dealt 
 with the more formidable difficulty of the right of 
 feud. The evil with which he dealt, and his at- 
 tempts to reform it, have been already noticed in 
 the sketch given of the history of English justice.' 
 In spite of all bounds and limitations by which the 
 rights of private vengeance had been restrained, the 
 feud in Eadmund's day remained wholly incompati- 
 ble with the new social order that had been de- 
 veloped alike by Christianity and by the growing 
 sense of a common national life. Early justice 
 had rested on the family bond, on the theory of the 
 kinsfolk bound together by ties of mutual responsi- 
 bility for vengeance and aid in self-defence. But 
 as society became more complex it outgrew in great 
 measure these earlier ties of blood ; and the con- 
 ception of personal responsibility which Christianity 
 had taught helped to weaken the bonds of kinship. 
 Eadmund shared in the " horror of the unrighteous 
 and manifold fightings" which was felt in his day, 
 and in his attempt to lay on the man-slayer himself 
 the whole burden of his deed, to free his kinsfolk 
 from the obligation of bearing the feud, and to pro- 
 tect them from the vengeance of the slain man's 
 kin," he not only attacked the custom of the feud, 
 
 ' See ch. i. pp. 23-27. 
 
 ' LI. Eadmund : Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 249. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 WeMtz 
 
 ftnd the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 987 955 
 
 Til e feud. 
 
268 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 269 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Wmmz 
 
 and the 
 
 Danelaw 
 
 9a7-9M. 
 
 Death of 
 Eadmuuil. 
 
 but struck a heavy blow at the old theory of kinship, 
 with its traditional responsibilities. 
 
 From questions of home government, however, 
 the young king was soon called back to outer 
 affairs. For the moment the triumphs of the two 
 cousins on either side of the Channel seemed to 
 have realized the hopes of i^thelstan. In England 
 and France alike the men of the north lay at the 
 feet of Lewis and Eadmund, for the presence of 
 the northern primate and northern Jarls at the 
 English court, for the first time since Brunanburh, 
 showed that the Danelaw was again subdued.' But 
 the Danelaw had hardly given its allegiance to 
 Eadmund when a sudden revolution wrested Nor- 
 mandy from his cousin's grasp. A fleet, under the 
 King of Denmark, Harald Blaatand, moored off 
 the Cotentin and called the country to arms. The 
 Normans gathered round the Danish host, while 
 Duke Hugh, jealous of the power Lewis had won 
 from his conquest on the Seine, joined the kings 
 foes ; and in 945 a victory of their united forces on 
 the Dive broke the Frankish yoke. Not only was 
 the king's army defeated, but Lewis himself was 
 taken in the fight and given as a prisoner into the 
 hands of Duke Hugh. The demand of Eadmund 
 for his cousin's liberation shows that the two kings 
 had been acting in concert against the Northmen, 
 w^hile the answer of Hugh is notable as the first of 
 a series of such defiances which from that day to 
 this have passed between the lands on either side 
 of the Channel. " I will do nothino: for the Enelish- 
 
 men's threats !" said the duke. " Let them come, chap^vi. 
 and they will soon find what men of the Franks weiwx 
 are worth in fight ! or, if they fear to come, they Danrtaw. 
 shall know at some time or other the might of the ^^, 
 Franks and pay for their arrogance!" Master of 
 all England at twenty-four, Eadmund could hardly 
 have passed by a challenge such as this. But the 
 quarrel was suddenly hushed by his death.' As he 
 feasted at Pucklechurch, in the May of 946, Leofa, 
 a robber whom the king had banished from the 
 land, entered the hall, seated himself at the royal 
 board, and drew his sword on the cup-bearer when 
 he bade him retire. Eadmund sprang in wrath 
 to his thegn's aid, and seizing Leofa by the hair 
 flung him to the ground, but in the struggle the 
 robber drove his dagger to the king s heart. 
 
 With the death of Eadmund a new figure comes ^unstan, 
 to the front of English affairs, and the story of Ab- 
 bot Dunstan of Glastonbury gives us a welcome 
 glimpse into the inner life of England at a time 
 when history hides it from us beneath the weary 
 details of wars with the Danes.' In the heart of 
 
 ' For Wulfstan, see Cod. Dip. 409. For the Jarls " Scule '" and 
 " Halfdene," Cod. Dip. 410. 
 
 » Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 496 ; Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), 
 i. 228. 
 
 "" The primary authority for Dunstan's life is an anonymous biog- 
 raphy, written about A. D. looo, a few years after his death, by a 
 Saxon priest. Professor Stubbs. who has collected the various bi- 
 ographies in his '' Memorials of S. Dunstan," has made it probable 
 that this is a work of an exiled scholar from Liege, who was present 
 in England at the archbishop's death, and was living under his pro- 
 tection. A second work, by Adelard of Ghent, was drawn up in 
 the form of lessons to be read in the service of the monastery at 
 Canterbury, and is hardly of later date than the first. After the 
 Conquest a third life, much expanded, was drawn up by Osbern, 
 and a fourth bv Eadmer, both monks of Canterbury, while a little 
 later on William of Malmesbury compiled a fifth, whose purpose 
 
270 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAR VI. Somerset, at the base of the Tor, a hill that rose 
 
 HdTe ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^'^^^^ ^^ flood-drowned fen which then 
 
 Danelaw. AHed the valley of Glastonbury, lay in ^thelstan s 
 
 937-9W. ^^y the estate of Heorstan, a man of wealth and 
 
 — noble blood, the kinsman of three bishops of the 
 
 time and of many thegns of the court, if not of the 
 
 king himself.' It was in Heorstan's hall that his 
 
 son Dunstan, as yet a fair, diminutive child, with 
 
 scant but beautiful hair, caught the passion for 
 
 music that showed itself in his habit of carrying 
 
 harp in hand on journey or visit, as in his love fo'r 
 
 the " vain songs of ancient heathendom, the trifling 
 
 legends, and funeral chants,"^ relics, doubtless, of a 
 
 mass of older poetry that time has reft from us. 
 
 was to bring out more fully Dunstan's connection with Glaston- 
 bury. Even in the few years that passed between Dunstan's death 
 and the life by Adelard a luxuriant growth of legend had taken 
 place ; but it is to the three last biographers that the wilder stories 
 which gathered round the archbishop's name are mainly due. The 
 life by the priest of Liege is simply disfigured by verbosity, and 
 bears traces of deriving most of the earlier biographic details from 
 the talk of Dunstan himself; its information and its silences (as in 
 the history of Eadgar) are both probably due to this source. But 
 even this antedates the monastic struggle, which had become so 
 important at the time of its composition, by confusing it with the 
 strife in Eadwig's reign (Memor. S. Dunstan, Introd. p. vii.). Such 
 as they are, however, all these lives are of value for a time when we 
 have, save in the meagre annals of the Chronicle, no contemporary 
 materials but these and a few other hagiographies (Stubbs. Me- 
 mor. S. Dunstan. Introd. p. ix.). 
 
 Bishop Elfege of Winchester and Kynsige of Lichfield were 
 his kinsmen (see Saxon biographer, Memorials, pp. 13, 32). So, 
 says Adelard (ibid. 55), was Archbishop ^thelm of Canterbury; 
 but this may be a mistake for Bishop ^thelgar of Crediton. For 
 his kin among the " Palatini," see Sax. biogr.. Memor. p. 1 1. ^thel- 
 flaed, ^thelstan's niece, was also related to him (ibid. 17). 
 
 ' Sax. biogr. (Memor. p. 1 1), " avitae gentilitatis vanissima didicisse 
 carmina. et historiarum frivolas colere incantationum nsenias." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 271 
 
 But nobler strains than those of ancient heathen- chap^vi. 
 dom were round the child as he grew to boyhood.' wewex 
 yElfred's strife with the Northmen was fresh in the Saneiaw. 
 memory of all. Athclney lay a few miles off across 93^55. 
 the Polden hills; and Wedmore, where the final 
 frith was made and the chrism-fillet of Guthrum un- 
 loosed, rose out of the neighboring marshes. Mem- 
 ories of Ine met the boy as he passed to school at 
 Glastonbury, which still remained notable as a place 
 of pilgrimage, though but a few secular priests clung 
 to the house which the king had founded, and its 
 lands had for the most part been stripped from it." 
 The ardor of Dunstan's temper was seen in the 
 eagerness with which he plunged into the study of 
 letters ; and his knowledge became at last so famous 
 in the neiirbborhood that news of it reached the 
 court. Dunstan was called there, no doubt, as one 
 
 > The date of his birth is a vexed question. " Hujus (/Ethclstani) 
 imperii temporibus oritur puer," says the Saxon biographer (Memor. 
 p. 6). The English Chronicle (though in what is probably a later 
 insertion) takes "oritur"' for "is born," and with all after-writers 
 places his birth in ^Ethelstan's first year, 924 or 925. But if so, his 
 appearance and expulsion from ^thelstan's court must have been 
 before he was sixteen ; his appointment as Abbot of Glastonbury, at 
 any rate, before Eadmund's death in 946, when he was still but 
 twenty-two, and his career as guide and counsellor of Eadred, must 
 have been between the ages of twenty-two and thirty-one. This 
 seems very improbable, and the "oritur" may, perhaps, be fairly 
 construed "rises into notice," which would throw back his birth 
 into the days of Eadward. Granting this, Adelard's statement that 
 Archbishop yEthelm, who died in the same year with Eadward, 
 first brought him to court, may be true (Memor. p. 55, and Introd. 
 p. Ixxviii.). 
 
 ' It had a church "built by no art of man," to which ^thelstan 
 went on pilgrimage, and where " Hiberniensium perigrini" came to 
 visit the tomb of a younger Patrick, bringing their books with 
 them, which Dunstan read (Sax. biogr., Memor. pp. 7. ^o, 11). 
 
272 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Weisex 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937 955. 
 
 botofGlas- 
 tonbtirV' 
 
 of the young nobles who received their training in 
 attendance on the king during boyhood and early 
 youth;' but his appearance was the signal for a 
 burst of jealousy among the royal thegns, though 
 many were kinsmen of his own ; he was forced to 
 withdraw, and when he was again summoned, on the 
 accession of Eadmund, his rivals not only drove him 
 from the king's train, but threw him from his horse 
 as he rode through the marshes, and with the wild 
 passion of their rage trampled him underfoot in the 
 mire.' 
 
 The outrage brought fever, and in the bitterness 
 of disappointment and shame Dunstan rose from his 
 bed of sickness a monk.' But in Endand the mo- 
 nastic profession was at this time little more than a 
 vow of celibacy and clerical life,' and his devotion 
 took no ascetic turn. His nature, in fact, was sun- 
 ny, versatile, artistic, full of strong affections, and 
 capable of inspiring others with affections as strong. 
 Throughout his life he won the love of women, and 
 in these earlier years of retirement at Glastonbury 
 he became the spiritual guide of a woman of high 
 rank who lived only for charity and the entertain- 
 ment of pilgrims. " He ever clave to her and loved 
 her in wondrous fashion." Quick-witted, of tena- 
 cious memory, a ready and fluent speaker, gay and 
 genial of address, an artist, a musician, an indefati- 
 
 ' His age shows that this must be the meaning of the Saxon 
 biographer's " inter regios proceres et palatinos principes electus " 
 (Memor. p. 21). 
 
 " Sax. biogr. (Memor. p. 12). 
 
 • Ibid. 14. He had been tonsured as a clerk from boyhood 
 (p. 10). 
 
 ' See Stubbs, Memor. S. Dunstan, Introd. p. Ixxxiii.-lxxxv. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ^li 
 
 SactiT . ^7' '^°°'^' °^ ^^"^^'^■■^ft' his sphere cun. v,. 
 o activity widened as the wealth of his devotee was w;^. 
 placed unreservedly at his command. We see him P~« 
 followed by a train of pupils, busy with literatur" T" 
 harping, painting, designing. In one pleasant tale "-"^• 
 
 d si'n'a ;'b ' 'l^>',^"-"-- him to her house to 
 design a robe which she is embroiderin<. and' as 
 Dunstan bends with her maidens over thefr't'l the 
 harp wh,ch he has hung on the wall sounds, without 
 mortal touch, tones which the startled ears around 
 frame into a joyous antiphon. But the tie which 
 bound Dunstan to this scholar-life was broken by 
 the death of his patroness ; and towards the close o^ 
 Eadmund s re.gn the young scholar was again called 
 to the court. Even in /Ethpkt^n'. a \ 
 tn l.aw» k y ^theJstans day he seems 
 
 T7 :; . f " ''"°"" *° both the younger sons of 
 Eadwaid the Elder; and with one \i these, Eadred 
 h s friendship became of the closest kind. But the 
 old jealousies revived; his life was again in danger 
 and the game seemed so utterly lost that Dunstan 
 hrew himself on the protection of some envoys 
 
 return with them rd thM'lLe t ^:^S1 
 unlooked-for chance restored him suddenly t'^o" 
 
 M^nH 1 t![ "1^'^^' ^"^-"""^ ^^'^^ Phasing over 
 Mendip dashed down the Cheddar cliffs, and the 
 
 ravTne° r l.^'f' '" '^""^ °" ^^e brink of t e 
 ravine. In the bitterness of anticipated death he 
 had repented of his injustice to Dunstan, and on 
 
 (Memor^p ' °,f "f ,"r'" '."" '^^' *""^ hospitantes."-Sax. biogr 
 this " Eas?;;n'kilm. ■°" "' '"^^"''°" °' '^^"'--^ Stubbs as^to 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 937 955. 
 
 Eddied. 
 
 cHAP^vi. his return from the chase the young priest was sum- 
 wmmz moned to his presence. " Saddle your horse," said 
 Dftneiaw. Eadmund, " and ride with me !" The royal train 
 swept over the marshes to Dunstan's home, and 
 greeting him with the kiss of peace, the king seated 
 him in the abbot's chair, as Abbot of Glastonbury.' 
 From that moment Dunstan may have exercised 
 some influence on public affairs ; but it was not till 
 Eadmunds murder that his influence became su- 
 preme. Eadmund was but twenty -five years old 
 when he died ; and as his children, Eadwig and 
 Eadgar, were too young to follow him on the throne, 
 the crown passed to his last surviving brother, the 
 ^theling Eadred." Eadred had long been bound 
 by a close friendship to Dunstan ; and a friendship 
 as close bound the young abbot to the mother of 
 the king, the wife of Eadward the Elder, who seems 
 to have wielded the main influence at Eadreds 
 court. It was of even greater moment that Dun- 
 stan seems to have been linked by a close intimacy 
 with the "Half-King" ^thelstan. The fact that 
 ^thelstan's wife, ^Ifwen, is said to have been the 
 foster-mother of Eadgar,' as well as his own eleva- 
 tion, proves the influence of the East-Anglian eal- 
 dorman in the reign of Eadmund ; he was, in fact, 
 already " Primarius,"* a post which reminds us of 
 
 * Kemble places this before 940. on faith of a charter (Cod. Dip. 
 384) of that year; but Professor Stubbs regards his signature as a 
 later insertion. He certainly signed as abbot in 946 (Cod. Dip. 41 1), 
 and his nomination was probably not much earlier (Stubbs, Memor. 
 S. Dunstan, Introd. p. Ixxx.). 
 
 " Eng. Chron. a. 946. ' Robertson, Hist. Essays, p. 180. 
 
 * Sax. biogr. (Memor. S. Dunstan, p. 44). "Cujusdam primarii 
 ducis, utpote .^Ifstani ;'' and again, "prsedicto comitante secum 
 Primario." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 275 
 
 the oflice of iEllfred as '' Secundarius," as possibly 
 a germ of the later Justiciarship, and which at any 
 rate placed him near to the king himself in the 
 government of the realm. Under Eadred his influ- 
 ence became yet greater ; he seems to have displaced 
 Wulfgar, whose signature through Eadmund's days 
 had preceded his own, as the leading counsellor 
 of the crown, and signs first of all secular nobles 
 through the coming reign.' It was with the sup- 
 port of ^thelstan that Dunstan from this moment 
 stood among Eadred s advisers. 
 
 Of his political work indeed we know little, but 
 we can hardly mistake his hand in the solemn proc- 
 lamation which announced the king's crowning at 
 Kingston." The crowning of Eadred indeed was a 
 fresh step forward towards a national kingship. His 
 election was the first national election, the first elec- 
 tion by a witenagemot where Briton and Dane and 
 Englishmen were alike represented, where Welsh 
 under-kings and Danish jarls sate side by side with 
 
 ' See the charters of these reigns in the Codex Diplomaticus. 
 
 ^ Cod. Dip. 411, a grant to the " pedisequus'' Wulfric, apparently 
 one of a number of coronation grants, at any rate of the first year, 
 "quo sceptra diadematum Angul-Saxna cum Nordhymbris et 
 Paganorum cum Brettonibus (Eadredus) gubernabat," is prefaced 
 by what looks like a general proclamation of the new sovereign. 
 " Concedente gratia Dei . . . contigit post obitum Eadmundi regis, 
 qui regimina regnorum Angul-Saxna, et Nordhymbra, Paganorum 
 Brettonumque. septem annorum intervallo regaliter gubernabat, 
 quod Eadred frater ejus uterinus, electione optimatum subrogatus, 
 pontificali auctoritate eodem anno catholice est rex et rector ad 
 regna quadripartiti regiminis consecratus, qui denique rex in villa 
 quae dicitur regis, Cyngestun, ubi consecratio peracta est, plura plu- 
 rimis perenniter condonavit carismata." This is attested by the 
 two archbishops, Odo and Wulfstan, ten bishops, " Howael regulus, 
 Marcant, Cadmo," and by " Urm, Imorcer eorl, Grim, AndcoU tori,'' 
 and " Dunstan abbud." 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Wessez 
 
 and the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-955. 
 
 7Vie four- 
 fold realm. 
 
276 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 277 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw 
 
 937-955. 
 
 CHAP^ vr. English nobles and bishops. His coronation was in 
 westex the same way the first national coronation, the first 
 
 Sinn f'liA • ^ . « 
 
 union of the primate of the north and the primate 
 of the south in setting the crown on the head of 
 one who was to rule from the Forth to the Chan- 
 nel.' In the phrase which describes the new king 
 as "designated by the choice of the nobles, and by 
 the authority of the bishops consecrated king," we 
 may catch a foreshadowing of the constitutional 
 theory which Dunstan afterwards embodied in the 
 crowning and coronation oath of Eadgar at Bath, 
 as his attempt to find a general name for the royal 
 dominions in the ''Fourfold Realm" shows a fresh 
 advance towards his final conception of a Kingdom 
 of England.'' 
 
 Eadred's first year was a time of quiet. After the 
 
 Eric 
 Ifiriiii:. 
 
 ' At the death of ^thelstan, Northumbria stood apart with its 
 own under-king, so that such a Witenagemot was impossible. 
 
 ' Eadred, like his brother, commonly signs himself " Rex Anglo- 
 rum," and styles himself " Rex Anglorum caeterarumque gentium 
 incircuitu persistentium.'^etc. (Cod. Dip. 413, 11 56, 11 57, 11 59, 1161- 
 1 164), a phrase which the "fourfold realm *' now enables us to de- 
 fine. The "peoples surrounding" the English are strictly the 
 "Britons," ''Pagans,*' or Danes of Mid-Britain, and "Northum- 
 brians." Among the variations we find " rex et primicerius totius 
 Albionis" (Cod. Dip. 1168); and in a number of other charters 
 " totius Albionis monarchus et primicerius " (ib. 425), " rex Albionis " 
 (ib. 1 167). In 949 Eadred is he " quem Northymbra paganorumque 
 seu caeterarum sceptro provinciarum Rex Regum omnipotens sub- 
 limavit, quique praefatus Imperator semper Deo grates dignissimus 
 larga manu subministrat " (Cod. Dip. 424). But another char- 
 ter of the same year shows that this " Imperator" must be taken in 
 a rhetorical rather than technical use : " Eadredus rex Anglorum. 
 rectorque Nordhanymbra, et Paganorum imperator, Brittonumque 
 propugnator " (Cod. Dip. 426), where we have the fourfold realm re- 
 curring, and the " Empire" restricted to the Danes of Mid-Britain. 
 In 995. however, the style became really Imperial, " Angul-Seaxna 
 Eadred cyning et casere totius Britanniae " (Cod. Dip. 433). 
 
 Wenez 
 
 and the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937 955. 
 
 peace with Eadmund, Olaf, Sihtric's son, so long ciiap.vi 
 the foe of the English kings, but now, apparently, 
 acting as their under-king, seems to have reigned 
 beyond the Tees, while Ragnald, Gudferth s son, 
 ruled in our Yorkshire. The north submitted qui- 
 etly to Eadred's rule, while the Scots renewed the 
 oath of "fellow-workmanship" which they had giv- 
 en to his predecessor in exchange for the cession 
 of Cumbria.' The country, however, soon became 
 restless enough to call for the king's presence ; and 
 in the following year, 947,' Eadred advanced to 
 '' Taddenescylf," and there received the oath of 
 personal allegiance from the Northumbrian witan. 
 Amone them the chronicle makes no mention of 
 any under-kings at all, and Wulfstan stands alone 
 as the foremost man of the north. But formal as 
 the recognition was, neither witan nor archbishop 
 were long bound by it.' " Within a little while " 
 (apparently before the year was out) " they belied 
 it all, both pledge and oath."* They may have been 
 tempted to a rising by the presence of the Danish 
 king, Harald Blaatand, or Blue -Tooth, off their 
 coast. The Danish kingdom, which had been built 
 up by Gorm the Old, was now beginning to show, 
 under his son Harald, the strength which was at 
 last to bring about its conquest of England; and 
 
 • Eng. Chron. a. 946. ' Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 947. 
 
 =■ Wulfstan, however, must have been at Eadred's court in 947, 
 948, and 949, as he signs charters in all these years (Cod. Dip. 1 1 57» 
 1 1 58, 1 1 59, 1 161, 1 162, 1 163, 424, 425, 426), so that he can hardly 
 have taken any active part in this rising. 
 
 * Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 947- This is the only chronicle that 
 gives much information as to this reign : that of Winchester tells 
 only Eadred's accession and death. 
 
 II 
 
278 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 937-955. 
 
 Eric driv 
 en out. 
 
 cHAP^vi. the fleets of Harald rode triumphant alike in the 
 weitex Baltic and the British Channel. Fortunately, how- 
 Daneiaw. cver, for Eadred, Harald's efforts in the latter quarter 
 were mainly directed to the support of the Norman 
 Duchy, which was still hard pressed by its neigh- 
 bors, and in which he hoped to find a base for 
 a Danish conquest of Western Frankland. But, 
 though bent on this aim, he still found room for 
 wider projects ; he had already established one son 
 as King of Semland in the Baltic, and if, after the 
 completion of his work in Normandy, in 945, he 
 turned to re-establishing the power of the Skioldungs 
 in Britain, it would account for the reception of his 
 son Eric by the Northumbrians at this juncture as 
 their king.' 
 
 It is possible that the sight of their English 
 ruler had roused fresh hopes of independence in 
 the breasts of the Northumbrians. The house of 
 yElfred was already showing signs of that physical 
 exhaustion and degeneracy which was to reveal 
 itself in the premature manhood and equally pre- 
 mature deaths of Eadwior and Eadrar, in the weak- 
 ness of y^thelred, and the feeble frame of the child- 
 less Confessor. Though Eadred was in the prime 
 of life, he was suffering from a disease which in a 
 few years hurried him to the tomb; and the Danish 
 warriors may well have looked with scorn on a sick 
 man's sword.' But no trace of weakness showed 
 
 ' The later English chronicles confound this Eric Hirin^;J v/ith the 
 Norwegian, Eric Bloody-Axe. See. however, Adam of Bremen, ii. 
 15: " Haraldus Hiring lilium suum misit in Angliam, qui subacta 
 insula a Northumbris tandem proditus et occisus est." 
 
 " See Saxon Biography of Dunstan ; Stubbs, Memor. S. Dunstan, 
 p. 31. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 279 
 
 itself in the king's action. As soon as winter was 
 over he marched, in 948, on the north, and " ravaged 
 all Northumberland, for that they had taken Eric 
 for their king." ' The firing of the minster at Ripon, 
 where Wilfrid had lavished the resources of his art, 
 and which had escaped the ruin of the Danish storm, 
 made this raid memorable in the annals of the north; 
 the king's force was too overwhelming for resistance, 
 and it was only as he withdrew to the south over 
 the wrecked country that the Danes ventured to 
 gather in pursuit. They fell on his rear at Chester- 
 ford, and so heavy were the West-Saxon losses that 
 Eadred in a burst of wrath threatened to turn back 
 "and wholly ruin the land." But his threat was 
 enough. The Danes abandoned Eric, made com- 
 pensation to Eadred for the men who had fallen, 
 and again submitted to his rule.' 
 
 In the rise and fall of Eric we may perhaps see 
 a strife, not only between the parties of resistance 
 and of submission, but also between the Danish and 
 Norwegian settlers who shared the Danelaw; for 
 hardly had he been forsaken when, in 949, Olaf, 
 Sihtric's son, reappeared in Northumbria, where he 
 ruled for the next three years.' Olaf, no doubt, 
 ruled as a sub-king under Eadred, for there is no 
 record of further strife ; and the king must, through- 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 WesMz 
 
 and the 
 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937~9M. 
 
 Arrest of 
 Archbish- 
 op Wulf- 
 Stan. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Wore), 948. 
 
 "" In 949 the Welsh, Danes, and Northumbrian jarls united for 
 the last time in attesting a charter of Eadred. 
 
 ' This is from a late Peterborough Chron. (E), a. 949, as our m- 
 formation even from the Worcester Chronicle ceases here, save that 
 it tells of Wulfstan's arrest in 952. Skene (Celtic Scotland, 1. 363) 
 identifies this Olaf with Sihtric's son; Earle (Paral. Chron. ii8, 
 note) makes him another Olaf. 
 
28o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Wmmz 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw 
 
 987 955. 
 
 cHAP^ VI. out these years, have been quietly getting a firmer 
 grip on the Danelaw. In 952, indeed, he ventured 
 on an act which marked him as its master. The 
 submission after Chesterford had no doubt won 
 — pardon for Wulfstan s share in the revolt that so 
 soon followed his oath -taking at Taddenescylf, as 
 for the share of his fellow-rebels; but to the English 
 court, where the young king and his ministers were 
 alike swayed by a religious revival, the forswearing 
 of an archbishop took a different color from that oi 
 a Dane, nor had the primate's course during the 
 years that followed been free from charges of fresh 
 disloyalty." He "had been often accused to the 
 king," but it was not till 952 that he was seized, 
 and brought as a prisoner before Eadred-in the 
 fortress of Jedburgh.' 
 ^L^Zn' '^^^^ ^^^^est of the archbishop was due, no doubt, 
 
 ^cjr/</om. to suspicions of his complicity in a fresh rising in 
 Northumbria, where Olaf was in the same year driven 
 out by his subjects, and Eric Hiring again received 
 as their king.' Of the strife that followed through 
 the next two years we know only the close, the re- 
 newed expulsion of Eric, and the fresh submission 
 of the Danelaw to Eadred.* But short and unevent- 
 
 * As we have seen, Wulfstan's presence at Eadred's court in 947 
 and 948 is hardly compatible with any active sharing in the rising 
 of the north during these years. He is there still in 949 (Cod. Dip. 
 424, 425, 426, 427). but I do not see his name afterwards. 
 
 " Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 952. He was released two years after, 
 on the death of Eric (ib. 954). 
 
 ' This is again from the late Peterborough Chronicle, and may 
 possibly be a mere blunder for Eric's reception in 949, as given in 
 the Worcester Chronicle (D). which knows nothing of these later 
 events. 
 
 * The account in the Chronicle differs widely here from that of 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 281 
 
 ful as the strucrcrle was, it was the last ; for with the chap. vi. 
 submission of 954 the long work of Alfred s house Wtw^^ 
 was done. Dogged as his fight had been, the Dane Baneiaw. 
 at last owned himself beaten ; from the moment of 93^^. 
 Eadred's final triumph all resistance came to an — 
 end; and the close of the undcr-kingdom proclaim- 
 ed that the north was broug]it into the general or- 
 ganization of the English realm. The policy of the 
 great ealdormanries, however, triumphed again over 
 that of national union. Though Eadred, in 954, 
 "took," like ^thelstan, "to the kingdom of the 
 Northumbrians,'" he made no attempt to restore 
 the direct rule of ^thelstan's early years. He con- 
 tented himself with reducing the under-kingdom to 
 an earldom, and governing it through an English- 
 man instead of a Dane. Oswulf, who had till now 
 held a semi-independent position as " high-reeve " of 
 Bernicia, was set over both Bernicia and Deira as 
 earl of the Northumbrians. 
 
 Dunstan seems to have accompanied the ^'^^g JJ^J^^^'J, 
 into Northumbria after its subjugation, at least as lurjy. 
 far as Chester-le-Street, where he saw the remains 
 of St. Cuthbert still resting in the temporary refuge 
 which they had found after their removal from Lin- 
 disfarne;' and it was probably under his counsel 
 that Eadred resolved to put an end to the subject 
 royalty of the north and to set up the new'earldom 
 of the Northumbrians. Th e abbot's post probably 
 
 the later Saga of Hakon the Good (Laing, Sea Kings, i. 318), which 
 takes this Eric for a son of Harald Fair-hair, who enters Northum- 
 bria for plunder, encounters a king named Glaf, " whom Xing Ead- 
 mund had set to defend the land," and falls in battle against fearful 
 odds. ' Eng- Chron. (Wore), a. 954. 
 
 » Stubbs, Memor. S. Dunstan, p. 379- 
 
282 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Wefsex 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw 
 
 937 955 
 
 cHAK VI. answered in some way to that of the later chan- 
 cellor;' and as we find the hoard in his charge at 
 the end of the reign,' he must then have combined 
 with this the office of the later treasurer. Of the 
 details of his political work, however, during this 
 period nothing is told us. But of the intellectual 
 and literary work which he was carrying on through- 
 out the reign we are allowed to see a little more. 
 It was, in fact, in these nine years that the more 
 important part of his educational work was done. 
 If much of his time was necessarily spent at Win- 
 chester, or with the royal court, the bulk of it seems 
 still to have been given to his Abbey of Glaston- 
 bury, and to the school which was growing up 
 within its walls. He himself led the way in the 
 work of teaching. Tradition told of the kindliness 
 with which he won the love of his scholars,' the 
 psalms sung with them as they journeyed together, 
 the vision that comforted Dunstan for the loss of 
 one little scholar as he saw the child borne heav- 
 enward in the arms of angels. In the library of 
 Glastonbury some interesting memorials of his scho- 
 
 * In 949, at the close of a grant to Reculver, we find " Ego Dun- 
 stan indignus abbas rege Eadredo imperante banc domino meo 
 hereditariam Cartulam dictitando composui, et propriis digitorum 
 articulis pQrscripsi'' (Cod. Dip. 425). 
 
 ' Stubbs. Memor. S. Dunstan, Introd. pp. Ixxxvi. Ixxxvii. 
 
 ' It is an amusing contrast to the common portraiture of Dun- 
 stan, that at his own Canterbury, a hundred years after his death, he 
 was regarded as the patron and protector of school-boys. Once, in 
 Anselm's time, when the yearly whipping-day arrived for the Cathe- 
 dral school, the poor little wretches crowded weeping to his shrine 
 and sought aid from their " dear father Dunstan." Dunstan it was, 
 so every school-boy believed, who sent the masters to sleep, and 
 then set them quarrelling till the whipping blew over. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 283 
 
 lastic work were preser\'ed even to the time of the 
 Reformation : books on the Apocalypse, a collection 
 of canons drawn from his Irish teachers, passages 
 transcribed from Frank and Roman law^-books, notes 
 on measure and numbers, a pamphlet on grammar, 
 a mass of biblical quotations, tables for calculating 
 Easter, and a book of Ovid's Art of Love which 
 jostled oddly with an English homily on the Inven- 
 tion of the Cross.' 
 
 From its remote site in the west, Glastonbury 
 threw off an offshoot into Central Britain. In 955 
 ^thelwold, Dunstan's chief scholar and assistant 
 in his educational work, received from Eadred a gift 
 of the Abbey of Abingdon,' a house which we noted 
 as growing up in the eighth century by the side of 
 the Thames, and which had since been ruined by 
 the incursions of the Danes. Settling there with a 
 few clerks from Glastonbury, ' the new abbot soon 
 o-athercd a school whose activity more than rival- 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Weawz 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-9W. 
 
 lis in- 
 fluence on 
 English 
 literatttre. 
 
 ' Memor. S. Dunstan, Introd. pp. cx.-cxii. " Several of these 
 pieces," says Prof. Stubbs, "contain British glosses, and furnish 
 some of the earliest specimens of Welsh." 
 
 « Chron. Abingd. (ed. Stevenson), i. 124. ^thelwold "disposu- 
 it ultra -marinas partes adire, causa se imbuendi seu sacris libris 
 seu monasticis disciplinis perfectius : sed praevenit venerabilis re- 
 gina Eadgifu, mater regis Eadredi, ejus conamina, dans consiliuni 
 regi ne talem virum sineret cgredi de regno suo. Placuit tunc regi 
 Eadredo, suadente matre sua, dare venerabili Athelwoldo quendam 
 locum, vocabulo Abbandun." — Vit. ^thelwoldi, Chron. Abingd. 
 (ed. Stevenson), ii. 257. Did the writ "ne exeas regno" already 
 
 exist? 
 
 ' " Quern statim secuti sunt quidam clerici de Glastonia, hoc est 
 Osgarus, Foldbirchtus, Frithegarus, et Ordbirchtus de Wintonia, et 
 Eadricus de Lundonia."— Vit. Ethelwoldi, Chron. Abingd. (ed. Ste- 
 venson), ii. 258, an interesting passage, as showing from how wide 
 a range Glastonbury had drawn. 
 
284 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 285 
 
 cHAP^vi. led that of the house from which it sprang. From 
 wmmx these two centres the movement spread through 
 
 and tli6 . i o 
 
 Danelaw. Wesscx and Mercia. Jn both the impulse given by 
 937^935. ^^f^^d had been checked, but not arrested, by the 
 stress of war. So large a part of the mass of our 
 early literature has been lost that we can hardly 
 draw any conclusion from the scarcity of its re- 
 mains in the period which followed the king's death; 
 indeed the larger and more literary tone of the Eng- 
 lish Chronicle through the reign of Eadward the 
 Elder is a sufficient proof that the earlier intellect- 
 ual movement had still its representatives through 
 the first years of the struggle with the Danelaw.' 
 Even when in yEthelstan's day the Chronicle sinks 
 into meagre annals, a fortunate chance reveals to us, 
 in the battle-songs and death-songs embedded in its 
 pages, the existence of a mass of English verse of 
 which all memory would otherwise have perished. 
 Side by side, too, with this statelier song we catch 
 glimpses of a wilder and more romantic upgrowth 
 of popular verse, which wrapped in an atmosphere 
 of romance the lives of kings such as ^thelstan 
 and Eadgar.' 
 
 Dunstan's own youth, indeed, his zeal for letters, 
 
 ' See the mention by William of Malmesburyof a book written in 
 ^thelstan's time. Gest. Reg. (ed. Hardy), i. 209.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 ' Malmesbury has preserved for us in his Gesta Regum prose ver- 
 sions of some of these ballads. The ballads of ^thelstan are : ( i ) 
 The Birth of the King; (2) The Drowning of Eadwine ; (3) The 
 Craft of Anlaf. There are besides three ballads of Eadgar: (i) 
 The Slave Queen ; (2) Eadgar and yElfthr>'th ; (3) Eadgar and the 
 Scot-King. How vigorous this ballad literature was we see from 
 the preservation of these down to the twelfth century, when they 
 were introduced by the writers of the time into our history, much to 
 its confusion. 
 
 and the fact that he found books and teachers to chap, vi. 
 meet his zeal, show that the impulse which Alfred wessex 
 had given was far from having spent its force in his Danelaw, 
 grandson's days. But there can be no doubt that 937 j^^, 
 the foundation of the two schools at Glastonbury 
 and Abingdon gave to this impulse a new strength 
 and guidance. It is from them that we must date 
 the rise of the second old English literature, a liter- 
 ature which bears the stamp of Wessex, as the first 
 had borne the stamp of Northumbria. In poetry 
 this literature was no doubt inferior to its pred- 
 ecessor; there was nothing to rival the verse of 
 Cadmon or the poems of Cynewulf. But the later 
 time may justly claim as its own the creation of a 
 stately historic verse, of which fragments remain in 
 the battle-songs of Brunanburh and Maldon, or the 
 death-songs of Eadgar or Eadward. The love of 
 poetry was seen even in the series of translations to 
 which we really owe our knowledge of the earlier 
 Northumbrian song. Save for a few lines embedded 
 in Baeda or o^raven on the Rothewell cross, this 
 mass of song in its Northumbrian dress has wholly 
 vanished. What we learn of Cadmon or the lyrics 
 we have only in the West -Saxon garb which was 
 given them at this period, and which witnesses to 
 a new thirst for poetry in the south. But the bulk 
 of the work done in this later time was a work of 
 prose; and like that of yElf red, from which it started, 
 of popular prose. Disappointed as we may be, in a 
 literary sense, when we front its mass of homilies 
 and scriptural versions and saints' lives and gram- 
 mar and lesson - books, they tell us of a clergy 
 quickened to a new desire for knowledge, and of 
 
 f.- 
 
286 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Wewez 
 
 and tbe 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937 956. 
 
 EadraVs 
 death. 
 
 cHAP^vi. a like quickening of educational zeal among the 
 people at large. 
 
 But whatever was the result of Dunstan's literary 
 work, it was interrupted by Eadred s death. The 
 young king was at the height of his renown. The 
 real weakness of the royal power had yet to disclose 
 itself, and the presence of great earls or ealdormen 
 at Eadred's court only seemed to add to its lustre. 
 The land had at last won peace. The jarls of the 
 north, Urm and Grim, and Gunnar and Scule, sat 
 quietly in the witenagemot as they had sat in the 
 witenagemots of /Ethelstan. There, too, sat as 
 quietly the princes of Wales, Morecant and Owen.' 
 Such a mastery of Britain raised yet higher the 
 pretensions of the crown. The reorganization of 
 the Roman Empire at this juncture by Otto the 
 Great, and the claim of supremacy which the em- 
 peror put forth over the countries of the wxst, 
 may have given a fresh impulse to the assumption 
 of titles which not only expressed the new might 
 of the royal power, but indicated that the English 
 king held him.self to be fellow and not subject 
 to the German.' It is, at any rate, in Eadred's 
 last year of rule that we find the first clear in- 
 stance of the use of a strictly imperial style in 
 the titles of our king, for Eadred not only styled 
 
 * Cod. Dip. 426. 433. When Eadred visits Abingdon, •* contingil 
 adesse sibi non paucos venientes gentis Northanhymbrorum," who 
 got drunk over the feast, " inebriatis Northumbris statim ac vesperi 
 recedentibus." — Vit. Ethelwoldi, Chron. Abingd. (ed. Stevenson), ii. 
 258. 
 
 * In 949 there were envoys of Eadred at Otto's court at Aachen. 
 — Lappenberg, Hist. Anglo-Sax. ii. 156. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 287 
 
 937 955 
 
 himself King of the Anglo-Saxons but " Ca?sar of ^haf.vi. 
 the whole of Britain.'" What exact force lay in w^x 
 these pompous titles, the English Chancery, if we Di^d'aw. 
 may use the term of a later time, would possibly have 
 found it hard to explain ; vague, however, as they 
 were, they no doubt expressed in some sort a claim 
 to political supremacy over the whole British island 
 as complete as that which Otto claimed over the 
 western world. But while his clerks were framing 
 these lofty phrases, the king's life was drawing to a 
 close. Throughout his reign Eadred had fought 
 against sickness and weakness of body as nobly 'as 
 he had fought against the Dane,' and now that his 
 work was done, the over-wrought frame gave way. 
 Dunstan was at Glastonbury, where the royal Hoard 
 was then in keeping, w^hen news came in November, 
 955, that the king lay death-smitten at Frome.' The 
 guardians of the Hoard were bidden to bring their 
 treasures that Eadred might see them ere he died ; 
 but while the heavy wains were still toiling along the 
 Somersetshire lanes,' the death - howl of the w^omen 
 about the court told the abbot as he hurried onward 
 that the friend he loved was dead.' He found the 
 corpse already forsaken, for the thegns of the court 
 had hurried to the presence of the new king; and 
 Dunstan was left alone to carry Eadred to his grave 
 beside Eadmund at Glastonbury. 
 
 ' Cod. Dip. 433. 
 
 ' Sax. biogr., Memor. S. Dunstan (Stubbs), p. 31. 
 
 =• Ibid. 
 
 * Eadred's death is dated Nov. 23. 955, Eng. Chron. ad ann. 
 
 * Vit. Adelardi, Memor. S. Dunstan (Stubbs), p. 58. 
 
288 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Wenex 
 
 and the 
 Danelaw. 
 
 937-955. 
 
 Notf:. — The two following chapters cannot be considered as ex- 
 pressing Mr. Green's final view of the political state of England, 
 and of the relations of the ealdormcn to the Crown, in the tenth 
 century. His work on this period was cut short in the autumn of 
 1882 by illness and the necessity for leaving England, and these 
 two chapters were hurriedly sketched out, and then laid aside for 
 future reconsideration. In now printing them I wish to state clearly 
 that they are unfinished work which had yet to receive the final ex- 
 amination and judgment of the writer. The materials for Chapter 
 Vn. in particular had not been put into any order, and the present 
 arrangement of the subjects is my own. — (A. S. G.) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GREAT EALDORMEN. 
 955-988. 
 
 The true significance of English history during ^j^j^^^ 
 the vears that followed the triumph of the house oi of 
 i^lfred over the Danelaw lies in its internal political ' 
 •development. Foreign affairs are for the time of 
 little import, weighty as their influence had been 
 before, and was again to be. With Eadred's victory 
 the strucro-le with the Danes seemed to have reached 
 its close. Stray pirate boats still hung off headland 
 and coast ; stray wikings still shoved out in spring 
 tide to ^*-ather booty. But for nearly half a century 
 to come no pirate fleet landed on the shores of 
 Britain. The storm against which she had battled 
 seemed to have drifted away, and the land passed 
 from the long conflict into a season of external 
 peace. It is in the social and political changes that 
 were passing over the country during this period, 
 and the conflicting tendencies which were at work 
 in producing these changes, that we must seek for 
 its real history. Here, as elsewhere, the upgro\yth 
 of a feudal aristocracy was going on side by side 
 with a vast development in the power, and still 
 more in the pretensions, of the crown. The same 
 movement which in other lands was breaking up 
 every nation into a mass of loosely knit states, with 
 
 19 
 
290 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAivv'ii. nobles at their head who owned little save a nominal 
 The allee^iance to their kins:, threatened to break up 
 dormen. England itself. What hindered its triumph was 
 955 988. ^^^ power of the crown, and it is the story of the 
 struggle of the monarchy with these tendencies to 
 provincial isolation which fills the period between 
 the conquest of the Danelaw and the conquest of 
 England itself by the Norman. It was a struggle 
 which England shared with the rest of the western 
 world, but its issue here was a peculiar one. In 
 other countries feudalism w^on an easy victory over 
 the central government. In England alone the 
 monarchy was strong enough to hold it at bay. But 
 if feudalism proved too weak to conquer the mon- 
 archy, it was strong enough to paralyze its action. 
 Neither of the two forces could master, but each 
 could weaken the other, and the conflict of the two 
 could disintegrate England as a whole. From the 
 moment when their rivalry broke into actual strife 
 the country lay a prey to disorder within and to in- 
 sult from without. 
 ^^'^, The upojrowth of the kins^ly power had been 
 
 vionarcny. ^^ r> j r 
 
 brought about, as we have seen, by a number of 
 varied influences. It had drawn new strength from 
 the dying-out of the other royal stocks, leaving the 
 house of Cerdic alone, and from the high character 
 of the kings of ^^Ifred s line. A long series of vic- 
 tories, the constant sight and recognition of the king 
 as head of the national host, and the relidous char- 
 acter with which the leadership in war against a 
 heathen foe invested him, had added to the royal 
 dignity; and new claims to authority had sprung 
 from the gradual upbuilding of England, and the 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 291 
 
 extent of dominion brought under the kings rule, chap. vn. 
 from the balance of Danish and anti-Danish parties m> 
 in the realm, and from the king's position as com- ^rorL'^n '" 
 mon political centre of the English provinces. . — ,, 
 Along with the advance thus brought about in the — 
 authority of the crown, there went on a change in 
 the old Teutonic conception of kingship, and an 
 imitation of imperial claims aided by intercourse with 
 the imperial court. The solemn coronation of the 
 king, the oath of fidelity, the identification of loyalty 
 with personal troth to the personal king, the doctrine 
 of treason, the haughty claims to a far-reaching 
 supremacy, the vaunting titles assumed in charters, 
 all point to a new conception of royalty. But the 
 royal claims lay still far ahead of the real strength 
 of the crown. There was a want of administrative 
 machinery in actual connection with the govern- 
 ment, responsible to it, drawing its force directly 
 from it, and working automatically in its name even 
 in moments when the royal power was itself weak 
 or wavering. The king's^ower was still a personal 
 power. He had to be everywhere and to see for 
 himself that everything he willed was done. Rest- 
 ing on feeling, on tradition, on personal character, 
 the crown was strong under a king who was strong,' 
 whose personal action was felt everywhere through- 
 out the realm, whose dread lay on every reeve and 
 ealdorman. But with a weak king the crown was 
 weak. Ealdormen, provincial Witenagemots, local 
 jurisdictions, ceased to move at the royal biddino- 
 the moment direct pressure was loosened or re- 
 moved.^ Enfeebled as they w^ere, the old provincial 
 jealousies, the old tendency to severance and isola- 
 
292 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 293 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 The 
 
 Great £al< 
 
 dor men. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 The Eal- 
 dor men. 
 
 tion lingered on, and woke afresh when the crown 
 fell to a nerveless ruler or to a child. 
 
 At the moment we have reached, the royal power 
 and the national union it embodied had to battle 
 with the impulse given to these tendencies towards 
 national disintegration by the struggle with the 
 Northman. We have seen how the spirit of feudal- 
 ism was aided and furthered by the Danish wars, 
 by the growth of commendation and the decrease of 
 free allodial owners, and by the importance given to 
 the military temper. In the ealdormen themselves 
 the feudal spirit was strengthened by the memories 
 of provincial independence, and by the continued 
 existence of what had once been older kingdoms 
 and diverse peoples, as well as by the retention of 
 their popular life in the survival of their old judicial 
 and administrative forms. Popular feeling and 
 feudal tendencies went, in fact, hand in hand. The 
 new ealdormen created by the later Wesf-Saxon 
 kings had hardly taken their place as mere lieuten- 
 ants of the national sovereign before they again be- 
 gan to rise into petty kings, and in the century 
 which follows we see Mercian or Northumbrian 
 thegns following a Mercian or Northumbrian eal- 
 dorman to the field, though it were against the lord 
 of the land. Even the constitutional forms which 
 sprang from the old English freedom tended to in- 
 vest these higher nobles with a commanding power. 
 In the " great meeting " of the Witenagemot, or 
 Assembly of the Wise, lay the rule of the realm, but 
 distance and the hardships of travel made the pres- 
 ence of the lesser thegns as rare as that of the free- 
 men; and the ealdormen became of increasing im- 
 
 portance in the national council. The old English chap^vh. 
 democracy had thus all but passed into an ^^^R^^^^^y ^^Jf j.^i. 
 of the narrowest kind. But powerful as they might dormen. 
 be, the English ealdormen never succeeded in be- 95^83. 
 coming really hereditary or independent of the 
 crown. Kings as weak as yEthelred could drive 
 them into exile and replace them by fresh nominees. 
 If the Witenagemot enabled the great nobles to 
 bring their power to bear directly on the crown, it 
 preserved, at any rate, a feeling of national unity, 
 and was ready to back the crown against individual 
 revolt. The Church, too, never became feudalized. 
 The bishop clung to the crown, and the bishop re- 
 mained a great social and political power. As local 
 in area as the ealdorman, for the province was his 
 diocese and he sat by the side of the ealdorman in 
 the local Witenagemot, he furnished a standing 
 check on the independence of the great nobles. 
 
 The death of Eadred formed the occasion for an f^-^^^'^^S' 
 immediate outbreak of political strife. The flight 
 of the thegns from his death-bed was the sign of a 
 court revolution. Eadred had died childless, but 
 his brother Eadmund had left two children, Eadwig 
 and Eadgar, and the eldest of these was now called 
 to the throne.' Mere boy of fifteen as he was,' we 
 find the new king the centre of an opposition party, 
 hostile to the system of Eadred's reign." In its out- 
 
 ' As he mounted the throne in November, 955, and died in Octo- 
 ber. 958, Eadwig's reign covers hardly three years. 
 
 ^ Stubbs, Memor. St. Dunst.. Introd. p. Ixxxviii. 
 
 3 Ibid. Robertson (Hist. Essays, p. 191 ) conjectures from Dunstan's 
 connection with the East-Anglian house and Eadgifu, as from the 
 combination of "his own disciples'' against him at this time, that 
 "he had allied himself with the party in the state opposed to the 
 
294 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^vir. set the struggle seems to have been one for inflii- 
 The ence between the kindred of the kincr, the leading 
 
 Great Eal- i i r -n r ^ 
 
 dormen. nobles of vVessex, and the three who had directed 
 95^88. affairs in Eadred s name— his mother Eadgifu, the 
 great ealdorman of East AngHa, and Abbot Dun- 
 stan of Glastonbury. In this struggle the first party 
 proved successful. The charters of the time show 
 that the kings kinsmen, .^Ifhere, ^Ifheah, and 
 /Ethelmaer, stand at this time first among his coun- 
 sellors,' while Eadgifu was driven from court, as well 
 as bereft of her property.' The half-king, Ealdor- 
 man y^thelstan, however, and Dunstan* held their 
 ground ' at court for a while, in spite of the efforts 
 of ^thelgifu, a woman of high lineage, whose in- 
 fluence over Eadwig had played no slight part in 
 the change of counsellors. Darker tales floated 
 about of /Ethelgifu's purpose to wed the boy-king 
 
 leading nobility of Wessex, who were the principal characters round 
 the throne during the reigns of ^thelstan and Eadmund." 
 
 ' The Saxon biographer says that most of Eadmund s nobles 
 '•lapsed from the path of rectitude''— that is, opposed Dunstan and 
 his fellow-rulers. 
 
 » The second charter of Eadwig is a grant to ^Ifhere as his " kins- 
 man," descended "a carissimis predecessoribus. " — Cod. Dip. 437. 
 This was the Mercian ealdorman of later days. The assertion of 
 the twelfth-century biographers of Dunstan that Eadwig banished 
 his kinsmen from court " is contradicted by every grant and charter 
 of his reign."— Robertson, Hist. Essays, p. 193. 
 
 ' She says herself, " Eadred died, and Eadgifu was bereft of all her 
 property." — Cod. Dip. 499. 
 
 * Osbern (sec. 25) accuses Eadwig of from the first changing his 
 counsellors, " despectis majoribus natu, puerorum consilia sectaba- 
 tur," of pillaging rich people and churches, and of plundering and 
 outraging the queen-mother, Eadgifu. Osbern also says that Dun- 
 stan. by threats and exhortations, opposed all this and the marriage ; 
 but. finding his efforts vain, withdrew. 
 
 * Dunstan signs charters till the coronation : /Ethelstan still signs 
 at the head of the ealdormen to the close of the year. 
 
 The 
 strife of 
 
 parties. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 295 
 
 to her daughter, a marriage which from their kin- ca^v,.. 
 ship in blood the religious opinion of the day re- „^V. 
 earded as incestuous ; and when the Witan gathered dor».a. 
 fo crown Eadwig, the jealousy of the two parties. ^^, 
 as well as the irritation which her influence caused, 
 was seen in a strife at the coronation feast.' 
 
 To realize the import of this strife, wc must recall 
 the sacred associations that hung round the crown- 
 ine of a king.' It was in itself a solemn office of 
 the Church. It was the primate of the whole Eng- 
 lish people who called on the people for their " yea 
 or "nay." The king's vow to govern "g'^J Y Jf^ 
 criven before the altar. He was anointed with holy 
 oil The crown was set on his head by priestly 
 hands. The prayers of the multitude went up or 
 him to heaven as he was " hallowed to king. W 1 h 
 the new sacredness about him, still crowned with 
 the royal crown, still clad in the roya robes tha 
 bishops and priests had put upon him, his hair still 
 dripping with the holy oil, the new ruler passed from 
 church to guest -hall, and sat for the first time 
 amidst Witan and people gathered i" solemn feast 
 before him as their consecrated head. But the 
 sense of his hallowing fell lightly on Eadwig. 
 Withdrawing on slight pretext from the coronation 
 feast he delayed his return, till whispers ran through 
 the hall that he had retired to his own chamber and 
 the societv of ^thelgifu.' The flight stung nobles 
 and bishops to the quick ; and though^Archbishop 
 
 ^^ET^^^^ti^irT^^ST^S^pl^n the first or second Sunday a(- 
 tnr thP Fniohanv q;6.— Stubbs, Memor. St. Dunst., Introd. p. Ixxxvni. 
 . Stubb (Con'^^Hist. i. .70) gives the history of our coronafons 
 . Wm Malm . Vit. Dunst., sec. 26, " Ille quas. ventns des.deno pu - 
 saturprimo i"s=cretum,mox in triclinium fcminarum concess.t. 
 
296 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 <■■ t 
 
 cHAP^vir. Odo Stilled the uproar, the Witan bade Dunstan 
 The and Bishop Kynesisre of Lichfield bring back the 
 dormen. king, willing or unwilling.' The envoys found Ead- 
 955^88. ^^''^^ between ^thelgifu and her daughter, the crown 
 flung heedlessly at his feet. Hot words passed; 
 and as the boy refused to rise, Dunstan carried out 
 the bidding of the Witan by dragging him with his 
 own hand to. the guest-hall, and setting him in his 
 kingly seat' The deed was one not likely to be 
 forgiven, either by Eadwig or by ^thelgifu, whom 
 the abbot in his wrath at her resistance had threat- 
 ened with death; and as the year went on he felt 
 the weight of her hand. Dunstan was driven from 
 the realm by a sentence of outlawry; and men 
 charged to tear out his eyes reached the shore as he 
 put out to sea and steered for the coast of Flanders,' 
 where Arnulf gave him shelter in the great abbey, 
 just restored by the count's munificence, beside 
 which the town of Ghent was growing up. 
 
 ' " Volentem vel nolentem/' — Sax. Biog. sec. 21. 
 
 ' Such seems the simple story of an event on which " much has 
 been written, and an amount of criticism spent altogether out of 
 proportion to the materials for its history."— Stubbs, Memor. St. 
 Dunst., Introd. p. Ixxxix. The account given by our earliest author- 
 ity, the Saxon biographer, and of which all later stories are but ex- 
 aggerations, attributes, indeed, the whole outbreak to a monstrous 
 lust of Eadwig for both ^Ethelgifu and her daughter. We may dis- 
 miss this the more easily that its narrator clearly forgets that Ead- 
 wig was a mere boy, that the daughter became Eadwig's queen not 
 a year later, and that what remains, after dismissing this scandal, is 
 quite enough to account for the event. His story, it must be re- 
 membered, was written forty years after the occurrence, and here is 
 clearly not derived from Dunstan himself. 
 
 ' Sax. Biog. sec. 23. The importance of his withdrawal to Ghent 
 is well shown by Stubbs (Memor. St. Dunst., Introd. p. cxx.). The 
 Saxon biographer calls it " ignotam jam regionem dictu Gallicc, cu- 
 jus pcene loquelam ritumque ignorabat." 
 
 297 
 
 The triumph of the rival party was completed at 
 the close of the year by the withdrawal to a monas- 
 tery of the "half- king," ^^thelstan, whose ealdor- 
 manry seems for a time to have been parted between 
 his four sons. But the price of this triumph had to 
 be paid in a new disintegration of the realm. Be- 
 fore the end of the same year, 956, the leader of the 
 king's kin, ^^Ifhere, was made ealdorman of the 
 Mercians. The revival of the Mercian ealdorm.anry 
 w^as a far more significant step than the creation of 
 the ealdormanries that had preceded it; for while 
 they had been but divisions of the Danelaw, this 
 w^as a parting of that purely English kingdom of the 
 " Angul-Saxons " which Eadward had formed by. the 
 union of Wessex and of Mercia, and which had served 
 ever since as the nucleus of the growing realm.' And 
 not only was this inner and purely English kingdom 
 broken up, but it was broken into two nearly equal 
 parts. In extent, in population, in wealth, the Mer- 
 cian ealdormanry, stretching as it did from Bristol to 
 Manchester and from the Watling Street to Offa's 
 Dyke," was little inferior to the region south of 
 Thames which was left to the king. The court rev- 
 olution, in fact, had ended in prisoning Eadwig with- 
 in the limits of a dominion which was hardly larger 
 than the dominion of any one of his own ealdormen,' 
 
 ' Amidst all the changes of the royal style, the one phrase which 
 the Chancery always falls back upon, as really descriptive of the 
 character of the realm which the House of -Alfred had built up, is 
 " King of the Angul-Saxons, and of the peoples that lie about them." 
 
 '•' It was, in the main, coextensive with the Mercia of ^thelred and 
 ^thelflaed, save in the valley of the Thames, which may have passed 
 to the East-Saxon ealdormanry. 
 
 ^ As to the order of events in 956, we gain no information from 
 chronicle or biographers. The charters, however, give a few hints 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 The 
 
 Great £al- 
 
 dormen. 
 
 95* 988. 
 
 T//C Mer- 
 cian cal- 
 dormaui y. 
 
298 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VI 
 
 Ureat £al- 
 domtii. 
 
 9A5-988. 
 
 I- and in leaving him at the mercy of the four great 
 The houses who parted all the rest of Britain between 
 them. 
 
 How helpless the crown had become in face of 
 these great houses was shown by the events that 
 followed. The two court parties who had tri- 
 umphed over Dunstan and yEthelstan quarrelled 
 over their victory. They had won the king, but 
 their joint possession was disturbed when ^thel- 
 gifu, in 957, wedded her daughter ^Ifgifu ' to Ead- 
 wig, and the jealousy of the king's kin was shown 
 by their withdrawal from the king's court, as well as 
 by their persuading his younger brother, Eadgar, to 
 join in this withdrawal.' For a while Archbishop 
 
 which I have used in the text, (i) That for some months of the 
 year Dunstan and ^thelstan remained counsellors at court is shown 
 by their joint signatures to several charters (t\j^r. Cod. Dip. 1191,1 196, 
 1 197), in which ^thelstan still signs first among the "duces," while 
 -^Ifhere still signs as "comes" or "minister." (2) In a smaller 
 group Dunstan's name is no longer found ; but ^Ethelstan still signs 
 at the head of the "duces," and ^If here remains "minister" {e.^. 
 Cod. Dip. 1 198). (3) In a third, .^thelstan still signs first, but ^^If- 
 here signs as " dux," no doubt as Ealdorman of Mercia (^.^. Cod. Dip. 
 1 179, 1 181, 1 182, 1 183, 1 184, 1 185. 1 186, 1 187, 1 188, 1 189, 1 190, 1 192, 
 1 193, 1 194. 1 199. etc.). (4) yEthelstan disappears, and ^Ifhere signs 
 as head of the "duces'' (f.^: Cod. Dip. 1207). (There is a second 
 and inferior "^Ethelstan dux," whose signature has gone on side by 
 side with the first, and who signs on into the next year; but he is 
 clearly distinguishable from the East -Anglian ealdorman by the 
 position of his signature.) As the last charters are few, we may 
 suppose that ^thelstan only withdrew from court towards the end 
 of the year. 
 
 ' Cod. Dip. 1 201. An exchange of lands is witnessed by "^Ifgifu, 
 the king's wife, and ^thelgifu, the king's wife's mother," besides 
 three bishops and one ealdorman, Byrhtnoth. 
 
 ^ The charters show that Eadgar remained with his brother up to 
 May, 957 (Cod. Dip. 465). We are, however, far less aided by these 
 documents than in 956, when their number is very large — perhaps 
 from the abundance of coronation grants. In 957 we have but few, 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 299 
 
 Odo remained at court, though denouncing the mar- chap.vh. 
 riage as against Church law; but before the year The 
 ended the disregard of his remonstrances forced ^JJJJ^en*^" 
 hjm also to retire, and his solemn sentence "parted ^^^g 
 King Eadwig and yElfgifu, for that they were of — ' 
 kin." ' The sentence was at once followed by a 
 general revolt. The new ealdorman whom Eadwig 
 had set over Mid -Britain was the first to move 
 against him ; for it could but have been at .^Ifhere's 
 bidding that the Mercians rose and chose Eadgar 
 for their kin g.' The ealdormanries of the eastern 
 
 and there is little to show to what part of the year they belong. In 
 one group we find Eadgar and the full court as at the close of 956 
 (Cod. Dip. 463, 465, May 9) ; in another, though Archbishop Odo and 
 the bishops remain, Eadgar and .^Ifhere are both missing {i\ (,^ Cod. 
 Dip. 467, 468, where but two " duces " sign, Eadmund and ^thelsige) ; 
 in a third, Odo is added to the number of absentees, there are few 
 bishops, while to the duces, Eadmund and ^thelsige, are added 
 Alfred, ^Ifric, and ^Ifsige (Cod. Dip. 1209, 12 10). 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 958. Of this separation the Saxon biographer 
 and Adelard say nothing, while Osbern gives another tale. 
 
 "^ As we have seen, the revolt cannot have been earlier than May, 
 and as Odo remained after Eadgar's withdrawal, probably not ear- 
 lier than the later months of the year. On the other hand, it " can- 
 not be later than the spring of 958, as in that year Eadgar begins to 
 issue charters as king."— Stubbs, Memor. St.Dunst.,Introd. pp. Ixxxix., 
 xc). The assertion of Dunstan's biographers that it arose out of 
 Eadwig's attacks on monks, is a confusion of this struggle with the 
 struggle after Eadgar's death. Robertson (Historical Essays, p. 193) 
 says, justly enough, " Eadwig is accused of dissolving the monaster- 
 ies of Glastonbury and Abingdon, and of banishing the Benedictines 
 from England ;, yet he was the earliest benefactor of Abingdon, for 
 his grants of Ginge and other lands, in 956, are realities, while'the 
 charter of Eadred, dated in 955 and witnessed by Oscytel, as Arch- 
 bishop of York, is a forgery, ^thelwold, ' father of the monks,' 
 with ^Ifric of Malmesbury and two other abbots, attest his latest 
 charter in 959; the clergy as well as the laity of Wessex were his 
 stanchest supporters— .^Ifwold, recommended for the see of Cre- 
 diton by Dunstan, Daniel, and Brithelm of Wells, among the bishops 
 of his party, are claimed by Malmesbury as aluntfii of Glastonbury— 
 
300 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VII. coast, however, with the Five Boroughs and the 
 
 The Northumbrian earldom, must have joined yElfhere 
 
 domen. i^ his revolt, for the whole land north of the Thames 
 
 gg^gg soon owned the rule of Eadgar, and only Wessex 
 
 — remained faithful to Eadwig.' On the young king's 
 
 part no resistance seems to have been possible ; a 
 
 and there were no Benedictines at that time in England to drive 
 away. The struggle between secular and regular began in the reign 
 of Eadgar, and was antedated long afterwards to throw odium on 
 Edwy. If Dunstan was among the supporters of Eadgar, Edwy 
 could point to i^thelwold as his follower; for the contest was 
 fought on political grounds, and not about a question of ecclesias- 
 tical discipline." 
 
 ■ Will. Malmesbury (Vit. Dunst. lib. ii. sec. 3) says the West Sax- 
 ons rose too, but reconciled themselves to Eadwig, perhaps on his 
 abandonment of his wife. Of the northern rising our knowledge is 
 small. It is mentioned in only one chronicle, and then under a 
 wrong year. The Saxon biographer of Dunstan calls it vaguely a 
 rising of the *' northern people " (" a Brumali populo relinqueretur ;" 
 so Eadgar is chosen king of the " Brumales "), but gives no definition 
 of them. With Osbern, who is the first to give a detailed account 
 of this revolution, it was strictly a rising of the Mercians, " virorum 
 ab Humbre fiuvio usque ad Tamesium " (sec. 28). Eadwig, he says, 
 was in Mercia when the sudden rising took place. "Coacti in tur- 
 bam regern cum adulteru fugitantem atque in inviis sese occultan- 
 tem armis persequi non desistunt. Et ipsam quidem juxta Clau- 
 diam civitatem repertam subnervavere deinde qua morte digna 
 fuerat mulctavere. Porro regem per diversa locorum semestra devi- 
 antem ultra flumen Tamisium compulere '' (ibid.). Eadgar is then 
 chosen king "super omnes provincias ab Humbre usque ad Tamisi- 
 um,"' and war follows for a while. In all this Eadmer follows Osbern. 
 The signatures, however, of Archbishop Oscytel and of many north- 
 ern jarls to Eadgar's charter of 959 (Cod. Dip. 480), when Eadgar is 
 "totius Merciae provinciae necnon et aliorum gentium in circuitu 
 persistentium gubernator et rector," and which is attested by Dun- 
 stan of London and other Mercian bishops, show Northumbria and 
 East Anglia as taking equal part with Mercia in the revolt. ^If- 
 here signs first among the ealdormen, followed by ^thelstan and 
 ^thelwold of East Anglia. Of northern names we see " Oskytel 
 dux," and Sigwulf, Ulfkytel, Rold, Dragmel, Thurferth, and Thurcy- 
 tel, among the " ministri." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 301 
 
 joint meeting of the Mercian and West-Saxon Wite- cHAI^^vII. 
 nagemots agreed on the division of the realm, and The 
 the Thames was fixed as the boundary between the dormen. " 
 dominions of the two brothers.' 955I988. 
 
 The importance of the revolution lay in its reve- ^—^^^ 
 lation of the weakness of the monarchy. At its first 
 clash with the forces it had itself built up the realm 
 of Eadward and ^thelstan shrank helplessly into its 
 original Wessex. The Danelaw with English Mer- 
 cia again fronted the West -Saxon king, as it had 
 fronted him when Guthrum marched to complete 
 the work of the Northmen by the reduction of 
 southern Britain ; and it was now organized into a 
 single political body, owning the rule of Eadgar, 
 " King," as he called himself, '' of the Mercians," or 
 "of the Engle."' Eadgar showed his independence 
 by recalling Dunstan from exile, and appointing 
 him in full Witenagemot to the successive sees of 
 Worcester and of London.' Eadwig, on the other 
 hand, lay isolated in Wessex, and was driven even 
 there to submit to the forces of revolt. In the 
 spring of 95S Odo ended the strife between the 
 Church and the king by gathering an armed band, 
 riding to the hall where the queen was dwelling, 
 seizing her, and carrying her out of the realm. The 
 blow seems to have been followed by a threat of de- 
 
 ' " Sicque, universo populo testante, res regum diifinitione saga- 
 cium sejuncta est, ut famosum flumen Tamesis regnum disterminat 
 amborum." — Sax. Biog. sec. 24. 
 
 " In the first of Eadgar's charters of this date (Cod. Dip. 471). one 
 of 958, attested by the bishops of Dorchester, Lichfield, Hereford, 
 Lindsey, and Worcester, he styles himself " Rex Anglorum." In the 
 second, of 959, he is " Rex Merciorum " (Cod. Dip. 480). 
 
 ' As Dunstan was consecrated by Odo, he must have returned be- 
 fore June, 958. 
 
302 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. vir. position, and Eadwig at last submitted to the arch- 
 The bishop's sentence.' From that moment he remained 
 
 JoJmen*" powerless in the hands of Odo and of his grand- 
 
 956^88 ^<^^^^c^' Eadgifu, who returned to court, where she 
 no doubt again resumed her powder,' and after the 
 archbishop's death must have acted as sole ruler. 
 In 959, however, the death of the boy-king of Wes- 
 sex put an end to the outer seeming of disunion. 
 The King of Mercia was received as their king by 
 the West Saxons ; and the unity of the monarchy 
 was again restored under the rule of Eadgar. 
 
 The West- fj^Q f^j-g^ mcasurcs of the sfovernment, however, 
 
 imxon eal- ^ ^ ^ 
 
 dortnen. showcd how^ uttcHy it lay in the hands of the great 
 ealdormen of East Anglia and Mercia, whose co- 
 operation had placed Eadgar on the throne. Their 
 ^ aid had to be paid for ; and the payment they chose 
 was the extension of ealdormanries over the last re- 
 maining part of Britain, over Wessex itself. From 
 Ecgberht's day at least, Wessex had been divided 
 into shires, with an ealdorman and shire-reeve at the 
 head of each ; but the natural configuration of the 
 ground, as well as the course of history, had gathered 
 these shires into three great groups: those of the 
 
 ' The Life of Oswald, by a Ramsey monk (in Raine, Hist. Ch. of 
 York, vol. i.), written between 995 and 100$, gives the earliest de- 
 tailed account of this. " Antistes (Odo) . . . repente cum sociis equ- 
 um ascendit, et ad villam qua mulier mansitabat pervenit eamque 
 rapuit et de regno perduxit, regemque dulcibus ammonuit verbis 
 pariterque factis, ut ab impiis actibus custodiret se, ne periret de 
 via justa." This is probably from the information of Oswald, Odo's 
 nephew, and disp>oses of the later stories of Osbern and Eadmer. 
 
 ' A charter, attested by Odo and Eadgifu (Cod. Dip. 1224), shows 
 their return to court: and as Odo seems to have died in June, 958 
 (Stubbs, Memor. St. Dunst., Introd. p. xcv.), the reconciliation must 
 have been early in the year. 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 UNDER THE EALDORMEN 
 
 (As developed by 
 RoberlsonI 
 
 M 
 
 6U 
 
 W.Or E r,r 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 303 
 
 " Central Provinces," or the "shires about Winches- chap.vh. 
 ter," those of the old Eastern or Kentish kingdom, 
 
 and those of the Wealhcyn beyond Selwood in the 
 West. These traditional divisions were taken as 
 the basis of a new organization. /Elf here was now, 
 as he remained throughout the reign,' the main 
 power at the young king's court; and immediately 
 on Eadgar's accession to the West-Saxon throne, in- 
 deed, before the close of the year, the Mercian eal- 
 dorman received his reward in the raising of his 
 brother ^Ifheah to the ealdormanry of Central 
 Wessex, the ealdormanry — as it is sometimes called 
 — of Southampton ; while about 966 the East-An- 
 glian ealdorman, ^thelwine, exacted a like return 
 in the elevation of Ordgar " to the ealdormanry of 
 the Wealhcyn. Ordgar and vEllfheah were both of 
 the royal kin, both had stood foremost in the group 
 of nobles about Eadwig; ' and their rise may have 
 
 » Throughout the numerous charters of Eadgar's reign, the order 
 of signature in the attestations is mainly the same. From begin- 
 ning to end, almost, ^Elfhere and his brother yElfheah sign first; 
 then the ealdormen of the East-Anglian house — ^thelstan and 
 i^thelwold ; then Byrhtnoth, perhaps Ealdorman of Essex ; then 
 the "duces " Eadmund and ^thelmund. In 962 the place of ^th- 
 elwold (who dies then) is taken by his brother ^thclwine. In 963 
 (Cod. Dip. 504) we find the first signature of Oslac as *' dux," though 
 the Chronicle places his elevation to the Northumbrian earldom in 
 966. From 966 we find Ordgar appearing among the duces : per- 
 haps raised as father-in-law of Eadgar, who married in 965 his 
 daughter ^Ifthryth ( Eng. Chron. a. 965 ). In 969 Eadwulf and 
 Bryhtferth (who has till now stood at the head of the "ministri") 
 are added to the number of "duces," and in 975 we have a "dux 
 JEUsige." ^Ifheah and Ordgar seem to have died during Eadgar's 
 reign, as their signatures are missing in the later charters. 
 
 ■-' Ordgar was the father of i^lfthryth, the wife of -^thelwine's 
 brother, ^thelwold, who had died in 962. 
 
 ' i^lfheah signs a charter of Eadwig in 955 (Cod. Dip. 436), Ord- 
 gar as late as 957 (Cod. Dip. 479). 
 
 The 
 Great Eal- 
 dormen. 
 
 955-988. 
 
304 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.vii. been due not only to the influence of their kinsmen, 
 The but to their own desertion of Eadwig's cause. Only 
 ^Some^^'the "eastern kingdom" was left without an ealdor- 
 96^988. ^^^^"' perhaps from Dunstan's reluctance to set a 
 — great noble over Kent, where the primate was su- 
 preme. 
 The With these earlier measures of the reign Dunstan, 
 aitTk'tng. however, can have had little to do ; for soon after 
 the first settlement of the realm he became Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury,^ and at once made his way 
 to Rome, where he received his pallium at the 
 hands of Pope John the Twelfth. It was only on 
 his return, in 960, that he seems to have taken the 
 main direction of affairs. His policy was that of a 
 cool, cautious churchman, intent not so much on 
 outer aggrandizement as on the practical business 
 of internal government. While withdrawing, save 
 in the harmless arrogance of royal titles, from any 
 effort to enforce the supremacy of Wessex over 
 Welshmen or Cumbrians, and practically abandon- 
 ing the bulk of England itself to the great nobles, 
 the young king and the primate devoted themselves 
 to the enforcement of order and justice in their own 
 Wessex. In itself this union of archbishop and 
 king in the government of the realm was of no 
 small moment. The Church and the monarchy 
 were the two national powers which had been 
 raised to a height above all others through the strife 
 with heathendom and the Danes; and from the 
 
 » For the difficulties as to Odo*s immediate successor, see Stubbs, 
 Memor. St. Dunst.. Introd. p. xciii. The date of the archbishopric is 
 959 ; the entries in some chronicles, under 961. being later interpo- 
 lations.— Stubbs, Memor. St. Dunst., Introd. p. xcvi. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 305 
 
 very outset of the strife in Ecgberht's days they had chap^'h. 
 been drawn tocrether as natural allies. But it was The 
 only at the close of the struggle that this natural dormen. 
 alliance hardened into something like complete 95^88. 
 unity. Dunstan would seem to have contemplated 
 the installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury as 
 a constitutional and fixed adviser of the king, in the 
 place of his own West-Saxon prelates : and though 
 this plan was never quite realized, it left no slight 
 mark on our later history. The displacement of the 
 Bishop of Winchester by the primate of southern 
 Britain as the national adviser of the crown was, at 
 any rate, a step forward in the process of develop- 
 ment which, even while the monarchy was weaken- 
 ing day by day, w^as showing the growth of a na- 
 tional sentiment. During this reign at least the 
 plan was carried out. The rule of the realm was in 
 the hands at once of Dunstan and Eadgar; and 
 king and primate were almost blended together in 
 the thoughts of Englishmen. So far, indeed, as 
 their work could be distinguished, there w^as a curi- 
 ous inversion of parts. The king was seen devot- 
 ing himself to the task of building up again the 
 Church, of diffusing monasticism, of fashioning his 
 realm in accordance with a religious ideal.' On the 
 other hand the primate was busy with the task of 
 civil administration ; and if he dealt with the Church 
 
 ' Hence his praises from the monastic chroniclers of his own and 
 later days. Thus Eng. Chron. (Peterborough) a. 959. ."He up- 
 reared God's glory wide, and loved God's law. He was wide 
 throughout nations greatly honored, because he honored God's 
 name earnestly, and God's law pondered oft and frequently, and 
 God's glory reared wide and far, and wisely counselled most oft and 
 ever for God and for the world." 
 
 20 
 
w* 
 
 306 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 955^988. 
 
 Eadgiir. 
 
 CHAP. VII. at all, dealt with it mainly as a political power to be 
 The utilized for the support of the monarchy. But, in 
 
 ^dome^*^' fact, it is hardly possible to distinguish between 
 the work of the one and the work of the other. If 
 we read the accounts of the hagiologists, all is done 
 by Dunstan and we see nothing of Eadgar. If we 
 trust to the scanty records of the Chronicle, Dun- 
 stan is unheard of, and the glory of the reign is 
 wholly due to Eadgar. The contemporary charters 
 supply the explanation of the seeming inconsistency ; 
 they show, so far as their evidence goes, that the 
 work w^as one, but that its oneness was the result 
 of a common and unbroken action of the primate 
 and the king. 
 
 In the earlier years of Eadgar, however, the action 
 of Dunstan must have been far the w^eightier of the 
 two, for the king was but a boy of sixteen at his ac- 
 cession. It w^as not, indeed, till 966, when he had 
 fully reached manhood, that we can trace the indi- 
 vidual action of Eadgar himself in English affairs. 
 The young king was of short stature and slender 
 frame, but active and bold in temper;' and the le- 
 gendary poetry which gathered round his name sug- 
 gests that as he grew^ to manhood there was at least 
 an interval in his reign which saw^ an outbreak of 
 lawless passion, if not of tyranny. He must have 
 been married at an early age to ^thelflaed the 
 White, who became the mother of a boy, his suc- 
 cessor, Eadward the Martyr; for, already, in 965, 
 her death had left him free to wed another wife, 
 iElfthryth, the mother of a second son, i^thel- 
 
 * Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 251, "staturae et corpulentiae 
 perexilis." 
 
 n 
 
 k 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 307 
 
 red.' It is before the latter marriage, in the years 
 when he was only passing into manhood, that we 
 must place the stories which have been saved from 
 the poetry that gathered about his reign, such as that 
 of the violation of a nun at Wilton," stories which are 
 mainly of interest as showing that popular tradition 
 handed down a very different impression of Eadgar 
 from that given by the monastic hagiographers, 
 though they may possibly preserve a true record of 
 the excesses of his youth. But if this temper ever 
 existed, it must have passed away with riper years. 
 Dim as is our knowledge of the king, his progresses, 
 his energy in the work of religious restoration, the 
 civil organization which went on throughout his 
 reign, the traces that remain of his rigorous justice, 
 the union with Dunstan, above all the unbroken 
 peace and order of the land, an order only possible 
 at so early a time when the ruler's hand was felt 
 everywhere throughout the realm, arc more than 
 enoufjh to witness his devotion to the task of rule. 
 
 As we have said, it is impossible, in the main acts 
 of his reign, to distinguish between the work of the 
 
 * The Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 965, makes i^lfthryth " daughter of 
 Ordgar the Ealdorman." Will. Malm.. Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 255, 
 makes yEthelflaid the daughter of an ealdorman, Ordmaer. 
 
 » Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 252. etc.. "primis temporibus 
 fuisse crudelem in cives. libidinosum in virgines." Will. Malm., 
 Gest. Pontif. (ed. Hamilton), p. 190, represents Cnut as thinking Ead- 
 gar " vitiis d^ditur maximeque libidinis servus in subjectos propior 
 tyranno fuisset." But the "vitiis" seem to be borrowed from the 
 Chronicle a. 958, " one misdeed he did that he foreign vices loved," 
 which is nothing but the common charge against his policy of union, 
 like " heathen customs within the land he brought too oft, and out- 
 landish men hither drew, and harmful folk allured to this land;" 
 while the *' cruelty " may be a popular rendering of the severity of 
 his laws and of such acts as the harrying of Thanet. 
 
 ciiAr.vir. 
 
 The 
 
 Great £al- 
 
 dormen. 
 
 966-988. 
 
 T/ie public 
 peace. 
 
 I « 
 
 > 
 
 ! 
 

 3o8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Great £al 
 dormen. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 cHAP.vii. l^inpr and the work of the primate. But it was to 
 The Eadgar, and not to Dunstan, that after-tradition at- 
 tributed the general character of his reign. A chron- 
 icler, writing at the close of the Norman rule, tells 
 us that among Englishmen of his time there was a 
 strong belief that, in any fair judgment, no English 
 king of that or any other age could be compared 
 with Eadi^ar.' The cfreat characteristic of his rule 
 was the characteristic of peace. At his birth, Dun- 
 stan was said to have heard the voice of an ansfel 
 proclaiming peace for England as long as the child 
 should reign and Dunstan should live."' The proph- 
 ecy, if it was ever uttered, was certainly fulfilled. 
 " He dwelt in peace," says the chronicler, " the while 
 that he lived. God so granted it him."' In the 
 centuries before the Danish warfare, there had been 
 constant strife either between the English states, 
 into which Britain was divided, or between the tribes 
 that made up each separate state. For more than 
 a hundred and fifty years the country had been a 
 scene of fierce and brutal warfare between English- 
 man and Dane. The history of the new England 
 had, in fact, been a series of troubles within, and 
 then of troubles without. But with the accession of 
 Eadsfar foreisrn war and internal dissension seemed 
 alike to cease. Within, he ''bettered the public 
 peace more than most of the kings who were be- 
 
 * Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 256. " Merito ergo non infir- 
 ma inter Anglos fama est nullum, nee ejus, nee superioris setatis re- 
 gem in Anglia recto et aequilibri judicio Edgaro comparandum." 
 
 ' Will. Malm.. Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 235. " Vulgatum est, quod, eo 
 nascentc. angelicam vocem Dunstanus exceperit, ' Pax Angliae quam- 
 diu puer iste regnaverit. et Dunstanus noster vixerit.' " 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 958. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 309 
 
 965 988 
 
 Ou/cr 
 
 quiet. 
 
 fore him in man's memory." ' His rule over the de- chap.vh. 
 pendent realms and ealdormanries was, no doubt, xhi 
 the more tranquil for the wise limitation of his^romen^^' 
 claims to government or over-lordship. ''God hiin 
 so helped that kings and earls gladly to him bowed 
 and were submissive to that he willed, and without 
 war he ruled all that himself would." Such a peace 
 within and without was partly, as we have seen, the 
 result of other men's labors, but in no small part it 
 must have been the result of the wisdom and effort 
 of Eadgar and Dunstan themselves. The chronicles 
 tell us in significant words that the king "earned 
 diligently " the peace in which he dwelt. 
 
 In his work of peace Eadgar was, no doubt, fa- 
 vored by the state of things in the peoples about 
 him. Danger from without lay mostly in the hos- 
 tility of Scandinavia and of Normandy, or in the at- 
 tacks of the Ostmen from Ireland. But master as 
 Harald Blaatand was both of Denmark and Norway, 
 and recently as his fleets had appeared in the British 
 Channel, he was drawn from all thought of ao-o-res- 
 sion m England durmg the whole reign of Eadgar, 
 by the stress of a warfare nearer home against Ger- 
 many and Otto the Great' Normandy again was 
 entering upon a revolution conducive to' English 
 interests. Under Richard the Fearless her trans- 
 formation from a pirate settlement of Northmen 
 into a Christian member of the French kingdom 
 and the European commonwealth suddenly took a 
 vigor it had never known before; and this transfor- 
 mation told in favor of peaceful relations with the 
 
 * Eng. Chron. a. 958. 
 
 ' Dahlmann, Geschichte v. Diinnemark, i. 79-83. 
 
! 
 
 310 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Great Eal- 
 dormen. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 ciiAP.vii. states about her. The Ostmen, on the other hand. 
 The had turned, we know not why, from foes to friends, 
 and a good understanding had been established be- 
 tween them and the EngHsh king, which lasted till 
 the conquest of the Norman. Though Olaf, Siht- 
 ric's son, the old enemy of i^thelstan and Eadmund, 
 reigned throughout Eadgar's days in Dublin, we pos- 
 sess coins of Eadgar's which were minted there, and 
 it is possible that the Ostmen may have supplied 
 him with the fleet that accompanied his progress 
 through the Irish Channel' Nearer home the Eng- 
 lish rule over Wales seems to have been quietly re- 
 laxed. Under Eadred four Welsh princes had sat 
 in the English Witenagemot ;' but with the reign 
 of Eadsar their attendance ceases, and though a war 
 in 968' may have forced them to renew the payment 
 of tribute, their dependence on the crown can have 
 been little more than nominal* In the north the 
 
 ' Robertson, Hist. Essays, p. 198. In his later years of rule in 
 Northumbria, Olaf, Sihtric's son, seems to have been united to the 
 English kings by their common opposition to the Danish Eric. 
 
 " Cod. Dip. 433. ^ Annales Cambrioe, a. 968. 
 
 ♦ The legends of the twelfth century give a very different color to 
 these matters. Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 251, says : " Jud- 
 valo regi Walcnsium edictum imposuerit ut sibi quotannis tributum 
 trecentorum luporum pcnsitaret, quod cum tribus annis fecisset, 
 quarto destitit, nullum se ulterius posse invenire professus.'' He 
 has before told the story of the rowing on the Dee, which retains, 
 however, more of its romantic form in the pages of his contempo- 
 rarv. Florence of Worcester, whose patriotic invention is now be- 
 ginning to come into play. "Cum ingenti classe, septentrionali 
 Britannia circumnavigata. ad Legionum civitatem appulit, cui subre- 
 guli ejus octo, Kynath scilicet rex Scottorum, Malcolm rex Cumbro- 
 rum, Maccus plurimarum rex insularum, ct alii quinque, Dufnal, 
 Siferth, Huwal, Jacob, Juchil, ut mundarat, occurrerunt, et quod sibi 
 fideles et terra et mari cooperatores esse vellent juraverunt. Cum 
 quibus die quadam scapham ascendit, illisque ad remos locatis, ipse 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 311 
 
 ■ 
 
 Great £al« 
 
 dormen, 
 
 955 ysa. 
 
 settlement effected by Eadmund still held good, in^'"AP.vii. 
 spite of a raid into which the Scots seem to have The 
 been tempted by a last rising of the Danelaw.' The 
 bribe of the Cumbrian realm sufficed to secure the 
 Scot king as a fellow-worker with Eadgar, as effect- 
 ively as it had secured him as a fellow-worker with 
 Eadmund, while a fresh bond was added by the ces- 
 sion during this reign of the fortress of Edinburgh 
 with the district around it, along with the southern 
 shore of the Forth to the Scottish king." 
 
 The Danelaw, the great Northumbrian earldom f^oiat'on 
 which had been formed in Eadred's day under Daneiatu. 
 Oswulf, and which passed, in 966, into the hands of 
 Earl Oslac,' as well as the territory of the Five Bor- 
 oughs, had almost as little connection with Eadgar 
 as Cumbria or Scotland. Oslac, the Great Earl as 
 he was called," seems to have been nearly independ- 
 ent. We find him seldom sitting in the Witenage- 
 mot,' while the name of his predecessor, Oswulf, 
 never appears in these great assemblies. The ad- 
 ministrative independence of the earldom, indeed, 
 was formally recognized by Eadgar himself in the 
 
 clavum gubernaculi arripicns, cam per cursum fluminis Dcoc perite 
 gubernavit, omnique turba ducum et procerum simili navigio comi- 
 tante, a palatio ad monasterium S. Johannis Baptistaj navigavit, ubi 
 facta oratione eadem pompa ad palatium remeavit: quod dum in- 
 traret optimatibus fcrtur dixisse tunc demum qucmque suorum suc- 
 cessorum se gloriari posse regem Anglorum fore, cum tot regibus 
 sibi obsequentibus potiretur pompa talium honorum." — Flor. Wore, 
 (ed. Thorpe), i. 142. Historically these legends stand on the same 
 footing as the other romances embedded in Malmesbury. 
 
 ' Pictish Chronicle, ad an. in Skene, Celtic Scot. 
 
 = Skene, Celtic Scot. i. 365. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Wore), a. 966. 
 
 * Eng. Chron. a. 975. 
 
 ' He signs some half-dozen of Eadgar's charters. 
 
 ' 
 
I 
 
 312 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 CHAP. VII. ordinance drawn up at Wilbarstone. The special 
 The aim of this ordinance was to create a uniform system 
 
 dSmen. ' of law ; "with the English," says the king, " let that 
 stand which I and my Witan have added to the 
 dooms of my forefathers for the behoof of all my 
 people, only let the ordinance be common to all ;" 
 but he did not venture to carry the uniformity into 
 Northumbria. " Let secular rights," he says, " stand 
 among the Danes with as good laws as they best 
 may choose." ' The civil constitution of the hun- 
 dred, indeed, was the one reform that he invited 
 them to share with the rest of England ; " and this 
 I desire, that this one doom be common to us all for 
 security and peace among the people." They were 
 just as independent in religious matters; while ce- 
 libacy in priesthood became the law of the south, 
 the Northumbrian law ran, " If a priest forsake a 
 woman and take another, let him be excommunicat- 
 ed." "" But severed, as it seemed politically, from the 
 general body of the English realm, the Danelaw^ was 
 being drawn more and more into unity with the 
 national life, and under Earl Oslac the fusion of the 
 Danes with the mass of Englishmen, among whom 
 they had settled, went quietly on. 
 
 From the first moment of his settlement in the 
 Danelaw% indeed, the Dane had been passing into 
 an Englishman. The settlers were few ; they were 
 scattered among a large population ; in tongue, in 
 
 * Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 273. 
 
 ' Stubbs, however, points out that " the few customs which the 
 Danes and the Danelaga specially retained are enumerated by Cnut, 
 and seem to be only nominally at variance with those of their neigh- 
 bors ; while of the exercise of separate legislation there is no evi- 
 dence." — Const. Hist. i. 226. 
 
 Eadi^ar 
 and the 
 Danes. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 313 
 
 Qreat Eal- 
 
 dormen. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 manner, in institutions, there was little to distinguish chap.vh. 
 them from the men among whom they dwelt' More- me 
 over, their national temper helped on the process of 
 assimilation. Even in France, where difference of 
 language and difference of custom seemed to inter- 
 pose an impassable barrier between the Northman 
 settled in Normandy and his neighbors, he was fast 
 becoming a Frenchman. In England, where no such 
 barriers existed, the assimilation was yet quicker. 
 The two peoples soon became confounded. In a 
 few years a Northman in blood was Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, and another Northman in blood w^as 
 Archbishop of York." That this fusion was fur- 
 thered by the direct efforts of Eadgar is certain, 
 even from the charges w^hich are brought against 
 
 * "Nothing is known of their native institutions at the time of 
 their first inroads; and the differences between the customs of the 
 Danelaga and those of the rest of England which follow the Norse 
 occupation are small in themselves, and might almost, with equal 
 certainty, be ascribed to the distinction between Angle and Saxon." 
 — Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 227. "The civilization which the Danes 
 possessed was probably about equal to that which the Angles had 
 three centuries before ; they were still heathens, and of their legal 
 customs we know no more than that they used the universal cus- 
 toms of compurgation, wergild, and other pecuniary compositions 
 for the breach of the peace. Their heathenism they renounced 
 with hardly a struggle, and the rest of their jurisprudence needed 
 only to be translated into English ; the ' lah-slit ' of the Danes is the 
 ' wite ' of the Anglo-Saxon ; and in many cases new names rather 
 than new customs date from the Danish occupation ; the eorl, the 
 hold, the grith, the tithing, the wapentake perhaps, supersede the 
 old names, but with no perceptible difference of meaning." — Ibid, 
 p. 228. 
 
 ^ The Archbishops Odo and Oswald. — Raine, Lives of Archbps. of 
 York, i. 118. See also the large number of Danish or Norse names 
 — Frena, Frithegist, Thurcytel, etc. — which occur in the list of wit- 
 nesses to a charter of Eadgar to the monastery of Ely. Hist. Elien. 
 Gale, Rerum Ang. Script, iii. 517.— (A. S. G.) 
 
314 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 315 
 
 Great Eal 
 dormen. 
 
 956-988 
 
 cHAP^vii. him on this score. His laws show that he preserved 
 The to the conquered Danelaw its local institutions and 
 local usages ; but he did more than this. He freely 
 reco2:nized the northern settlers as Eno^lishmen. 
 He employed Danes in the royal service, and pro- 
 moted them to high posts in Church and State.' 
 Such a policy had to be wrought out in the face of 
 no slight opposition. Even in the eulogy which the 
 chronicler passes upon Eadgar,' the English discon- 
 tent breaks out in censure of this policy of reconcil- 
 iation. " One misdeed he did all too much that he 
 foreign vices loved, and heathen customs within this 
 land brought too oft, and outlandish men hither 
 drew, and harmful people allured to this land." 
 Echoes of the same discontent meet us in the later 
 gossip of Malmesbury,' how " as his fame flew 
 through every mouth, foreigners, Saxons,* men of 
 Flanders, even Danes themselves, sailed hither in 
 crowds, and were welcomed by Eadgar, whose ar- 
 rival brought with it great harm to the men of the 
 land, men who were up to this time without offence 
 in such matters, and inclined in the simplicity of 
 their own nature rather to hold to their own than 
 to admire foreign matters, but who now learned from 
 the Saxons an uncivilized fierceness of temper, from 
 the Flamands a loose bodily self-indulgence, and 
 from the Danes drunkenness." 
 
 * Thus Thored, Gunnar's son, was in 961 "praepositus domus nos- 
 tras" and later sent at the head of a royal force into Westmoringa- 
 land. — Eng. Chron. (Winch.), a. 966. 
 
 " Eng. Chron. (Peterborough), a. 959. 
 ' Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 236. 
 
 ♦ This may have come from his connection with the imperial 
 house. Otto the Great " mira illi munera devexit et cum eo pac- 
 tum firmissima; pacis firmavit," says Flor. Wore. (ed. Thorpe), i. 139. 
 
 That the new Danish influence contributed nobler chap.vh. 
 elements than these to the national life was seen a xh^ 
 little later in the development which English com-%lTmet 
 merce owed to the new settlers. As yet, however, ^^^^ 
 the main industry of the country was agricultural. — '. 
 The system of culture, indeed, had changed little, if ^^/w 
 at all, since the days of the English scitlement in "''''^^'' 
 Britain.' The township still shared the allotments 
 in its "common field," while its herds and flocks 
 browsed on the common pasture. But the changes 
 in the social economy which had been going on 
 during the long period of the Danish wars were 
 producing a corresponding effect on industrial life. 
 Whether from the circumstances of their original 
 formation, or from the prevalence of commendation 
 to a lord for purposes of protection, the bulk of Eng- 
 lish villages were now " in demesne," that is to say, 
 in the "dominion" or lordship of some thegn, or 
 bishop, or in that of the crown itself. The free 
 ceorl had all but vanished ; he had, for the most 
 part, died down into a dependent on the thegn ; 
 while the possessions of the nobles were widening 
 into vast estates. The private estate of the lord lay 
 in the midst of the common lands ; and the bulk of 
 the villagers held the parcels of private land that 
 they, too, were acquiring by the tenure of service 
 on this estate, which was cultivated on the lord's be- 
 half. As coin was scarce and hard to get, while 
 
 ' Kemble (Sax. in Eng. i. 112, and note) thinks that " England at 
 the close of the tenth century had advanced to a high pitch of cul- 
 tivation." and that " in some districts of England the Saxons may 
 have had more land in cultivation than we ourselves at the begin- 
 ning of George the Third's reign." The amounts paid for rental 
 and dues seem to show that land was valuable and hard to get. 
 
3i6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 cHAP^vii. labor was easy to give in its stead, the bulk of such 
 The tenants, or " villeins," as they were called, paid a cus- 
 
 *^orm^^" tomary rent in labor,' and resembled the small Irish 
 farmer who ekes out his living by work on other 
 men s land. But there were a few villeins who sim- 
 ply held their land by a fixed money rent,' like a 
 modern farmer ; and there were others, the " boors," 
 who seem to have had no land of their own, but 
 worked on the lord's private land like the laborers 
 of to-day. As a rule the villein could not leave his 
 holding ; but if he could not leave, so he could not 
 be driven from it as long as his dues were paid ; and 
 if custom fixed the labor -rent without his will, it 
 took, in return, no thought of the lord s will in the 
 matter. The colibert or sokeman' might even go, 
 if he would, though leaving, of course, his land be- 
 hind him to fall into his lord s hands. 
 
 Custom, indeed, rather than any rise or fall of the 
 market, ruled the price of labor as well as the rental 
 of land ; and in every demesne usage dictated alike 
 the due of lord and of serf. The hay-ward, who 
 watched over the common pasture when enclosed for 
 grass-growing, was paid by a piece of cornland at its 
 side. The wood-ward, who watched the forest, could 
 
 Custom- 
 ary dues. 
 
 ' At the same time we note, both in the laws and in the accounts 
 of rentals, or heriots, a steady growth of money payments. The 
 amount of coin seems to have been steadily increasing ; the repeat- 
 ed regulations as to moneyers indicate a growing demand for it; 
 while there was a large supply of the precious metals, especially of 
 gold, in the country in the form of ornaments and utensils. See 
 Lingard, Anglo-Sax. Church, ii. 441, 442 ; and for instances of larger 
 payments in coin, ibid. i. 443. 
 
 "^ The " censuarii " of Domesday. 
 
 ^ " Rectitudines singularum personarum." — Thorpe, Anc. Laws, 
 i. 441. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Z^7 
 
 claim every tree that the wind blew down.' The 
 hog-ward, who drove the swine to the " denes " in 
 the woodland, paid his lord fifteen pigs at the slaugh- 
 ter-time, and was himself paid by the increase of the 
 herd. The bee -ward received his dues from the 
 store of honey — a store which before the introduc- 
 tion of sugar was as needful for liousehold purposes 
 as it was indispensable for the brewery." The ser- 
 vices rendered for rent were of the most various 
 kinds. To ride in the lord's train, to go at the lord's 
 bidding wherever he might will, to keep '^ head-ward" 
 over the manor at nightfall, or horse-ward over its 
 common field, to hedge and ditch about the demesne, 
 or to help in the chase and make the " deer-hedge," 
 were tenures by which the villagers held their lands, 
 as well as by labor on the lord's land one day a week 
 throughout the year, and a month's toil in harvest- 
 tide.^ 
 
 The labor-roll of two manors will best enable us 
 to realize what these services really were. At Hurst- 
 bourn, in Alfred's day, each hide paid forty pence 
 to the lord at autumn-tide, and he received from the 
 manor six church-mittan of ale and three horse-loads 
 of white wheat with two ewes and lambs at Easter. 
 His men had out of their own time to plough three 
 acres of the demesne, and sow them with their own 
 seed, to mow half an acre of the rent-meadow, and 
 split four loads of wood for the rent-hedging. Be- 
 sides this they were to do any work that might be 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 441. 
 
 ' Ibid. p. 437. At the head of the servants, in social rank, stood 
 the smith, next to him the ploughman, after him the oxherd and 
 cowherd, shepherd, goatherd, and swineherd, all in places of trust. 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 433. 
 
 CHAP.Vir. 
 
 The 
 
 Great E&l* 
 
 dormen. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 Labor- 
 rents. 
 
3i8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cMAv.vu. called for from them in every week save three in the 
 The year.' At Dyddenham in the Severn valley, the 
 
 dormen* ' lord's men had a less easy life. " At Dyddenham," 
 
 05^88. ^^^^^ '^^^ labor-roll, "the services are very heavy. The 
 — geneat must work, on the land and off the land, as 
 he is bidden, and ride and carry, lead load, and drive 
 drove, and do many things besides. The gebur 
 must do his rights : he must plough half an acre for 
 week-work ; and himself pay the seed in good con- 
 dition into the lord's . barn for church-shot, at all 
 events from his own barn ; towards wx'rbold," forty 
 large trees or one load of rods; or eight geocu 
 build,' three ebban close; of field enclosure fifteen 
 rods, or let him ditch fifteen; and let him ditch one 
 rod of burg-enclosure; reap an acre and a half, mow 
 half an acre ; work at other works ever according to 
 their nature. Let him pay sixpence after Easter, 
 half a sester of honey at Lammas, six sesters of malt 
 at Martinmas, one clew of good net yarn. In the 
 same land it is customary that he who hath seven 
 swine shall give three, and so forth always the tenth, 
 and nevertheless pay for common of masting if 
 mast there be." * 
 
 Manor cf In the samc way the survey of a single manor 
 will best bring before us the new rural society. 
 That of Cranborne was one of the most extensive 
 in Dorset : it stretched over ten thousand acres, of 
 w^hich nearly six thousand remained woodland, 
 while three thousand furnished a rough common 
 
 * Kemble, Sax. in Eng. i. 321. 
 
 ' Construction of weir or place for catching fish. — Kemble. 
 ' Let him build eight yokes in the weir, and close three ebban. 
 What these geocu and ebban are I cannot say. — Kemble. 
 *Cod. Dip. 461. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 319 
 
 ** 
 
 pasturage.' The land actually under cultivation was chaivvh. 
 then but some twelve hundred acres of ploughland The 
 with twenty of meadow-land, and its population num- domen. 
 bered some forty males. The manor w^as a royal 955 ggg. 
 manor : two fifths of its whole area remained " in 
 demesne," and in the ordinary cultivation of this 
 two ox-teams of eight oxen each and ten serfs were 
 commonly employed. The serfs of the demesne were 
 strictly serfs ; at Cranborne they formed about a 
 fourth of the whole population, elsewhere through 
 Dorset they numbered from an eighth to a thirtieth. 
 But at harvest-tide and on given days through week 
 and year the lord called for additional service in his 
 demesne from the villeins who held by this labor- 
 tenure the other three fifths of the estate. Of these 
 eight were villeins, twelve boors, and seven cottars, 
 who seem to have been distinguished from their 
 fellow-villeins simply by their smaller holdings." 
 
 Though the villein was not free in a political 
 sense, though he had no share in the general citizen- 
 ship, and his lord "stood for him" in hundred-moot 
 or shire-moot, he was in a social sense practically 
 as free as the common peasant of to-day. But be- 
 neath the serf or villein lay the actual slave,' the 
 "theow," who passed in the sale of an estate with 
 its sheep and oxen and swine, and w^ho was bought 
 and sold as freely. " Herein is declared," runs the 
 record of such a sale, " that Ediwic, the widow of 
 Saswgels, bought Gladu at Colewin for half a pound, 
 for the price and the toll ; and ^Iword the port- 
 gerefa took the toll." The toll on slave-sales formed 
 
 sialics. 
 
 ' Eyton, Dorset Domesday, p. 62. 
 ' See Making of England, p. 192. 
 
 Ibid. p. 45 ei seq. 
 
;20 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The 
 
 Great £al 
 
 dormen. 
 
 966-988. 
 
 cHAP.vii. one of the most lucrative of the market dues. At 
 Lewes the reeve levied a farthing on every sale of 
 an ox, but fourpence on the sale of a man.' The 
 position of the slave, indeed, had been greatly ame- 
 liorated by the efforts oi the Church. Archbishop 
 Theodore had denied Christian burial to the kid- 
 napper, and prohibited the sale of children by their 
 parents, after the age of seven. Ecgberht of York 
 punished any sale of child or kinsfolk with excom- 
 munication. Ine freed any slave whom his lord 
 forced to work on Sundays." The murder of a 
 slave by lord or mistress, though no crime in the 
 eye of the State, became a sin for which penance 
 was due to the Church. The slave was entitled to 
 his two loaves a day, he was exempted from toil on 
 Sundays and holydays : here and there he became 
 attached to the soil and could only be sold with it ; 
 sometimes he acquired a plot of ground, and was 
 suffered to purchase his own release.' ^Ethelstan 
 gave the slave-class a new rank in the realm by ex- 
 tending to it the same principles of mutual responsi- 
 bility for crime which wxre the basis of order among 
 the free. The Church was far from contenting her- 
 self with this gradud elevation ; Wilfrid led the way 
 
 ' Sharon Turner, Hist. Angl.-Sax. iii. 79, 80. 
 
 ' Ine, sec. 3 ; Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 105. 
 
 ' " Non licet homini a servo tollere pecuniam quam ipse labore 
 suo acquisi^rit." — Councils, iii. 202. "Thus Edric bought the per- 
 petual freedom of Saegyfa, his daughter, and all her offspring. So, 
 for one pound, JEUw'ig the Red purchased his own liberty ; and 
 Ssewi Hagg bought out his two sons. Godwin the Pale is also no- 
 tified to have liberated himself, his wife, and children for fifteen 
 shillings. Brihtmaer bought the perpetual freedom of himself, his 
 wife ^lfg>'fu, their children and grandchildren, for two pounds.'' — 
 Sharon Turner, Hist. Angl.-Sax. iii. 83. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 321 
 
 m the w.ork of emancipation by freeing two hundred chap.vii. 
 and fifty serfs w^hom he found attached to his estate ^ 
 at Selsey. Manumission became frequent in wills ^domfn' 
 as the clergy taught that such a gift was a boon to ,.7^ 
 the soul of the dead. At the Synod of Chelsea the — 
 bishops bound themselves to free at their decease 
 all serfs on their estates who had been reduced to 
 serfdom by want or crime.' Usually the slave was 
 set free before the altar or in the church-porch, and 
 the Gospel -book bore written on its margins the 
 record of his emancipation. Sometimes his lord 
 placed him at the spot where four roads met, and 
 bade him go whither he would. In the more sol- 
 emn form of the law his master took him by the 
 hand in full shire-meeting, showed him open road 
 and door, and gave him the lance and sword of the 
 freeman. 
 
 It was this agricultural society that practically ////w 
 made up the nation. In the tenth century Eng- '""'^"' 
 land could hardly claim to be a trading country at 
 all.^ Its one export was that of slaves, its imports 
 mainly of such goods as an agricultural people could 
 not produce for itself. Its inland towns w^ere mere 
 villages that furnished markets for the sale of prod- 
 uce from the country round ; wares from more dis- 
 tant points were few. The most important, perhaps, 
 was salt; for as there was little winter- fodder for 
 cattle, a large part of them were slain at the end of 
 autumn, and salted meat formed the bulk of the 
 food till the coming of sprin g. The salt-works of 
 
 ' Acts of Council of Celchyth, a. 816, cap. x. ; Stubbs and Had- 
 dan. Councils, iii. 583. On " Celchyth," see same vol. pp. 444, 445.— 
 
 21 
 
322 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Great Eal- 
 dormen. 
 
 965-988. 
 
 cHAr.vii. Worcestershire, which had been worked under the 
 The Romans, were still busy,' while the boundless supply 
 of fuel from the Andredsweald encouraged the mak- 
 ing of sea-salt along the coast of Kent.' Salt-workers, 
 indeed, were found along the whole southern shore. 
 Metal wares also may here and there have made 
 their way to market: for we find mention of an 
 iron-mine as still being worked in Kent in the 
 seventh century,' and in the ninth there were lead- 
 works in the valley of the Severn.' The rest of the 
 trade of the country was in the hands of the chap- 
 man, or salesman, who journeyed from hall to hall. 
 His wares must often have been of the costliest 
 kind. The growth of the noble class in power had 
 been accompanied by a corresponding growth in 
 wealth ; and the luxury of their dress and personal 
 ornaments is witnessed by every document of the 
 time. The thegn himself boasted of his gems, of 
 his golden bracelets and rings; his garments were 
 gay with embroidery and lined with costly furs ; the 
 rough walls of his house were often hung with silken 
 hangings, wrought with figures or pictures. We 
 hear of tables made of silver and gold, of silver mir- 
 rors and candlesticks ; while cups and basins of the 
 same precious metals were stored in the hoards of 
 the wealthier nobles.'^ To supply these costly goods, 
 
 » Cod. Dip. 67, 68. 
 
 ' Ecgberht makes a grant of salt-works here, with a hundred and 
 twenty loads of wood from the weald to feed the fires. Another 
 grant allows wagons to go for six weeks into the king's forest.— 
 Cod. Dip. 234. 288. 
 
 » Cod. Dip. 30. * Ib'^- 237. 
 
 * See the numerous instances given by Sharon Turner, Hist. Angl.- 
 
 Sax. iii. 5. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 3^3 
 
 96^-988. 
 
 Its 
 
 dijficulties. 
 
 as well as the meaner wares of lesser folk, must have chap.vh. 
 been the work of the chapman, and gave an impor- The 
 tance to this class which passed away as the cus- loJmeif 
 tomer learned to seek the trader instead of the 
 trader making his way to the customer,' and the 
 chapman died down into the pedler. 
 
 It was seldom that the travelling merchant ven- 
 tured to travel alone. In a law of yElfred chapmen 
 are bidden to " bring the men whom they take with 
 them to folk-moot, and let it be stated how many of 
 them there are, and let them take such men with 
 them as they may be able afterwards to present for 
 justice at the folk-moot ; and when they have need 
 of more men with them on their journey, let them 
 declare it, as often as their need may be, to the king's 
 reeve in presence of the gemot.'" To move over 
 the country, indeed, with costly wares was hardly safe 
 at a time when ordinary travellers went in companies 
 for security, and even the clergy on the way to syn- 
 ods were forced to travel together.' 7^he highways, 
 in fact, were infested with robbers, and the outlaw 
 was, through the legal usages of the day, a frequent 
 trouble on the road. The roads, too, were often 
 rough and hardly traversable ; the repair of ways and 
 bridges, though an obligation binding on every land- 
 owner, was so often neglected that the Church had 
 to aid in the work by laying on her offenders the 
 penance of " building bridges over deep waters and 
 foul ways."* 
 
 * The chapman is first mentioned in the laws of Hlothere (Thorpe, 
 Anc. Laws, i. 33), and in those of Ine (Ibid. 119). " If a chapman 
 traffic up among the people, let him do it before witnesses." 
 
 ^ Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 83. 
 
 ' Lingard, Angl.-Sax. Church, i. 107. * Ibid. 336. 
 
324 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. vir. 
 
 The safety of travelling was, perhaps, hardly in- 
 The creased by the presence of other wanderers from hall 
 doraen. to hall, who played almost as great a part in the do- 
 g^^I^g mestic life of the wealthier class as the chapman 
 ~ himself. The visits of the gleeman and the juggler, 
 gieeman. or " tumblcr," wcrc welcome breaks in the monotony 
 of the thegn s life. It is hard not to look kindly at 
 the gleeman, for he no doubt did much to preserve 
 the older poetry which even now was ebbing away. 
 When Christianity brought with it not only a new 
 vehicle of writing in the Roman characters, but the 
 habit of writing itself, it dealt a fatal blow at the mass 
 of early poetry which had been handed down by oral 
 tradition. Among the Franks, Charles the Great 
 vainly sought to save the old national songs from 
 perishing by ordering them to be written down. In 
 England, i^lfred did what he could to save them by 
 teaching them in his court. We see them, indeed, 
 lingering in men's memories till the time of Dunstan. 
 But the heathen character of the bulk of them must 
 have hindered their preservation by transfer to writ- 
 ing, and custom hindered it yet more, for men could 
 not believe that songs and annals handed down for 
 ages by memory could be lost for want of memory. 
 And, no doubt, the memory of the gleeman handed 
 on this precious store of early verse long after the 
 statelier poems of Cadmon or Cynewulf had been set 
 down in writing. But useful as their work may have 
 been, and popular as were both gleeman and tum- 
 bler/ the character of the class seems to have been 
 low, and that of their stories is marked by the re- 
 
 ^ Eadgar himself speaks of them as "dancing and singing even to 
 the middle of the night." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 325 
 
 peated prohibition addressed to the clergy to listen chap.vh. 
 to harpers or music, or permit any jesting or playing The 
 in their presence. ^ "^"i^t 
 
 With learning, indeed, the stress of war had dealt ^^ ggg 
 roughly since the time of Alfred. The educational „ — , , 
 
 cr 1*1 Kevwal of 
 
 effort which he had set on foot had all but ceased, Uarmug. 
 for the clergy had sunk back into worldliness and 
 ignorance ; not a book or translation, save the con- 
 tinuation of the English chronicle, had been added 
 to those which Alfred had left, and the sudden in- 
 terruption even of the chronicle after Eadward's 
 reign shows the fatal effect which the long war was 
 exerting on literature. Dunstan resumed Alfred s 
 task, not, indeed, in the wide and generous spirit of 
 the king, but with the activity of a born administra- 
 tor. It was the sense that the cause of education 
 was the cause of religion itself that inspired Alfred 
 and Dunstan alike with their zeal for teaching. It 
 was this, too, that gave its popular and vernacular 
 character to the new literature. In ^Ifric, a scholar 
 of ^thelwold's school at Winchester,' we see the 
 type of the religious and educational popularizer. 
 He aids the raw teacher with an English grammar 
 of Latin ; he helps the unlearned priest by providing 
 for him eighty English homilies in all as a course 
 of teaching for the year; he assists Bishop Wulfwig 
 and Archbishop Wulfstan by furnishing them with 
 pastoral letters to their clergy. His homilies were 
 so greedily read that his admirers begged from him 
 some English lives of the saints, and the prayer of a 
 friend , ^thel weard," drew him into editing and writ- 
 
 ' Lingard, Angl.-Sax. Church, ii. 311 et seg. 
 
 ' This ^thelweard was possibly the ealdorman of that name, whose 
 chronicle has been mentioned. See p. 49, note i.— (A. S. G.) 
 
i I 
 
 326 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 The 
 
 Great £al> 
 
 dormen. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 Chronicle 
 Worcester. 
 
 ing an English version of the Bible, which, omitting 
 such parts as he judged unedifying for the times, he 
 carried on from Genesis to the book of Judges. 
 
 It was not only in religious writings that the fol- 
 lowers of Dunstan carried on the work of literary 
 revival. The historic impulse which had been given 
 by /Elfred and had promised so great a future for 
 our annals in the days of Eadward had died down 
 under his successors. Of no reigns have we, in fact, 
 more meagre particulars, so far as their military and 
 political events are concerned, than of the reigns of 
 Eadmund, Eadred, Eadwig, and Eadgar. The great 
 Chronicle of Worcester seems to have remained sus- 
 pended during this period, nor do we know of any 
 other record which could have supplied its deficien- 
 cy. But the intellectual activity of Dunstan's school 
 could hardly fail in the end to fix upon a work so 
 congenial as that of historical composition. To 
 Dunstan himself we owe the life of Eadmund, the 
 martyr-king of East Anglia, since it was at his sug- 
 gestion that Abbo, the most notable of the French 
 scholars, was summoned from Fleury, and induced 
 to undertake it. His great assistant, ^thelwold of 
 Winchester, was possibly the author of the last con- 
 tinuation of the Chronicle of Winchester, the measrre 
 and irregular annals from the death of Eadward the 
 Elder to the death of Eadgar, which must have been 
 put together in Eadward the Martyr's reign, and 
 whose defects their author strove to supply by in- 
 terspersing them with the noble historic songs from 
 Cyneheard's Song Book. Dunstan's other great 
 helper, Oswald, unconscious both of ^thelwold's 
 labors and of the nobler work of the annalist of the 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 t 
 
 327 
 
 time of Eadward the Elder, seems to have taken a chap.vh. 
 copy of the original chronicle of yElfred to his The 
 
 ,- TTT 1 1 •• Great Eal- 
 
 church at Worcester, where the meagre jottmgs dormen. 
 with which he linked it to the story of his own day 95^88. 
 became the beginning of a later chronicle which 
 was afterwards to equal the literary excellence of 
 that of Eadward.' The final cessation of /Ethel- 
 wold's chronicle with the death of Eadgar trans- 
 ferred the centre of English historical literature 
 from the Church of Winchester to that of Worces- 
 ter; and it was Worcester which retained this his- 
 torical supremacy till the middle of the twelfth cen- 
 tury, from the days of Oswald and ^thelred to 
 those of Henry the First. In no place w^as the his- 
 torical tradition and the national sentiment cher- 
 ished with greater tenacity, and we shall see how 
 at a far later time, in the English revival after the , 
 Norman Conquest, this national sentiment passed 
 through the Latin version of the Chronicle by Flor- 
 
 ' The beginning of consecutive annals in this Chronicle, at 991, 
 seems to fix its compilation (after working up the Chronicle of 887) 
 at this date. Oswald died a year later, in 992, so that the work lies 
 with him or his successor. Bishop Aldulf ( 992-1002 ). Anyhow, 
 the compiler — if the Peterborough Chronicle, as seems probable, 
 accurately represents this Chronicle — knew only the Chronicle of 
 887, and was ignorant of the Eadwardian annals, the Gesta of Lady 
 i^thelflaid, and the continuation of i^thelwold. Consecutive en- 
 tries do not begin till 991. This Chronicle is the first or lost Chron- 
 icle of Worcester, a work which we do not possess in its original 
 form, but which, luckily, is still preserved to us almost entire in a 
 copy made for Peterborough in the twelfth century, called the Pe- 
 terborough Chronicle. In this early part, too, it is virtually copied 
 by the extant Worcester Chronicle, first composed about 1016, and 
 of which we have more to say hereafter; while the Chronicle of 
 Florence of Worcester is a Latin translation of it made in the twelfth 
 century with large additions, from whatever source they may be de- 
 rived. 
 
328 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The 
 
 Great £al 
 
 dormen. 
 
 95^988. 
 
 cHAP^vii. ence of Worcester to mould the great school of 
 Latin chroniclers which sprang up with William of 
 Malmesbury. From the death of Eadgar to that of 
 Cnut this Worcester Chronicle is the one dimmer- 
 ing light in the darkness of our history.' 
 
 ^moitastf. '^^^ Danish wars had told as hardly on religion 
 asm. as on learning. We have already seen the strife 
 which the Church had long been waging with the 
 customs and traditions of Englishmen and the pro- 
 found change which Christianity had worked and 
 was still w^orking in the national life. But in the 
 course of the long struggle with the Danes the 
 character of the Church itself had undergone radi- 
 cal modifications. English Christianity had, in its 
 earlier days, been specially monastic. But the Dan- 
 ish strife had proved almost fatal to monasticism. 
 The monasteries had been above all the points of 
 attack ; and throuQjhout the Danelaw not a sinele 
 religious house survived. What is more remarkable 
 is the almost complete disappearance of monastic 
 life in English Mercia and in Wessex itself. In 
 Wessex, indeed, the temper of the people seems to 
 have become so averse to it that when y^lfred first 
 undertook its revival, though he succeeded in draw- 
 ing women to his nunneries at Hyde and at Shaftes- 
 bury, he was forced to send abroad for monks to 
 fill his house at Athelney. Malmesbury, indeed, 
 and Glastonbury still went on; but the latter at 
 
 * This is a most important point in its bearing on any real criti- 
 cism of the history- of this period. Of this one contemporary Chron- 
 icle the rest are only versions of a later date ; and the additions 
 made to it by Florence of Worcester and writers of his time, when 
 uncorroborated by other evidence, have no higher authority than 
 any other historical traditions of the twelfth century. 
 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 329 
 
 Great £al- 
 dormen. 
 
 955 988. 
 
 least had ceased, if we may judge from Dunstan'scHAP.vn 
 story, to preserve the character of a monastery under The 
 rule.' Its re-establishment under Dunstan's abbacy, 
 and the refounding of Abingdon by i^thelwold, 
 was all that had been done towards the revival of 
 monasticism in the days of Eadred ; and in neither 
 case was the revival a complete one." Both seem to 
 have been as yet rather gatherings of clerks and 
 schoolboys than abbeys in the stricter sense. 
 
 So great, however, had been the part which mo- 
 nasticism had played in our early religious history, 
 that statesmen like Alfred, as we have seen, re- 
 garded its restoration as a necessary part of the res- 
 toration of religion itself;" and this feeling was no 
 doubt quickened by the view of the reformed Bene- 
 dictinism which, beginning at Cluny,was now spread- 
 ing over Flanders and France. The Cluniac reform 
 had already stirred the zeal of English churchmen; 
 Archbishop Odo had sent his nephew Oswald to 
 study it at Fleury,' and ^thelwold, with a like pur- 
 pose, sent to the same abbey one of his clerks from 
 Abingdon.' It was only in 964, however, that the 
 
 ^ Stubbs. Memor. St. Dunst., Introd. p. Ixxxv. 
 
 ' The Life of yEthelwold speaks of the " clerici de Glastonia'' who 
 accompanied him to Abingdon. It was not, in fact, till Eadgar's 
 reign that one of these, Osgar, was sent to learn the Benedictine 
 rule at Fleury.— Vit. S. ^Ethelwoldi, App. to Hist. Abingdon (ed. 
 Stevenson), ii. 258, 259. 
 
 ' " The movement, with all its drawbacks, was justifiable, perhaps 
 absolutely necessary. . . . We cannot doubt that a monastic mission 
 system was necessary for the recovery of middle England from the 
 desolation and darkness which had been brought upon it by the 
 Danes, or that the monastic revival was in those regions both suc- 
 cessful and useful." — Stubbs. Memor. St. Dunst., Introd. p. xcviii. 
 
 ♦ Vit. Oswaldi, Raine, Hist, of Church of York, i. 413. 
 
 * Vit. i^thelwoldi, Stevenson, Hist. Abingdon, ii. 259. 
 
 II 
 
[ 
 
 330 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CII/ 
 
 '^vii. reform penetrated into England itself. As Ead- 
 The crar's marriaore with yElfthryth took place about 
 dormon. this time, a marriage which connected him with the 
 jj^gg ealdormen of East Anglia, who afterwards showed 
 — themselves earnest in their friendship for monks, it 
 is possible that it was to his new queen's impulse 
 that the king owed the zeal he showed from this 
 moment in the diffusion of monasticism. It was 
 with Eadgar's support that ^^thelwold, who had 
 been raised the year before to the see of Winches- 
 ter, supplanted clerks by monks in his own cathe- 
 dral church and carried the new Benedictinism over 
 his diocese, as it was with the support of the East- 
 Anglian ealdormen that he turned from thence into 
 East Anglia and revived the great abbeys of the 
 Fens. It was significant, however, of the unpopu- 
 larity of the movement that no further extension 
 took place till five years later, when Oswald, who 
 had now become Bishop of Worcester, introduced 
 monks into his own cathedral city and its neighbor- 
 hood, and that Oswald ventured on no further 
 foundations in his vast Mercian diocese, nor on the 
 introduction of monasticism at all into his l^ter 
 arch -diocese of York. Northumbria, indeed, re- 
 mained without a monastic house to the verge of 
 the Norman Conquest. The Church itself gave the 
 movement little countenance. Only two bishops took 
 interest in it, and even Dunstan himself seems to 
 have done little. His assent must have been given 
 to its progress ; but though he held the see of Can- 
 terbury for some twenty-seven years, he founded no 
 Benedictine house in Kent, nor did he follow ^tthel- 
 wold or Oswald in the introduction of monks into his 
 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cliurch at Canterbury. Clerks, indeed, remained at 
 Canterbury till the time of Archbishop .Elfric ' 
 
 In spite, therefore, of the energy of the king, the 
 monastic movement remained a local one. Tradi- 
 t.on ascribed to Eadgar the foundation of forty mon- 
 asteries ; and though it would be hard to f^ll up the 
 hst, even if we attribute to him whatever work was 
 done throughout his realm, it is certain that it was 
 to his time that English monasticism looked back 
 m later daj-s as the beginning of its continuous life. 
 But, after a his efforts, monasteries were only firmly 
 planted m Wessex and East Anglia, and there only 
 by the personal efforts of king and ealdormen. In 
 the Mercian ealdormanry there were only a few mon- 
 asteries about Worcester. In the Northumbrian 
 earldom there were none at all. Such a failure can 
 hardly be attributable to the mere strife over ques- 
 .ons of property which these foundations may have 
 brought ; ,t shows a want of zeal for the re-establish- 
 ment of religious houses in the people at larcre The 
 system, indeed, no longer answered to the'religious 
 needs o the country. Even had the stricter rule 
 which the reformers introduced allowed the new 
 Benedictine houses to do the same work which had 
 been_carried on by the mission-preachers of the ear- 
 
 the .seculf cle k tr^h ,h' <='"<=f """^ '" '"e dispossession of 
 me secular clerk, who held monast c propcrtv " that the ,m„^roi 
 mass of the clergy were untouched, thaL^./knTonZZnl 
 s^c llr tkTaTctntV^ "'"" '/ '" '"'' "P^^ -■'^^"^otfl 
 
 LusThrob «'j n Lie':, ';:zrjrT"''7 1 ''" '''"^• 
 
 partly sy..,...^.c..--S.JZ,^-li ZilZT.T^r'' 
 
 CHAP. vir. 
 
 The 
 
 Great EbI- 
 
 dormen. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 T/ie rei^i- 
 larandsec- 
 ular clergy. 
 
 IM 
 
332 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.vii. Her monasteries, they were now not needed for it. 
 Thi Their place had been taken by the parish priest, and 
 ®dSme^^ the influence of the monastic clergy had been super- 
 ^jT^ seded by the parochial organization of the Church. 
 — But while the Danish wars had been fatal to the 
 ji-ionks — the " regular clergy," as they were called — 
 they had also dealt heavy blows at the '' seculars," 
 or parish priests. The long strife had told as hard- 
 ly on the learning and morals of the priesthood as 
 on their wealth. The injunctions of synod and Wit- 
 enagemot failed to enforce clerical celibacy. Their 
 failure is written on the very face of the dooms them- 
 selves. " Let him who will abstain from concubin- 
 age with women," runs a doom of the time, " and 
 preserve his chastity, have God's mercy, and be 
 worthy besides for worldly honors of thegn-wer and 
 theiju-ridit, both in life and in the grave ; and he 
 who will not do that which is befitting his order, let 
 his work wane before God and before the world."' 
 But the loss of social rights seems to have had little 
 effect on the priesthood at large, while in the Dane- 
 law clerical marriage appears to have been legally 
 recognized. 
 
 While it destroved monasticism and ruined dis- 
 7^^ cipline in the lower clergy, the strife with the Danes 
 " ''^^' had greatly raised the importance of the higher. In 
 the war of religion the bishops had come to the 
 front as warriors and as statesmen. In Wessex, at 
 least from the time of .^thelwulf, we see them drawn 
 into State employment, and politically linked with 
 the court. The kings, in fact, seem to have seized 
 
 » Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 307 ; Laws of ^thelred. Cnut renews 
 this doom. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 333 
 
 The 
 
 >at £ 
 
 dormen. 
 
 955 988. 
 
 on the episcopate as a force which might hold in chapami 
 check the provincial isolation and the independence 
 of the ealdormen. The check was to some extent 
 an efficient one, for as the ealdorman was the tem- 
 poral lord of each under-kingdom, so the bishop was 
 its spiritual lord, and in Witenagemot or shire-moot 
 the two sat side by side as equal powers. It was 
 probably with this view that the king had so lavished 
 wealth on the prelates — gifts and restorations of 
 lands, wide grants of jurisdiction, military and judi- 
 cial privileges : it was, at any rate, a distinct result 
 of Dunstan's policy. An important political end 
 was gained when he placed the choice of bishops in 
 the hands of the crown, and insured their fidelity by 
 reserving to the crown a power of deposition. And 
 not only did the bishops thus become crown nomi- 
 nees, but they were by that fact transferred, as it 
 were, out of their own world into the political world. 
 With the primacy of Dunstan separate ecclesiastical 
 councils cease,' and the bishop's place is henceforth 
 in the Witenagemot, or in the royal council. The 
 northern primate Dunstan tied to the southern 
 throne by annexing to the see of York the southern 
 see of Worcester, and this arrangement lasted to 
 the Conquest. The rest of the bishops appear from 
 this time in the light of great secular powers whose 
 wealth and influence were at the disposal of the 
 crown, and the bulk of whom were among its regu- 
 lar councillors. It is, indeed, from Dunstan that 
 we may date the beginnings of that political episco- 
 pate which remained so marked a feature of English 
 history from this time to the Reformation. 
 
 ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 276. 
 
CHAP.VII. 
 
 The 
 
 Oreat Eal- 
 
 dormen. 
 
 955-988. 
 
 Eadgar's 
 rule. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The great ealdormanries in middle and eastern 
 Britain can have had hardly more connection with 
 Eadgar's direct government than the earldom of 
 the north. In Mercia, the independence of ^Ifhere, 
 the ealdorman or " Heretoga ' of the Mercians," was 
 probably little hampered by his acknowledgment 
 of Eadgar's nominal supremacy, nor is it likely that 
 the supremacy was less nominal over East Anglia. 
 What really held Britain together was not the pow- 
 er which the king exercised over the ealdormen, 
 but the power which the ealdormen exercised over 
 the king. Throughout Eadgar's reign, if we look, 
 in the dearth of historic information, to the witness 
 of the charters, i^lfhere and his brother i^lfheah 
 stand at the head of the royal counsellors, and next 
 to them stand the ealdormen of East Anglia and 
 the ealdorman of Essex.' The power of the crown, 
 in fact, was in the hands of these great nobles ; and 
 the cool judgment of king and primate was shown 
 in their recognition of this fact, and in their absti- 
 nence from any useless struggle against it such as 
 wrecked England under ^thelred. They restricted 
 themselves to Wessex, and mainly to the work of 
 furthering public order in Wessex. The laws of 
 Eadgar' are brief, and chiefly devoted to the police 
 
 » See grant of Oswald. Cod. Dip. 494. " with leave and witness of 
 Eadgar, King of the Angles, and of ^Ifhere, Heretoga of the Mer- 
 
 « For Eadgar's reign our materials arc of the 'scantiest. The 
 Chronicle breaks wholly down, and gives some half-dozen meagre 
 entries for the entire reign ; the information of Dunstan's biogra- 
 phers all but ceases with Eadgar's accession, and those of ^thel- 
 wold or Oswald add little but facts connected with the monastic 
 movement. For the signatures to the charters, see antea, p. 303. 
 
 ' Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 258-279. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 335 
 
 of the realm, to developing the remedial jurisdiction chap.vh. 
 of the king, securing the regular holding of the Thi 
 courts, organizing the country in its hundreds' for^dome^*^" 
 the suppression of crime and maintenance of the 95^83 
 peace, and promoting uniformity in measures ' and — 
 in the coinage." The same purpose of order may 
 be seen in the ravaging of Thanet in 968,' as a pun- 
 ishment for the practice of wreckage among its in- 
 habitants, and in an extension of the royal progress- 
 es which after-tradition associated with the reiiin of 
 Eadgar. " Every summer," says Malmesbury,' " im- 
 mediately after the close of the Easter Festival," 
 which was kept at Winchester, " Eadgar used to or- 
 der ships to be gathered together along every shore, 
 since his wont was to voyage with the eastern fleet 
 as far as the western side of the island, and on its 
 return home to proceed with the western fleet as far 
 as the north, and from thence to return with the 
 northern fleet to the eastern coast." The object of 
 this cruise was to sweep the sea of pirates. " In 
 winter and spring," on the other hand, that is when 
 his home progress would least interfere with the cult- 
 ure of the land, "he rode through every shire, in- 
 quiring into the law-dooms of the powerful men, and 
 showing himself a severe avenger of any wrong done 
 in the name of justice." 
 
 ' The •' Hundred " first appears by name under Eadgar. — Thorpe, 
 Anc, Laws, i. 259. 
 
 ^ Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 237, 238, tells how Dunstan 
 ordered pegs to be inserted in all drinking-cups, that none might 
 drink deep without knowing it. 
 
 ' If we may trust later tradition, Eadgar issued a new coinage in 
 975, as the old had become so clipped as to have lost its standard 
 weight. Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. a. 975.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 * Eng. Chron. a. 968. » Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 252. 
 
336 
 
 THE CONgUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP.Vir. 
 
 The 
 
 Great Eal- 
 
 dormen. 
 
 96^988. 
 
 Death of 
 Eadi^ar. 
 
 We need not accept every detail of this story, but 
 it may be taken as showing the existence of an or- 
 ganized system of judicial and administrative prog- 
 resses at this time, as well as the continuance of 
 the naval system which had begun under Alfred. 
 It was, indeed, with work such as this that Eadgar 
 seems to have been mainly occupied throughout his 
 reign. Of political measures we see hardly a trace. 
 By'^the union of the sees of Worcester and York 
 under a single prelate, Dunstan probably purposed 
 to get a new hold upon the north ; and it may be 
 tha? a more distinctly political aim is seen in the 
 coronation of Eadgar at Bath, in 973,' when the two 
 primates united in setting on the head of Eadgar 
 what may have been a distinctively national crown.' 
 But if the ceremony was meant as a prelude to any 
 effort for the restoration of the royal power, its pur- 
 pose was foiled by Eadgar s death only two years 
 after.' His death was a signal for the completion 
 
 » The fact of this coronation alone is given by the contemporary 
 Chronicle : Oswald's biographer (about a.d. iooo) seems to look on 
 it as one of the common " wearings of the crown/' but gives, m his 
 verbose way (Vit. Oswaldi, Raine, Hist, of Church of York. 1. 437). a 
 full description of the ceremony, with the coronation oath ; at the 
 Conquest. Osbern, and Gotselin in his life of St. Edith, connect it 
 with the close of a penance of seven years laid on Eadgar for his 
 violation of a nun. See Stubbs. Memor. St. Dunst.. Introd. pp. xcix.- 
 ci . who evidently leans to Robertson's opinion (Hist. Essays, pp. 
 -^03-2 1 5) that the coronation "was a solemn typical enunciation of 
 the consummation of English unity, an inauguration of the king of 
 all the nations of England, celebrated by the two archbishops, possi- 
 bly with special instructions or recognition from Rome; possibly in 
 imitation of the imperial consecration of Edgar's kinsmen, the first 
 and second Otto ; possibly as a declaration of the imperial charac- 
 ter of the English crown itself." For myself. I cannot think the 
 facts sufficient to support this ver>' tempting theor>\ 
 » Eng. Chron. a. 973. Mbid.a,975. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 337 
 
 of the work of political disintegration. Till now the cHAivv'rr. 
 great ealdormen had contented themselves with de- ihe 
 taching their own ealdormanries from the crown, dormen. 
 and limiting its actual rule to Wessex, while they ,3^ ggg 
 controlled its action by their united influence. But 
 this influence was now to be broken by strife among 
 themselves, and by a rivalry for power over the crown 
 itself. Eadgar had hardly reached middle age when 
 he died, in 975,' and the children he had left were 
 both mere boys, for Eadward can scarcely have been 
 more than thirteen, or ^thelred more than seven. 
 The accession of a child-king left the royal power 
 in the hands of any great noble or prelate who could 
 control the court, and the opportunity stirred to 
 life the ambition of the two great ealdormen who 
 divided Mid-Britain between them. 
 
 Their jealousy of one another had placed the Mer- ^lf^",%i^ 
 cian ealdorman, ^Ifhere, at the head of an anti-mo- 
 nastic party, while ^thelwine, of East Anglia, with 
 his maternal uncle, Byrhtnoth of Essex, stood at the 
 head of a monastic ; and on Eadgar's death, ^ If here 
 immediately restored the seculars to the churches 
 in his ealdormanry from which they had been driven,' 
 while ^thelwine gathered an army in East AngHa 
 to defend the cause of the monks.' The monastic 
 question, however, w^as a mere side issue. The 
 main aim of each of the rivals was to secure the king, 
 and their quarrel at once took the form of a dispute 
 over the succession, ^thelwine, himself the broth- 
 er of the first husband of Eadgar's queen, supported 
 the claims of her child, i^thelred, which were backed 
 
 ' He was only thirty-two. 
 *■* Eng. Chron. a. 975. 
 
 See Eng. Chron. a. 973. 
 
 ' Flor. Wore. (ed. Thorpe), i. 144. 
 
 22 
 
338 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VII. by the boy's mother and the whole monastic party. 
 lie On the other hand, Eadward was as vigorously sup- 
 °5JJi,e^*" ported by ^Ifhere. Civil war was, in fact, only 
 g^gg averted by the resolute action of the minister who 
 — still held Wessex in his grasp. The will of Eadgar, 
 which named Eadward as his successor, must have 
 been drawn up under Dunstan's counsel, and the 
 rising of ^thelwine was, in fact, a rising against 
 Dunstan's influence. His influence, as we shall see, 
 was still dominant with Eadward, while under i^th- 
 elred it would have been at once set aside, as it was, 
 in fact, set aside as soon as his reign began. Dun- 
 stan, therefore, threw himself on the side of ^Ifhere, 
 and he was joined by his fellow-primate ; for if the 
 monastic party backed i^thelwine, its head, Arch- 
 bishop Oswald, showed himself greater than his 
 party. The constitutional precedent which Dunstan 
 had set in the coronation at Bath was now resolute- 
 ly turned to use. As the representatives of northern 
 and southern England the two primates had but 
 two years before set the crown of all England on 
 the brow of Eadgar ; they now settled the question 
 of the dispute over the succession by setting the 
 crown pn the head of Eadward.' 
 Eadward jj^^ j-cign of thc youug king, however, was a short 
 Martyr, and troublcd one, and a famine which immediately 
 followed his accession no doubt increased the 
 troubles.' A stormy Witenagemot in 977, at Kirt- 
 lington, was followed by a second as stormy meeting 
 at Calne, in 978, where " all the chief Witan fell 
 from an upper chamber save the holy Archbishop 
 
 ' Flor. Wore. (ed. Thorpe), i. 145 ; Eng- Chron. a. 975. 
 » Eng. Chron. a. 975. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 339 
 
 Dunstan, who alone supported himself on a beam."' c"^"- 
 The anxiety of the later hagiographers ' to represent The 
 
 •^ , . . , 1 Great tal- 
 
 the strife m these meetmgs as mamly concerned domen. 
 with the monastic question has effectually distorted ^oilita. 
 its real character. What we may dimly see on Dun- 
 Stan's part is an effort throughout to save the crown 
 from the domination of the nobles. The opponents 
 of Eadward had professed to base their opposition 
 on fear of "the harsh temper with which he was 
 wont to punish the outrages of those of his court ; "' 
 they dreaded that he would " govern by his own un- 
 bridled will,'" that he would be, in a word, what they 
 afterwards called ^Zthelred— a king ' redeless,' or 
 uncounselled. In the fear thus expressed lay the 
 germ of the rising contest between the great nobles 
 and the crown, which was to lay England in a few 
 years at the feet of the Danes. We may see, per- 
 haps, the purpose of the primate to assert the su- 
 premacy of the king in the banishment of Earl Oslac 
 of Deira," a banishment which enabled Dunstan to 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 977. 978. 
 
 = The biographies of Dunstan, which are almost our sole materials 
 for this time, make the whole history turn on a struggle about the 
 monks, in which ^^thelwine is the head of the monastic, and .^If- 
 here of the anti-monastic party, while Dunstan is represented as 
 persecuted on account of his monastic sympathies. All this, how- 
 ever, is wholly inconsistent with the attitude of Oswald, who was 
 undoubtedly the leader of the monastic party, and who yet crowns 
 Eadward in the teeth of ^thelwine ; and, above all, with the attitude 
 of Dunstan himself, who, throughout Eadward's reign, is supported 
 by the anti-monastic i^lfhere and opposed by yEthelwine and the 
 monastic party, while on the accession of itthelred he is actually 
 driven from power by the latter. 
 
 3 Eadmer. Life of St. Dunstan, sec. 35. 
 
 * Osbern, sec. 37. 
 
 * See the poem in Eng. Chron. a. 975, which "seems to connect 
 
340 
 
 THE CONgUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^vir. unite Deira and Bernicia under Waltheof, a ruler, 
 The probably, of Oswulf s house and so of EnHIsh blood, 
 
 Great £al- ,, o ♦ 
 
 dormen. as well as an ancestor of notable men. But the 
 955^88. banishment is memorable in itself as the first of a 
 series of such measures by which the crown from 
 this time struck at the growing power of the earls 
 and ealdormen. 
 ^"adtari ^^ ^^^ 7iQi\x7i\ Struggle betwecn the rival parties, 
 Dunstan, it may be gathered, played to some extent 
 the part of mediator, but his tendency as the up- 
 holder and minister of Eadward must have swayed 
 him to the side of /Elfhere, whose support of the 
 king continued to the end of his reign ; while the 
 party of the East-Anglian ealdormen were, as we see 
 from the revolution which followed, opponents of 
 Eadward and, with Eadward, of Dunstan.' The 
 struggle was, in fact, cut short by the young king's 
 murder.' Eadward was slain at Corfe soon after the 
 council of Calne,' but of the circumstances of the 
 murder we know nothing with certainty. Of its 
 
 this step," says Mr. Freeman, " with the predominance of ^Ifhere 
 and the anti-monastic party.'' 
 
 * It would appear that the monks were less powerful under Ead- 
 ward than under Eadgar. This and the predominance of the mo- 
 nastic party under ^thelred may, perhaps, account for Osbern's 
 sneer at ^thelred as "monk rather than warrior.'' 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 979. According to the later story of William of 
 Malmesbury, Eadward was returning home alone from the chase, 
 when his stepmother. ^Ifthryth. caused him to be stabbed by a ser- 
 vant while he was drinking from the cup which she had handed to 
 him. In spite of his wound he spurred his horse forward to join his 
 companions, but one foot slipping, he was dragged by the other 
 through the winding paths, till his death was made known to his 
 followers by the tracks of blood. Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy) 
 pp. 258, 259.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 » The great council of 977 at Kirtlington, the second at Calne in 
 978, were closely followed by the assassination. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 t 
 
 341 
 
 authors we can have little doubt. The party which f^"Ar.vii. 
 had failed to set ^^thelred on the throne four years The 
 before now removed from his path the king whom ^dorLe^"!' 
 Dunstan had set there. It was they who profited 95^ ^gg. 
 by the blow. Dunstan withdrew, powerless, to Can- — 
 terbury after the coronation of ^thelred, who was 
 still but ten years old,' and left the realm to the 
 government of the kings mother and her kinsmen, 
 ./^thelvvine and Byrhtnoth. The new rulers made 
 little effort to hide their part in the deed, for Ead- 
 ward was buried at Wareham without the pomp 
 that befitted a king's burial, and no vengeance was 
 sought for his murder. " His kinsmen," the chron- 
 icle says, bitterly, " would not avenge him." But the 
 pitifulness which has ever underlain the stern tem- 
 per of Englishmen awoke at the thought of the 
 murdered youth who lay unavenged in the grave to 
 which he had been hurried. He was counted a 
 martyr, and in the year which followed his death 
 Ealdorman i4ilfhere was strengthened by the po}> 
 ular .sympathy to show his devotion to the king 
 whose policy he had doubtless directed by fetching 
 
 ■ See Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 257. The crowning was 
 at Kingston, and we still possess the coronation oath that Dunstan 
 exacted. " This writing is copied, letter for letter, from the writing 
 which Archbishop Dunstan delivered to our lord at Kingston on 
 the very day when he was consecrated king, and he forbade him to 
 give any other pledge but this pledge, which he laid upon Christ's 
 altar, as the bishop instructed him : ' In the name of the Holy Trin- 
 ity, three things do I promise to this Christian people, my subjects : 
 first, that I will hold God's Church and all the Christian people of my 
 realm in true peace; second, that I will forbid all rapine and injus- 
 tice to men of all conditions; third, that I promise and enjoin jus- 
 tice and mercy in all judgments, whereby the just and merciful God 
 may give us all His eternal favor, who liveth and reigneth.' " — Kem- 
 ble, Sax. in Eng. ii. 35, 36, note. 
 
342 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 The 
 
 Great Eal- 
 
 dormen. 
 
 956^988. 
 
 Death of 
 Dinfstan. 
 
 Eadward's bones from Wareham and burying them 
 with much worship at Shaftesbury.' 
 
 The new burial was followed by a burst of pity 
 which forced even ^thelwine and the court to a 
 show of reverence. " They that would not bow afore 
 to his living body now bow humbly on knees to his 
 dead bones.""' But, foully as it had been won, the 
 power was now in the hands of the two eastern eal- 
 dormen, and for a time all went well. During the 
 eleven years from 979 to 990, when the young king 
 reached manhood, there is hardly any internal histo- 
 ry to record. Danish and Norwegian pirates, indeed, 
 appeared at the opening of this period at Southamp- 
 ton, Chester, Cornwall, and Portland, but though 
 their presence shows a loss of that hold on the seas 
 which Eadgar and Dunstan had so jealously main- 
 tained, they were probably driven off by the English 
 fleet. The hostility of the ealdormen and their boy- 
 kins: was directed rather aofainst internal foes, a2:aii]st 
 Dunstan and .^Ifhere. That ^Ifhere was strong 
 enough to oppose them was shown by his solemn 
 translation of Eadward's bones ; but three years later 
 they were freed from all rivalry by his death,' for 
 though his son, yElfric, followed him as Ealdorman 
 of Mercia, his opponents succeeded in driving him 
 into exile in 985, and in putting an end for the time 
 to his ealdordom.* The archbishop, who had with- 
 drawn to Canterbury, was roused from his retire- 
 ment by a quarrel of the king's counsellors with the 
 see of Rochester, in which the lands of that bishop- 
 ric, dependent as it was on the primate's see, were 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 980. 
 ' Ibid. a. 983. 
 
 ' Ibid. a. 979. 
 ♦ Ibid. a. 985. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 343 
 
 955 988. 
 
 ravaged by the young king's order.' Dunstan was ^^Ajrvvn. 
 still powerful enough to awe the government by a The 
 threat of excommunication ; but in 988 the last check dormen! 
 which his existence had enforced on the ealdormen 
 was removed, and the wild wailing with which the 
 crowds who filled the streets of Canterbury hailed 
 the archbishop's death showed their prevision of the 
 ills which were to fall on the England that had been 
 wrested by one ill deed from his grasp. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 986. 
 
 t 
 
The social 
 fci'olutioii. 
 
 CHAPTER VITI. 
 
 THE DANISH CONQUEST. 
 988-1016. 
 
 We have followed the course of the political 
 and administrative changes which had been brought 
 upon England by the coming of the Danes, and 
 have seen how changes even more important had 
 been brought about in the structure of society; 
 though in the one case as in the other the result of 
 Danish presence was not so much any direct modi- 
 fication of English life as the furtherance and 
 hastening forward of a process of natural develop- 
 ment. It was, indeed, the break-up of the old social 
 organization that united with the political disinte- 
 gration of the country to reduce it to the state of 
 weakness which startles us at the close of Eadgar's 
 days,' and it is in the degradation of the class in 
 
 » "Towards the closing period of the Anglo-Saxon polity I 
 should imagine that nearly every acre of land in England had be- 
 come boc-land ; and that, as a consequence of this, the condition of 
 the freeman became depressed, while the estates of the lords in- 
 creased in number and extent. In this way the ceorlas or free cul- 
 tivators gradually vanished, yielding to the ever-growing force of 
 the nobler class, accepting a dependent position upon their boc- 
 land, and standing to right in their courts, instead of their own old 
 county gemotas; while the lords themselves ran riot, dealt with 
 their once free neighbors at their own discretion, and filled the land 
 with civil dissensions which not even the terrors of foreign invasion 
 could still. Nothing can be more clear than that the universal 
 
 1 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 345 
 
 which its true strength lay, and not in anv outer at-c'i^p.vn, 
 tack, that we must look for the cause of the ruin ihe 
 xvhich now hung over the English realm. From cot'uli 
 /Elfreds day it had been assumed that no man 
 could exist without a lord, and the " lordless man" '''—'' 
 became a sort of outlaw in the realm. The free- 
 man, the very base of the older English constitu- 
 tion, died down more and more into the "villein," 
 the man who did suit and service to a master, who 
 followed him to the field, who looked to his court 
 for justice, who rendered days of service in his de- 
 mesne. Eadgar's reign saw the practical comple- 
 tion of this great social revolution. It went en, in- 
 deed, unequally, and was never wholly complete. 
 Free ceorls remained; and they remained in far 
 larger numbers throughout northern England than 
 in the south. But the bulk of the ceorls had disap- 
 peared. The free social organization of the earlier 
 English conquerors of Britain was passing into the 
 social organization which we call feudalism; and 
 the very foundations of the old order were broken 
 up in the degradation of the freeman and in the up- 
 growth of the lord with his dependent villeins. The 
 same tendencies drew the lesser thegns around the 
 greater nobles, and these around th e provincial eal- 
 
 breaking up of society in the time of ^thelred had its^un:7in 
 the ruin of the old. free organization of the country. The successes 
 of Swegen and Cnut, and even of William the Norman, had much 
 deeper causes than the mere gain or loss of one or more battles A 
 nation never falls till ' the citadel of its moral being' has been be- 
 trayed and become untenable. Northern invasions will not account 
 lor the state of brigandage which ^thelred and his Witan deplore 
 m so many of their laws. The ruin of the free cultivators and the 
 overgrowth of the lords are much more likely causes.'-Kemble 
 oaxons in England, i. 306, 307. 
 
346 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.vin. dormcn. And this social revolution necessarily 
 The brought a political revolution in its train. The in- 
 
 Conqueat. dependence and rivalry of the great ealdormen 
 
 ggg;;j[^jg seemed about to wreck completely the unity of the 
 — State. Even in the Church the bishop was parted 
 from the clergy, as the clergy itself was reft asun- 
 der by the strife of regular with secular. Nothing, 
 indeed, but a force from without could weld these 
 warring elements again into a nation ; but the very 
 weakness which they brought about made the work 
 of such a force easy, and laid England prostrate at 
 the foot of the Dane. 
 
 Tkekinsr. Durino^ the vears of ^Ethelwines rule a new 
 
 aom of the o ^ 
 
 Danes, storm had been cf^therinsf in the north. At the 
 close of the ninth centurv the kinsfdoms of the 
 Danes had felt the same impulse towards national 
 consolidation which had already given birth to Nor- 
 wav; and their union is attributed to Gorm the Old.' 
 The physical character of the isles and of the Dan- 
 ish territory on the main-land aided in the rapid de- 
 velopment of a great monarchy;' the flat country, 
 penetrated everywhere by arms of the sea, offered 
 few natural obstacles to the carrying out of a single 
 will ; and from the first we find in Denmark no he- 
 reditary jarls, as in Norway, nor petty chiefs surviv- 
 ing under their over-lord, as in Sweden, but the rule 
 of a king whose nobles were mere dependents on his 
 court. Under Gorm, therefore, the whole strength 
 of the Danes was gathered up in a single hand. 
 
 ' Gorm, according to Adam of Bremen, cam.e of the stock of a 
 Nor^'egian conqueror, Hardegon or Harthacnut ; but nothing is 
 known of his previous histor)% save that he had fought among the 
 Wikings at Haslo in 882. 
 
 * Dahlmann, Gesch. v. Dannemark, i. 68, 128. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 347 
 
 We have already seen how great that strength was. chap. vnr. 
 While the Northmen of Jutland were waorincf their The 
 war with the Empire, and the Northmen of Norway coi^est. 
 mastering the string of isles from Ireland to the 98^_iiie 
 Faeroes, the Danes, who had grown up in silence 
 round a centre which tradition places at Lethra in 
 Zeeland, came suddenly to the front and struck 
 fiercely to east and to west.' In 853 they strove to 
 conquer Courland in the Baltic. In 866 they land- 
 ed, under Inguar, on the shores of Britain; and the 
 long and bitter warfare, which ended in the estab- 
 lishment of the Danelaw in this island, must have 
 absorbed their energies till the struggle at home 
 which set Gorm on the throne at Lethra about the 
 close of the ninth century. Of that struggle, or of 
 the king's rule in his new realm, we know nothing; 
 but the strength which came of union was soon 
 shown in Gorm's conquest of Jutland — a conquest 
 which opened up for the Danes a fresh field of 
 activity in the south, and affected their fortunes by 
 bringing them in contact w^ith the Germany which 
 had just disengaged itself from the wTCck of the 
 Karolingian Empire. 
 
 In their attack on the south, however, the Danes iiaraid 
 
 Blue -tooth. 
 
 ' The stories of Othere and Wulfstan, in Alfred's " Orosius,'' are 
 the first authentic accounts of this eastern Denmark, a name which 
 the description of Othere restricts to the islands and lands east of 
 the Great Belt, and thus denies as yet to Jutland. Wulfstan, too, 
 speaks of Denmark as a well-known kingdom with the same bounds. 
 But of its history at this time we know nothing, save from some 
 sagas which tell of a king's seat at Lethra. — Dahlmann, i. 61. The 
 Prankish chroniclers are busy with their assailants from South Jut- 
 land ; the English tell of the Danes who reached their shores, but 
 say nothing of their mother-land. Indeed, the strength of the latter 
 is only a matter of inference from the vigor of its outer attacks. 
 
348 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. were roughly beaten back; for Gorm, pressing in 
 The 934 into Friesland, was met by the German forces, 
 (^J^Jit. under Henry the Fowler, and so utterly defeated 
 gjg^^jg that he submitted to pay tribute and to take back 
 — the mission priests whom he had driven from the 
 land. Gorm's life closed with the blow, and a few 
 years after' he rested with his wife Thyra under 
 their two huge mounds, which still survive in the 
 village of Jelling, by the town of Weile. But if his 
 son, Harald Blue-tooth, kept peace Vvith his neigh- 
 bor in the south, it was that he found fields of action 
 as tempting and less dangerous to east and west and 
 north. It marks the range of the Danish activity, 
 that in the midst of the tenth century one of Har- 
 ald's sons was setting up a kingdom in Semland, on 
 the Baltic, while another son, Eric, was taken in 949 
 for king by the Northumbrian Danes of Britain. 
 Eric's rule was a short one, and he fell, unaided by 
 his father, though the Danish fleets were now often 
 seen in the British Channel. But it was not to 
 Britain or to the British Danelaw that Harald Blue- 
 tooth's ambition looked. The Danelaw in Frank- 
 land, the Normandy which had been carved by Hrolf 
 out of the Karolingian realm, was now pressed hard 
 by its foes, and forced to appeal for aid to the 
 mightiest power of the north. In his earliest years 
 we find Harald settled by William Longsword as 
 an ally in the Cotentin;' in 944 he was again called 
 to save Normandy from Otto the Great ; and about 
 963 he once more came to Duke Richard's aid. At 
 
 * Gorm is supposed to have died about 936. — Dahlmann, Gesch. 
 V. Diinnemark, i. 72. Harald Blaatand was born at latest in 910. 
 » Dahlmann, Gesch. v. Diinnemark, i. 74. 
 
 THE CONgUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 349 
 
 this moment he was at the height of his power; for c"ap. vm. 
 two years before the divisions of the Northmen and The 
 his own unscrupulous guile had opened a new field cfn'^uMt. 
 for Danish greed, and enabled him to establish an ggs loie 
 over-lordship over Norway;' and with his triumph 
 over Otto he at last disclosed the ambitious hopes 
 that had drawn him so often to Norman soil. Har- 
 ald looked upon Normandy as a starting-point for 
 a fresh attack of the Northmen on Frankland, and 
 called on the young duke to march at his side. But 
 he found a sudden bar to his project in the political 
 instinct of the Normans themselves. Hate them as 
 the Franks might, it was to the Franks that their 
 new religion and civilization irresistibly drew them ; 
 and their refusal forever closed to the Danes all 
 hope of a dominion in Gaul. 
 
 Though foiled in the west, Harald was still a Jf^^^^^d 
 
 • \ , • i^ T • • . ^r 1 ■, and Swein. 
 
 mighty power \\\ Scandmavia itself; and even be- 
 fore this overthrow of his Norman hopes he had 
 renewed his father's attack on the south, where 
 Otto the Great had planted the Saxon duchy as a 
 barrier at his very door. Harald was tempted by 
 the emperor's long absence in Italy to trouble this 
 Saxon land; but on Otto's return in 965 he overran 
 South Jutland, drove Harald to his ships, and forced 
 him again to pay tribute and to submit to baptism.' 
 A fresh absence of Otto led to a renewal of the war 
 in 967, and in 974 it broke out yet more fiercely on 
 the emperor's death ; but though Harald brought 
 to the field his new subjects from Norway, under 
 Jarl Hakon, a decisive victory of the Germans again 
 
 ' For date, see Dahlmann, Gesch. v. Diinnemark, i. -j^, 
 ^ Ibid. 81, note. 
 
350 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 (HAP. VIII. forced him to peace. His defeats shook his power; 
 ThI Norway seems to have slipped from his grasp ; and 
 cfnq^'uSrt. ^i^ later years at home were spent in warfare with 
 MS^ie ^'^ ^^^^^ ^^"' Swein. Swein's story carries us at 
 — once into the full tide of northern romance ; we are 
 told that he was the child of a slave mother, who 
 served in the house of Palnatoki, a noble of Funen,' 
 where alone the boy found refuge from his father's 
 hate. Here, too, Swein learned to cling to the old 
 gods of his people, and thus furnished a centre for 
 the growing disaffection of the eastern parts of 
 the kingdom, where heathendom still held its own. 
 Since his last fight with Otto, Harald had resolute- 
 ly embraced Christianity ; he had forsaken the old 
 heathen sanctuary of Lethra to build a castle and 
 church for himself at Roeskilde hard by,' and his 
 home in his later years seems to have been the 
 Christianized Jutland. Thence " he sent a message 
 over all the kingdom that all people should be bap- 
 tized and follow the true faith ; and he himself fol- 
 lowed the message, and used power and violence 
 when nothing else would do.'" But his efforts 
 roiised a bitter resistance. It was on the shore of 
 Jutland, ran the legend, that Harald saw a great 
 stone, and, longing to set it up on his mother's 
 mound, harnessed to it not horses but men. Then 
 as he watched it move he asked of one who stood 
 by, " Hast thou ever seen such a load moved by 
 hands of men r " Yes," said the stranger, " for I 
 
 » This seems disproved by Otto's having him baptized with Har- 
 ald, as heir of the kingdom. 
 
 * Dahlmann, Gesch. v. Dannemark, i. 83. 
 
 • Saga of Olaf Tr>'gg\'ason, Laing, Sea Kings, i. 426. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 . 
 
 351 
 
 come from a place where thy son Swein is drawino-cHAP.vm. 
 
 all Denmark to him. See now which is the "-reater 
 load !" "" 
 
 Harald strove to meet the danger by driving 
 Swein from the land ; but his warriors forsook hint, 
 and in a final battle about 986 he was so sorely 
 wounded, it is said, by an arrow from Palnatoki's 
 hand, that he fled from his realm to the eastern sea, 
 and died at Jomsborg, a stronghold at the mouth of 
 the Oder, which he had won for himself in the days 
 gone by, and from which he had maintained his 
 mastery of the Baltic' Jomsborg, if we may trust 
 its story,' soon became the great difficulty of Har- 
 ald's successor. While Swein' was opening his 
 reign with the restoration of heathendom and a 
 persecution of the Christian preachers, Palnatoki 
 and the fiercer of the heathen Danes, resolved to 
 find a secure refuge from the new religion and the 
 civilization it brought with it, sailed to the Baltic, 
 seized Jomsborg, and founded there a State to 
 which no man might belong save on proof of cour- 
 age, where no woman might enter within the walls, 
 and where all booty was in common. It may have 
 been that Palnatoki fled thither because his deadly 
 arrow, though it set Swein on the throne, raised 
 
 » See the story in the " Encomium Emm^," Langebek, ii. 474. 
 Olaf Tr>^ggvason's Saga (Laing, Sea Kings, i. 403) makes the strife 
 begm m Swein's demand of half the kingdom. 
 
 ' For the worth of the Jomsviking Saga, see Dahlmann, Gesch. 
 V. Dannemark, i. 87, 88, note. 
 
 ' Suan, Sweno, Suen (later written " Swend," but never pro- 
 nounced so), Adam of Bremen's " Svein," and the English '' Swe- 
 gen" (where the "g" is soft like a "y"). are all different ways of 
 spellmg the same sound. See Dahlmann, Gesch. v. Dannemark, 
 i. 88, note. 
 
 The 
 
 Danish 
 
 Conquest. 
 
 988 1016 
 
 Jomsborg. 
 
352 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. inevitably the blood-feud between him and the 
 
 but in 
 
 young king; oui m any case the conversion of 
 cXu^x Jomsborg from a base of Danish power in the 
 .^..a Baltic into an independent State was sufficient to 
 
 988-1016. , I 
 
 — call Swein to its attack. 
 Swan ami IH-luck, howcvcr, bcsct him I twice, it is said, he 
 'tZZ': was taken by the Jomsborgers and freed for gold;^ 
 but peace was at last brought about, and a saga" 
 tells us how Swein's guile and ambition mingled 
 in the burial-feast for his father Harald. "King 
 Sw^ein made a great feast, to which he invited all 
 the chiefs in his dominions, for he willed to give 
 the succession -feast or heirship -ale after his father 
 Harald. A little time before, Strut Harald had died 
 in Scania, and Vesete in Bornholm, father to Hue 
 the Thick and to Sigurd. So King Swein sent 
 word to the Jomsborg Wikings that Earl Sigwald 
 and Bue and their brothers should come to him, 
 and drink the funeral -ale for their father in the 
 same feast the king was giving. The Jomsborg 
 Wikings came to the feast with their bravest men, 
 eleven%hips of them from Wendland and twenty 
 ships from Scania. Great was the multitude of 
 people assembled. The first day of the feast, before 
 King Swein went up into his father's high seat, he 
 drank the bowl to his father's memory, and made 
 
 ' The contemporary evidence of Thietmar of Merseburg shows 
 that he was at least once "taken by the Northmen^ and that the 
 charge of slave-blood was one of his great difficulties.— Dahlmann, 
 Gesch. v. Diinnemark. i. 89. note. The Jomsborg Saga, followed by 
 that of Olaf Tryggvason. makes the price of his release a marriage 
 with the Wendish King Burislaf's daughter, Gunhild. who became 
 the mother of Cnut. 
 
 " Laing, Sea Kings of Norway, i. 404- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 353 
 
 the solemn vow that before three winters were chap^ih. 
 passed he would 2:0 over with his army to England, The 
 
 . , ,.,,,,-• TT- 1 1 1 1 • 1 • I. £ Banish 
 
 and either kill King yEthelrcd or drive him out ot conquest 
 the country. This heirship -bowl all who were at gggl^^g 
 the feast drank. Thereafter, for the chiefs of the 
 Jomsborg Wikings, was filled and drunk the largest 
 horn to be found, and of the strongest drink. When 
 that bowl was emptied all men drank Christ's health, 
 and again the fullest measure and the strongest 
 drink were handed to the Jomsborg Wikings. The 
 third bowl was to the memory of St. Michael, w^iich 
 was drunk by all. Thereafter, Earl Sigwald emptied 
 a remembrance-bowl to his father's honor, and made 
 the solemn vow that before three winters came to 
 an end he would go to Norway, and either kill Jarl 
 Hakon or drive him out of the country." Whether 
 Hakon slew the Jomsborgers or the Jomsborgers 
 Hakon, Swein had a foe the less; and the vow of 
 Jarl Sigwald cleared the w^ay for the carrying out of 
 the vow of the Danish king himself. 
 
 The vow, however, was to be long in fulfilment; -^'^^'^^/^'^ 
 for hardly had the Jomsborgers steered to their 
 doom in the north, when Eric of Sweden, whose 
 throne had been threatened both by Harald and 
 Swein, seized the moment of exhaustion to break 
 Denmark's power in the Eastern Sea. Allying 
 himself with the Poles and their duke, Mieczyslav, 
 his success was even greater than his aim, for after 
 fierce sea- fighting he succeeded in driving Swein 
 not only from the Baltic but from Denmark itself; 
 so complete, indeed, was Swein's overthrow, that 
 fourteen years had to pass before he could return 
 to the land. He fell back on the Wiking life of 
 
 23 
 
T 
 
 354 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. his earlier youth; and after a fruitless effort to 
 Th^ wrest Norway from Jarl Hakon, who now ruled 
 cSiTuest. there in his own name, he steered for the Irish 
 988^16. Channel. It was a time when the seas were again 
 — thronged with northern freebooters. The union of 
 the kingdoms, the stern rule of Harald and Jarl 
 Hakon, the wars of the Danes with Norway, and 
 of Swx'den with the Danes, above all the strife of 
 religions, had roused afresh the spirit of adventure 
 and wandering. The rovers who had been absorbed 
 for a while by Harald's enterprises in Frankland 
 and Saxon- land found no work in northern waters 
 during the peace that followed Swein's expulsion; 
 and Wiking fleets, as of old, appeared off the Eng- 
 lish coasts. Swein himself had probably taken part, 
 as a youth, in the piratical attacks which troubled 
 the coasts of Wessex and Kent from 9S0 to 982 ; 
 and though these were interrupted, it may be by 
 the strife between Harald and Swein, the renewal 
 of the raids in 988' might have warned England 
 of the danger that was gathering in the north. 
 Three years later, indeed, in 991, came the first 
 burst of the storm.' A body of Norwegian Wikings 
 landed on the eastern coasts, and after plundering 
 Ipswich marched southward upon Essex.' At Mal- 
 don it met the ealdorman Byrhtnoth, who hastened 
 to save the town. For a while the tide parted the 
 hosts, but as it fell the pirates plunged through the 
 ford, and threw themselves on the shield-wall of the 
 Englishmen. The wall was at last broken; the 
 war -band of Byrhtnoth was slain around its lord; 
 
 » Eng. Chron. a. 988. 
 
 Ibid. 991. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 . 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 355 
 
 988-1016. 
 
 ^thelrcd. 
 
 and the broken fracrments of his force bore off his chap. vm. 
 body from the field. The 
 
 The defeat presaged ill for the resistance which conquest. 
 En2:land under its ealdormen was to offer to the 
 Dane.' But whatever strength the great ealdor- 
 manries might have possessed for the conflict was 
 broken at this moment by the king. yEthelred had 
 now reached manhood; he was, indeed, already fa- 
 ther of two boys, the younger of whom was to be 
 known as Eadmund Ironside. He was handsome, 
 and pleasant of address, and though he was taunted 
 by his opponents with having the temper of a monk 
 rather than of a warrior, there were none who de- 
 nied his capacity or activity." But behind, and ab- 
 
 * The materials for the history of this time are very scanty, As 
 to the chronicles, we really have only one — that of Worcester — 
 which is preserved to us in the later compilation made at Peter- 
 borough. Fortunately this chronicle is full and vigorous through- 
 out, and in some places, as in 1007, it is clearly the work of a con- 
 temporary. It was not till 1043 that Abingdon borrowed a copy of 
 this and used it as a base for the chronicle then being compiled at 
 Abingdon, which till 1043 differs little from the Worcester account. 
 This chronicle, with the charters and laws, arc the only authorities 
 of contemporary and primary value as yet. Two hundred years 
 later came the twelfth-century translators and compilers, Florence 
 of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, dif- 
 fering much in temper from one another, but equally removed in 
 time from the events they narrate, and equally swayed by the patri- 
 otic revival of their day. It is true of all— as Mr. Freeman says of 
 the two last— that though they occasionally supply additional de- 
 tails, " it is dangerous to trust them except when they show signs 
 of following authorities which are now lost" (Norm. Conq. i. 258, 
 note). Beyond these materials we have only the northern sagas, 
 which are yet later and more fabulous ; nor is there any contempo- 
 rary Norman authority till we reach the " Encomium Emmae." 
 
 ' William of Malmesbury (Gest. Reg. [Hardy], i.268) wonders," Cur 
 homo ut a majoribus nos accepimus neque multum fatuus neque 
 nimis ignavus in tarn tristi pallore tot calamitatum vitam con- 
 sumpserit." The cause he sees for this is, " Ducum defectionem ex 
 
5 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 c..A...v,n.sorbing all, was a haughty pride in his own kingship 
 S; The imperial titles, which had been but sparsely 
 "•■"'" used bv his predecessors, are employed protusely m 
 ""'""' hs charters " nor was his faith in these lofty preten- 
 *"-±°''- sLs ever shaken, even at the time of his greatest 
 misfortunes. His attitude was thus one of stubborn 
 opposition throughout his reign to the efforts of 
 the great ealdormen to control the Crown ; it was. 
 in fact, his revolt from this control, and his persist- 
 ence in setting aside the rede or counsel ,n which 
 it embodied itself, that earned him the title of ' Un- 
 ra;dicr," or the counsel-lacking king, which a later 
 blunder changed into the title of the Unready. 
 Unready, shiftless, without resource, ytthelred never 
 was His difficulties, indeed, sprang in no smaU 
 decrree from the quickness and ingenuity with w-hich 
 he'met one danger by measures that created an- 
 other A man of expedients rather than wisdom, he 
 devised administrative and financial plans which, 
 though they were to serve as moulds for our later 
 policy, he had himself neither the strength nor the 
 patience t'o carry out to any profitable issue. He 
 was capable of brave fighting when driven hard. 
 But impulsive, fitful in temper, changeful and ready 
 to fling away the fruits of one course o policy by 
 sudden transition to another, he w'as filled with a 
 restless energy which never ceased to dash itself 
 acrainst the forces round it. He sought safety in 
 skilful negotiations with the foreigner when it was 
 only to be attained by a firm and consistent govern- 
 ^i^j^Minme ^ It was with the same quick b ut 
 
 superbia regis prodeuntem," and this statement is no doubt mainly 
 true. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 357 
 
 ■ 
 
 shallow cleverness that he seized this moment of cn.AP.vnr. 
 national peril to open his real reign by a blow at the The 
 greatjiouses that had till now held him down." conquest 
 
 The death of Brihtnoth, with that of ^thelwine eggl^ie 
 in the following year,' no sooner left yEthelred's^v^^"^^ 
 hands free than change followed change. The 
 Northumbrian earldom was made less formidable 
 by its division between .^^Ifhelm and Waltheof, the 
 
 ' The charters enable us to follow the course of the great ealdor- 
 men under Eadward the Martyr. -^Ifhere of Mercia, -^lithelwine of 
 East Anglia, and Brihtnoth of Essex still sign first as before ; but 
 ^thelmaer becomes " dux," and in 981 an " Eadwine dux" is added. 
 We know from the chronicle in 982 that yEthclmacr was ealdorman 
 in Hampshire (i. e. of the " Wentanicnscs provincial ") and Eadwine 
 in Sussex. Both these died in 982 ; but ^thclwcard, who had been 
 a minister under Eadgar, and was also made dux by Eadward (Cod. 
 Dip. 611), that is, Ealdorman of the Western Provinces (cf. Cod. 
 Dip. 698), was destined to larger and higher fortunes. In a charter 
 assigned to 983, but which, if so, must be early in that year, we find 
 two new names, Thored and yElfric, among the duces (Cod. Dip. 
 636), ^Ifric having taken the place of the dead ^thclma^r as " dux 
 Wentaniensium Provinciarum " (cf. Cod. Dip. 698 and 642). We 
 see, however, another .^Ifric signing among the " ministri," who 
 must have been son of the great Ealdorman of the Mercians; for on 
 yElfhere's death in the same year, 983, his name disappears from 
 the charters, and we find two ^Ifrics signing as duces, one no 
 doubt the Ealdorman of Central Wessex, the other .^Ifhere's suc- 
 cessor in his ealdormanry. ^thelwine, however, succeeds to ^If- 
 here's position at the head of the duces; while the Mercian ^Ifric 
 signs after all but Thored (Cod. Dip. 1279). Both ^Ifrics still sign 
 in 984; but in 985 one of them disappears from the charters (Cod. 
 Dip. 1283), and the chronicle tells us that the Mercian ealdorman 
 was banished in that year. ^Ifric of Hampshire, on the other hand, 
 goes on signing with ^thelwine, Brihtnoth, and ^^thelweard 
 through the next four years ; and when Brihtnoth dies in 991 and 
 -^thelwine in 992, we find the two West-Saxon ealdormen, ^thel- 
 weard and ^Ifric, signing at the head of the duces in 994 (Cod. 
 Dip. 687). With them are Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwiccas, 
 Leofsige, Ealdorman of the " East Saxons " (Cod. Dip. 698), and 
 .^Ifhelm "of the Northumbrian provinces," with a certain North- 
 man. ' Eng. Chron. a. 992. 
 
^-8 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. vi.i. one carl of Deira, the other of Bernicia, to whose 
 iTe older stock he belonged.' The Mercian ealdormen 
 con?«.t had ceased with the exile of /Elfric in 985, and m 
 «««Tn,B' this year at latest the king set about breaking up 
 — ■ this vast power by creating an ealdorman of the 
 Hwiccas in Leofwine.' yEthelred next secured the 
 dependence of Essex by the appointment of Leof- 
 sige as its ealdorman.^ Leofsige, as the king him- 
 self tells us, was a new thegn of the royal court, who 
 owed his elevation to the royal favor.' ^thelred's 
 attitude was naturally one of standing opposition to 
 the great ealdormen who had overawed the Crown, 
 and Leofsige was the f^rst of the new series of royal 
 favorites, of ministers trained in the royal court, 
 through whom the king sought to counteract the 
 pressure of the great nobles. The favorites whom 
 he chose, indeed, so far as we can trace them, seem 
 by their ability to have justified the king's choice. 
 It was no doubt under /Ethelred's own guidance 
 that Leofsige, with the West -Saxon ealdormen, 
 /Ethelweard and ^Ifric, took from this time the 
 main part in the conduct of affairs. But the revo- 
 lution had only helped to shatter what force re- 
 mained of national resistance, and the f^rst act of 
 these counsellors shows their sense of the weakness 
 
 of the realm. 
 onurdiffi. RLiny of the difficulties which ^thelred had to 
 '""'"' face were not of his own making. The long minor- 
 
 ' Thcv first sign in 994— Cod. Dip. 687. 
 
 • His first signature is in 994.-Cod. Dip. 68;. For h.s ealdor- 
 
 manry see Cod. Dip. 698. „ r- j r^„ /;„s 
 
 ' Leofsige signs as "dux Orientalium Sa.xonum."-Cod. Dip. 698. 
 . "Ouem de satrapis nomine tuli ad celsioris ap.cem d.gnitaus 
 
 dignum duxi promoveri ducem constitucndo."-Cod. Dip. 719- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 359 
 
 ity, the rule of ^thelwine, had fatally weakened hiscHAr.vm. 
 cause before he really stood out as king. It must The 
 have been during these years that Eadgar's fleet dis- conqueBt. 
 appeared ; and it was the loss of the rule of the seas gg^ig. 
 which told so hardly against England afterwards. 
 Not only was a storm gathering in the east, but 
 danecrs were thickening to the south and to the 
 west. The descents of Danish marauders and fleets 
 ought to have warned England to gird itself to meet 
 a far greater peril ; they w^ere but advance-guards, 
 but slirns of the new restlessness which was slather- 
 ino: hosts such as Encfland had never seen for the 
 expedition under Swein and Olaf, three years later. 
 To the southward lay the land of the Normans, now 
 to play a part in English history which was never to 
 cease till the Norman duke was hailed as English 
 king. Westward a new power was growing up in 
 Wales. Utterly unable to unite into a permanent 
 State, the Welsh drew together from time to time 
 under chieftains who won a brief supremacy; and 
 in these years of peace Meredydd, the son of Owen, 
 had succeeded in making himself master of nearly 
 the whole of what is now called Wales. Silently 
 the clouds drew together. In the very year of the 
 victory of the Norwegians in East Anglia, Meredydd 
 was not only at war with the English, but had formed 
 an alliance with the Northmen ; and that this union 
 was a real danger we see from the treaty of subsidy 
 which was vmw negotiated with the enemy by the 
 king's counsellors. 
 
 Already, indeed, their hope lay less in any resist- ^^^^^^^ 
 ance on the part of England itself than in the 
 divisions of its foes. The Norwegian force which 
 
36o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. had slain Brihtnoth was still on English soil, but 
 Thi instead of attacking it the king's advisers found a 
 c?nTnSt. sum equal to a fourth of the annual revenues of 
 98awi6 ^^^ Crown, ten thousand pounds, to buy off its 
 — hostility.' The treaty was not one of withdrawal ; 
 it was a buying of frith. The Norwegians swore to 
 help ^thelred against any foes who might attack 
 England ; neither party was to receive the enemies 
 of the other.' The other provisions of the peace 
 are inconsistent with any notion of the fleet sailing 
 away. It may, in fact, have been the policy of 
 Sigeric and the two ealdormen to hold the Nor- 
 weo-ian force to aid acrainst Swein's expected de- 
 scent, a policy of division which was continued by 
 Bishop .^.Ifheah of Winchester when the descent 
 actually came three years later. Their next step 
 was to detach Normandy from their Scandinavian 
 assailants. Trouble had for some time been grow- 
 ing up between the Norman and the English courts, 
 perhaps owing to the aid given by Normans to the 
 earlier predatory descents on the English coasts, 
 and if we trust the one account we have of these 
 transactions, war was only averted by the mediation 
 of the Pope. However this may be, an English 
 embassy appeared at Rouen and concluded a treaty 
 with Duke Richard, the first recorded diplomatic 
 transaction between the two powers, on terms that 
 
 ' The treaty of subsidy was negotiated by Archbishop Sigeric, 
 and the ealdormen. yEthelweard of the Western Provinces and 
 /Elfric of Central Wessex. See Thorpe's Anc. Laws and Institutes. 
 
 i. 284. 
 
 ^ " And that neither they nor we harbor the other's Wealh, nor 
 
 the other's thief, nor the other's foe."— Ibid. 289. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 361 
 
 / 
 
 neither ^thelred nor the duke should receive the chap, vm 
 other's foes.' The 
 
 Had the two treaties been backed by energetic c^nq^wt. 
 measures of resistance within the realm itself, they g^^^ ^q^^ 
 would have rendered the enterprise which Swein 
 
 1 • 11 1 1 1 f Outbreak 
 
 was now plotting an all but hopeless one ; for o/war. 
 with the Norman ports closed against him, and the 
 Norwegian host hanging on his flank, the Danish 
 king could hardly have faced a united England. 
 But it was just this national union that every day 
 made more impossible. The pirate force still clung . 
 to the English coast; and in 992 /Ethelred gathered 
 a fleet at London of ships furnished by that city 
 and East Anglia, while the fyrd, drawn probably 
 mainly from Hampshire and the surrounding shires, 
 was intrusted to the leadinsf of Ealdorman yE^lfric of 
 Central Wessex and Earl Thored. The joint force 
 was to " betrap " the Norwegians ; the fyrd, as we 
 may suppose, holding them in play on land till the 
 fleet had cut off their retreat by sea. The plan, 
 however, was foiled by the English leader. ^^Ifric 
 had now been ealdorman for nearly ten years, and 
 since the deaths of Byrhtnoth and ^thelwine he 
 had stood second in rank and importance only to 
 
 ' This Norman " frith" rests wholly on the authority of William 
 of Malmesbury (Gest. Reg. [Hardy], i. 270). Mr. Freeman accepts 
 it as true. This treaty implies that both sides had already received 
 the foes of the other. The Northmen were doubtless the foes of 
 .^thelred, but who were Richard's ? It is possible that Dunstan's 
 connection with Flanders, and his policy of drawing England closer 
 to it — a step which so greatly influenced the after-relations of Eng- 
 land — was meant by him as a provision against Normandy, and so 
 was understood by the Norman dukes. The treaties with the Nor- 
 wegians and with Normandy were no doubt accompanied by some 
 arrangement with Wales. 
 
362 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 988-1016. 
 
 CHAP. viir. his fellow West-Saxon ealdorman, .^thelweard ; nor 
 m does the story of the chronicle give any grounds 
 
 cJ^qu'est. for his sudden desertion.' It may be that he felt 
 ^thelred s plans to be fatal to his order, or that 
 he distrusted the king's personal hostility; for his 
 flight, unaccompanied by his followers, looks rather 
 like an act of sudden panic than of deliberate 
 treachery; but whatever were the causes of his 
 action, on the night before the execution of the 
 joint scheme he stole to the pirates' camp, and his 
 warning enabled them to escape after an engage- 
 ment with the English fleet.' .^Ifric's ship was 
 
 » It is possible that the danger by which Wessex alone was im- 
 mediately threatened developed what may have been a purely 
 West-Saxon policy of subsidizing the Norwegian fleet— a policy 
 which was represented by the three rulers of Southern Britain, the 
 Archbishop. /Elfric, and ^thelweard. Their course of action had 
 been formally accepted by the nation in the treaty of the preceding 
 year ; but may we not see in the plan now proposed for the destruc- 
 tion of the Norwegians the triumph of a party in the king's council 
 hostile to the policy of the southern ealdormen, and to any alliance 
 with the enemy ? The betrayal of the Norwegians seems to have 
 been, in fact, a distinct breach of treaty on the part of England, an 
 attempted act of treachery such as was carried out ten years later 
 on St. Brice's Day, possibly by the advice of the same party among 
 the Witan. Under these circumstances ^Elfric's conduct may have 
 another explanation than that of deliberate treason. His province 
 was in the utmost danger ; he had been responsible for the policy 
 hitherto pursued ; and the sense of the peril of so rash and false a 
 course as that now adopted may have urged him to give warning 
 to the Norwegians so as to avert the catastrophe. This explanation 
 of his conduct would seem to agree with the after-course of the 
 story, with i^lfric's later return to the first place among the ealdor- 
 men, with the fact that his place in Hampshire does not seem to 
 have been filled up during his absence, and that Bishop ^^Ifheah, of 
 Winchester, apparently acted instead of him two years later in face 
 of the threatened attack of 994, and carried out, in union with Eal- 
 dorman i^thelweard, exactly the same policy.— (A. S. G.) 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Abingdon), a. 992. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 363 
 
 captured in the fight, but the ealdorman may have ch/uvv-ih. 
 escaped and accompanied the Northmen when, in The 
 993, their fleet sailed along the coast, ravaged at conTuest 
 the mouth of the H umber, and sacked Bamborough. ggg loie. 
 As i^thelred chose this moment for ordering his son 
 /Elfgar to be blinded, it may be in punishment for 
 his father's treason.' 
 
 The Norwegian fleet, however, was only the ad- ^'^'^7^;;^''"^ 
 
 ^ ' . ^ , ami Dane. 
 
 vance-guard of the greater host which was gathermg 
 in the Irish Channel. The Wikin^fs mustered not 
 only round Swein, but round Olaf Tryggvason, a 
 claimant to the throne of Norway, though driven, as 
 yet like Swein himself, to find a kingdom on the 
 seas. Olaf had been long in the western waters ; 
 his saga makes him harry the coasts of Scotland, 
 fight in Man and the Hebrides, and plunder along 
 either coast of the Irish Channel," before his junc- 
 tion with Swein ; and their joint force must have 
 drawn to it all the rovers of the seas.' The prep- 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. (Abmgdon), a. 993. 
 
 ' Laing, Sea Kings, i. 396-398. According to the saga, " When 
 Olaf left the west, intending to sail to England, he came to the Scilly 
 Isles, lying westward from England in the ocean. . . . While he lay 
 in the Scilly Isles he heard of a seer or fortune-teller on the islands 
 who could tell beforehand things not yet done." Having tried this 
 man's skill, " Olaf perceived he was a true fortune-teller, and had 
 the gift of prophecy. He went once more to the hermit and asked 
 how he came to have such wisdom. The hermit replied that the 
 Christian's God Himself let him know all that he desired ; and he 
 brought before Olaf many great proofs of the power of- the Al- 
 mighty. Olaf agreed to let himself be baptized, and he and all his 
 followers were baptized forthwith. He remained here a long time, 
 took the true faith, and got with him priests and other learned 
 men." — (A. S. G.) 
 
 ' The sense of danger was no doubt quickened by a conscious- 
 ness of intrigue at home, for there were certainly English invita- 
 tions addressed to Swein. See Cod. Dip. 704, where i^theric, an 
 
3^4 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. arations for this alliance and joint enterprise must 
 The have occupied a considerable time, and it is no 
 cS*q°nert. doubt in the anticipation of this great blow that 
 988^16 ^^'^ must find the secret of English policy in the 
 — years which preceded its actual delivery, and espe- 
 cially the secret of the treaty of subsidy which was 
 concluded by ^Ifric and Sigeric with the Norman 
 duke. In September, 994, King Olaf and King 
 Swein, with a joint fleet of nearly a hundred ships, 
 entered the Thames unopposed. It was significant 
 of the new station which London was from this 
 time to occupy in our history that their first anchor- 
 age on Lady-day was off its walls ; and that though 
 they at once attacked the city, they were beaten 
 back by the stout fighting of the burghers, and 
 forced at last to sail away, harrying, burning, and 
 man-slaying along the southern coast.' At South- 
 ampton they found at last an entry into the land, 
 and takincr horse there the host rode for a while 
 without opposition, till their progress was checked 
 by the appearance of yEthelred with an army at 
 Andover. It seemed as if the fortune of England 
 was to be settled by the sword; but the policy of 
 the young king and of his advisers. Bishop yElfheah, 
 of Winchester, and Ealdorman yEthelweard,' of west- 
 ern Wessex, was one of diplomacy rather than of 
 arms. Their secret hope was still to break the 
 storm by dividing Northman from Northman, and 
 
 East Saxon, is charged with having promised to support Swein on 
 
 his arrival. 
 
 * Eng. Chron. a. 994. " They there bore more harm and evil than 
 they ever bethought them any burghmen should do." 
 
 ' ^thelweard always signs first among the duces after ^thel- 
 wine's death. See Cod. Dip. 698. 
 
 1 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 365 
 
 With this view a truce was arranged by which the chap. v.u. 
 army of the two kings, on payment of sixteen thou- ^e 
 sand pounds of gold, and a promise of supplies from cJLT^'est 
 all Wessex, took up its winter-quarters at South- ««—,« 
 ampton. ^thelred s hopes were realized, however, — 
 rather by his good-luck than by his diplomacy; for 
 during the winters rest news came from Norway 
 of the growing unpopularity of Jarl Hakon, and of 
 the cry of its people for a king of Harald Fair-hair's 
 stock.' Olaf became eager to end his work in Eng- 
 land and to set sail for the north. It was therefore 
 with little difficulty that Bishop ^Ifheah and Ealdor- 
 man ^thelweard, aided by the difference of religion 
 between the two kings— for Olaf was now a Chris- 
 tian and Swein a heathen— managed to break their 
 league, and to bring the Norwegian leader to an in- 
 terview with /Ethelred at Andover.'" In return for 
 the kings gifts, Olaf pledged himself to withdraw 
 from England and return to it no more, and his re- 
 treat, in the summer of 995, forced Swein also to 
 withdraw. 
 
 The two years that followed this withdrawal were f^^-'r^-'^css 
 spent in a quiet which might have been used to ^C^L 
 build up an efficient system of national defence.' '^'■^'"''^ 
 
 • Olaf Tryggvason's Saga. Laing. Sea Kings, i. 418. 
 ■■' Eng. Chron. a. 994. 
 
 » In the present period William of Malmesbury and Florence of 
 Worcester have given the tone to the general accounts of modern 
 writers. Both have done much to confuse the annals of the time 
 especially Florence. His work, as far as 994. seems to be a literal 
 rendermg of the first Worcester (or Peterborough) Chronicle 
 (though probably taken from the copy preserved in a second Wor- 
 cester Chronicle, as we may see from the entry at 1004). with occa- 
 sional ecclesiastical insertions from a F^amsey Chronicle and other 
 sources, and the usual rhetorical amplifications of the time. After 
 
366 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. But nothing was done. The king's power, indeed, 
 m must have been shaken by the last year's events, 
 c?n^ert. for we not only find .^Ifric again in England, but 
 Q^QiQ replaced in his old dignity as Ealdorman of the 
 — Central Provinces, and even in his second place 
 among the royal counsellors.' We know nothing of 
 the circumstances of his return ; but the fact itself 
 shows that the royal power, after its short outburst 
 of vigor, was again ebbing before the force of the 
 great nobles. Its weakness told on the state of the 
 realm. In 997 a band of pirates,' who may have 
 been Ostmcn from Ireland, appeared in the mouths 
 of the Severn and the Tamar, harried Cornwall with- 
 out opposition, and advancing eastward the year 
 after, carried their raids over Dorset, and finally 
 took up their winter-quarters in the Isle of Wight, 
 w^here they levied supplies from the coasts of Hamp- 
 shire and Sussex.' In 999 they pushed still farther 
 
 this point various noteworthy insertions occur in his work which 
 are without foundation in, or even in opposition to, the statements 
 of the Chronicle, and especially in the account of Eadric from 1006 
 onward. A poor translator of the Chronicle, he seems to have 
 been a violent partisan, whose patriotism led him to account for 
 every English defeat by a theory of betrayal. The story, as the 
 Chronicle gives it, is one which is reasonable, if hard to follow from 
 want of detail ; but as the insertions of Florence have moulded it, 
 the treason of the ealdormen accounts for every national defeat, 
 and ^thelred is responsible for the slackness of the national re- 
 sistance. As we have tried to show, however, the causes which 
 underlay the great crash were not the individual action of this or 
 that man, the treason of an ealdorman, or the weakness of a king, 
 but must be sought in the social and political conditions of the 
 
 time. 
 
 * He signs again as usual from 994. See Cod. Dip. 687, 688, 
 
 1289, etc. 
 ^ Eng. Chron. a. 997. 
 ' Eng. Chron. 998. "And forces were often gathered against 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 367 
 
 988 1016. 
 
 on, entered the Medvvay, attacked Rochester, and cH.\r. vm. 
 harried West Kent/ Whatever may have been the Thi 
 cause of .^thelred's inactivity before, this daring at- cSljS^t. 
 tack at last aroused both king and Witan. Danger 
 threatened again on every hand: from Norman 
 and from Ostmen, with wikings from Man and 
 Northmen from Cumberland. Ship-fyrd and land- 
 fyrd were summoned, but delay followed delay, and 
 the pirates were suffered to withdraw unharmed to 
 the Norman harbors.' The absence of any attempt, 
 three years before, to meet Swein's force at sea 
 may be accounted for by the fact that the English 
 vessels were too small to face the huge war -ships 
 which were now employed by the Scandinavian 
 kings; the failure to meet these pirates' shows 
 that the naval system which had been built up by 
 Alfred had now been suffered to break utterly 
 down, ^thelred s action at this moment suggests 
 such a failure of the fleet. As if aware of the weak- 
 ness of his own naval forces he now took into his 
 service a force of Danes, with Pallig,* a brother-in- 
 law of Swein, among them, and used this to clear 
 the seas. The first point at which the king struck 
 was Cumberland — the district had only just become 
 mainly Norse in blood, but its position on the west- 
 ern coast made it perilous to the realm, and it had 
 
 them ; but as soon as they should have joined battle, then there was 
 ever, through some cause, flight begun, and in the end they ever 
 had the victory." 
 ^ Eng. Chron. a. 999. » Jbid. 1000. 
 
 When the ships were ready, then the crew delayed from day 
 to day, and distressed the poor people that lay in the ships."— Eng. 
 Chron. a. 999. 
 
 * Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (ed. Hardy), i. 289, 
 
368 
 
 THE CONgUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^iir. no doubt given aid to the Ostmen who had been 
 
 iwh *^^^^>'^"^^ ^^ ^^^^ Channel. After descents on the 
 Conquest, ^sle of Man and on Cumberland,' yEthelred again 
 988lioi6. turned southward to follow the freebooters to their 
 — refuge across the Channel. If we may trust the 
 Norman chroniclers, the king's descent on the coast 
 of the Cotentin was roughly repulsed, and it may 
 have been the discouragement of this failure which 
 drove him anew to abandon warfare for his old field 
 of diplomacy. 
 ^oa!/ ^^^ danger from the north, indeed, had now be- 
 come a yet more pressing one. At the death of 
 the Swedish king, Eric, Swein's fortunes had at last 
 seen a change, for Denmark threw off the Swedish 
 yoke and recalled its king.' Swein, indeed, had still 
 to war with Eric s son, Olaf, till the mediation of 
 Olaf's mother, whom he wedded, brought peace with 
 Sweden, and enabled him to renew his father s effort 
 to establish a supremacy over Norway. So great 
 was the power of Olaf Tryggvason that it was only 
 in league with the Swedes and Jarl Hakon's son, 
 Eric, that Swein ventured to attack him ; but ill- 
 luck threw the Norwegian king, with but a few ves- 
 sels, into the midst of the enemy's fleet as it lurked 
 among the islands off his coast. The fight in which 
 he fell was long famous in the north. " King Olaf 
 stood on the Scrpenfs quarter-deck, high above the 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. looo. The Norse settlement of Cumberland was 
 such a source of danger in itself, as much probably to Malcolm of 
 Scots as to ^thelred, that I see no reason to prefer the story in 
 Fordun, iv. 34, to that in Henry of Huntingdon, a. 1000 (Arnold), 
 p. 170. 
 
 ' This was about a. d. iooo.— Dahlmann, Gesch. v. Diinnemark, 
 i. 92. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 369 
 
 988-lOia 
 
 rest. He had a gilded shield and a helm inlaid with chap. vm. 
 gold ; over his armor he wore a short, red coat, and The 
 was easy to be distinguished from other men. When cJnquett. 
 King Olaf saw that the scattered forces of the ene- 
 my gathered themselves under the banners of their 
 ships, he asked, ' Who is the chief of the force right 
 over against us?' He was answered that it was 
 King Swein, with the Danish host. The king re- 
 plied, ' We are not afraid of these soft Danes, for 
 there is no bravery in them. But who are they to 
 the right T He was told King Olaf, with the Swedes. 
 ' Better for the Swedes,' he said, ' to be sitting at 
 home, killing their sacrifices, than venturing under 
 our weapons from the Long Serpent ! But whose 
 are the big ships to larboard V ' That is Earl Eric 
 Hakonson,' said they. 'Ah!' said the king, 'he, 
 methinks, has good ground for meeting us, and we 
 may look for sharp fighting with his men, for they 
 are Northmen like ourselves.' " It was, indeed, Earl 
 Eric's men that pressed Olaf hardest in the fight 
 that followed ; and at last earls ship and king's ship 
 lay side by side. " So thick flew spears and arrows 
 into the Serpent that the men's shields could scarce 
 contain them, for the Serpent was girt in on all 
 sides by our ships." Though Olaf's men fell fast, 
 " Einar Tambarskelver, one of the sharpest of bow- 
 shooters, stood yet by the mast and shot with his 
 bow." But as he drew his bow an arrow from Eric's 
 ship hit it in the midst and the bow was broken. 
 "' Wliat is that,' cried King Olaf, 'that broke with 
 such a noise?' 'Norway, king, from thy hands!' 
 cried Einar. ' No, not quite so much as that,' said 
 Olaf ; ' take my bow and shoot !' and he tossed the 
 
 24 
 
370 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAivviii. bow to him. Einar took the bow and drew it over 
 
 The the arrow s head. ' Too weak, too weak,' he said, 
 
 co!iTne?t. ' ^o^ ^hc ^c)^^' of a mighty king !' and throwing down 
 
 988^016 ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ sword and shield, and fought val- 
 
 — iantly.'" The fight, however, was all but over; so 
 
 few were the fighters that Eric could board the 
 
 Serpent ; the little group about the king were slain ; 
 
 and Olaf himself, throwing his shield over his head, 
 
 leaped desperately into the sea. 
 The Nor- Mastcr, by this victory, of the North, S wein's hands 
 
 man vtar- ri-i i 
 
 riage. wcrc ircc lor his long-planned attack on England ; 
 and in 1002 it was clear that such an attack was 
 impending. To deprive the Danish king of Nor- 
 man aid and to close the Norman harbors aofainst 
 him was an obvious measure of precaution ;"" but as 
 yet England had failed in securing the neutrality of 
 Normandy, either by treaties or by force of arms, 
 -^thelred now resolved to bind Normandy to him 
 by a personal bond, and in the Lent of 1002 Duke 
 Richard's daughter, Emma, crossed to the shores 
 of England as its king's wife. The step which the 
 king took was one of the highest moment. In it 
 i^thelred broke away from the traditional policy of 
 his house, which from /Ethelstan downward had 
 aimed at crushing or curbing the Northmen of the 
 Channel, by a measure which could not but link 
 their fortunes with the fortunes of England itself. 
 But Normandy was now a wholly different power 
 
 * Laing, Sea Kings of Norway, i. 475. 
 
 " "The Jarls of Rouen reckoned themselves of kin to the chiefs 
 in Norway, and held them in such respect that they WTre always 
 the greatest friends of the Northmen ; and every Northman found 
 a friendly country in Normandy, if he needed it." — St. Olaf's Saga, 
 Laing, Sea Kings, ii. 16. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Zl^ 
 
 from the pirate State which had roused jealous fear chap. vm. 
 in Eadward or i^thelstan. The century which had Th^ 
 passed since the settlement of the Northmen alonir ^^^IL. 
 the beme had seen the steady growth of the duchy ^gslioie 
 in extent and in power. Much of this was due to — 
 the ability of its rulers, to the vigor and wisdom 
 with Vvhich Hrolf forced order and justice on the 
 new community, as well as to the political tact with 
 which both Hrolf and William Longsword clung 
 to the Karolings in their strife with the dukes of 
 Paris. But still more was owing to the steadiness 
 with which both these rulers remained faithful to 
 the Christianity which had been imposed on the 
 Northmen as a condition of their settlement, and 
 to the firm resolve with which they trampled down 
 the temper and traditions which their people had 
 brought from their Scandinavian homeland, and 
 welcomed the language and civilization which came 
 in the wake of their neighbors' religion. 
 
 The difficulties that met the dukes were indeed ^#^«^^'« 
 enormous. Turn to France as they might, it was Norman 
 long before France would turn to them. It dis- '^''^"' 
 believed in their religious earnestness, it credited 
 wild stories about Hrolf's sacrifices on his death- 
 bed, about the apostasy of William and his boy. It 
 disbelieved in their craving for admission into the 
 body of French nationality and French civiHzation 
 —it called the Normans " pirates," and their chief 
 the "pirates' duke." The very sovereigns whom 
 they supported looked on them as intruders to be 
 guarded against, and to be thrust out of the land 
 if it were possible. They were girt in by hostile 
 States, they were threatened at sea by England, 
 
11^ 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.viii. under i^thelstan a network of alliances menaced 
 Se them with ruin. Once a French army occupied 
 cfn^Mt. Rouen, and a French king held the pirates' land at 
 esslioie ^^^ '^^'^^^ ' ^^"^^^ ^^^ German lances were seen from 
 — the walls of their capital. Nor were their diffi- 
 culties within less than those without. The subject 
 population which had been trodden underfoot by 
 the northern settlers was seething with discontent. 
 The policy of Christianization and civilization broke 
 the Normans themselves into two parties. A great 
 portion of the people clung to their old religion and 
 their old tongue ; and this body was continually re- 
 inforced by fresh incomers from the north or from 
 the English Danelaw, and strengthened by those 
 connections with its heathen brethren in the Chan- 
 nel which were forced on the duchy by the French 
 attacks. The very conquests of Hrolf and his suc- 
 cessor, the Bessin, the Cotentin, had to be settled 
 and held by the new-comers, who made them 
 strongholds of heathendom. The strength of this 
 party of resistance was seen in a revolt which shook 
 the throne of William Longsword, in the concession 
 it forced from him that his child should be reared 
 in the Bessin, in the pagan reaction which followed 
 his death and gave a pretext for the invasion of 
 Lewis From -over -sea, as well as in the stubborn 
 resistance to change which must have gone on 
 throughout the reisjn of the two dukes who fol- 
 lowed William, ere it broke out for the last tmie 
 in the revolt of Val-es-dunes. 
 Their But amidst difficulties from within and from with- 
 ^toUcx. out the dukes held firm to their course, and their 
 stubborn will had its reward. In spite of reinforce- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 7>n 
 
 ment from their pirate -brethren, the balance of cHAr.vin. 
 strength went more and more against the men who inti 
 clung to the northern customs and the northern ^^^^, 
 tongue. By the end of William Longsword s days ^^^^y^ 
 all Normandy, save the newly- settled districts of — 
 the west, was Christian and spoke French. So, too, 
 in spite of the hatred and leacrues of his nei<jhbors, 
 the Norman never loosed his grip from the land he 
 had won. Attack, indeed, only widened its bounds, 
 and added to the older duchy the broad lands of the 
 Bessin and Cotentin. The work of the statesman 
 at last completed the work of the sword. As the 
 connection of the dukes with the Karoling kings 
 had given them the land, and helped them for fifty 
 years to hold it against the House of Paris, so in 
 the downfall of the Karolings the sudden and 
 adroit change of front which bound the Norman 
 rulers to the House of Paris in its successful strug- 
 gle for the Crown secured the land forever to the 
 Northmen. The close connection which France 
 was forced to maintain with the State whose sup- 
 port held the new royal line on its throne told both 
 on kingdom and duchy. The French dread of the 
 "pirates" died gradually away, while French influ- 
 ence spread yet more rapidly over a people which 
 clung so closely to the F'rench crown. 
 
 It was thus that the social and religious change //^ ;r/////j. 
 which was in full play at the death of William 
 Longsword, took a new strength and vigor through 
 the days of his successor, Duke Richard the pVar- 
 less, whose long reign stretched over more than 
 half a century, from 943 to 996. It opened, indeed, 
 with a storm of reaction, the terrible strife which 
 
374 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. all but laid the duchy at the feet of Lewis From- 
 ^ over -sea. But the storm soon died down into a 
 cS^^t. profound repose. Without, all danger passed away. 
 9««Iioi6. France, under its new rulers, was friendly. The 
 — England of Eadgar was no longer anxious about 
 Norman aid to the Danelaw. The Breton was 
 overmastered. The Fleming held his hand. And 
 within the duchy itself the Normans had learned 
 the danger of civil strife. So tranquil was the land 
 that hardly an event is recorded on the other side 
 the Channel for the thirty years that cover the 
 reigns of Eadred, Eadgar, and Eadmund the Martyr. 
 In this long stillness the fusion of conquerors and 
 conquered, the Christianization and civilization of 
 the Norman, his assimilation in political and social 
 temper to the France beside him, went steadily on. 
 If the free institutions of the north had passed to 
 Norman soil their very memory was now lost. Save 
 for a dim tradition of "the Laws of Hrolf," the 
 power of the duke was henceforth unchecked by 
 legal bounds; and the northern sense of equality 
 faded away as the duchy drifted towards the feu- 
 dalism of the countries around it. A baronage 
 sprang from the friends or children of the dukes, 
 whose houses were to stamp their names on our 
 later history. The kinsmen of Richard's wife, 
 Gunnor, became heads of great families which 
 played their part on both French and English soil. 
 From her brother Herfast sprang the house of Fitz- 
 Osbern ; from her children came the counts of Eu 
 and of Brionne, as well as the counts of IVIortain. 
 The lords of Belesme, the Montgomeries, the Beau- 
 monts, rose into power on the Norman border-land, 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 375 
 
 while within it Giffards and Tancarvilles, War- chap. vm. 
 rennes and Mowbrays and Mortimers, came to Thi 
 the front in the tranquil years during which Rich- c?nTuS?t. 
 ard the Fearless transformed the pirates' land into q^^q^q 
 a feudal Normandy. — 
 
 The reign of Richard the Good stretched like t^^^^".^- 
 that of his father over a long tract of years, from fLno!!^ 
 996 to 1026; but they were still for the most part 
 years of tranquillity. Within the duchy, indeed, a 
 fierce outbreak of the peasantry against the grow- 
 ing feudalism had to be trodden out in blood ; but 
 that done all was peace, and the process of civiliza- 
 tion and Christianization went steadily on. People 
 and duke, indeed, showed the same temper, the same 
 daring and passionate courage, the same craft, cun- 
 ning, wariness, secrecy, patience, the same steady 
 industry and shrew^dness in business, which before 
 many years were over was to make them the best 
 diplomatists, fighters, lawyers, and builders of their 
 day. Without, Richard looked on at the revolu- 
 tions of the France across his borders with little 
 interference, save the giving a general support to 
 the king at Paris. But in spite of this seeming 
 inaction it was the reign of Richard the Good that 
 saw the most momentous event in the whole history 
 of Normandy. The keen eye of ^thelred detected 
 the change which had come over the temper of the 
 duchy, and saw the possibility of detaching it from 
 the Scandinavian attack by an alliance with its 
 dukes. His descent on the coast of Normandy 
 the year before may, indeed, have quickened Duke 
 Richard the Good's wish for the alliance which 
 ^thelrcd was now to propose to him. If ^thel- 
 
376 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP, viir. Stan's embassy was the first step to a connection 
 The between the two countries, and the alHance of 991 
 Conquest, ^he second, the marriage treaty of looi was one 
 988^16 ^^'hich brought the two countries fairly together. 
 — Events had shown that a mere convention such as 
 that of 991 could not prevent Norman ports from 
 being open and Norman aid given to yEthelred's 
 Danish foes. Yet it was of the first importance, if 
 the Channel were to be kept clear, that these ports 
 should be closed to them. The measure was there- 
 fore right in policy ; ' and in its immediate results 
 proved eminently successful, for from the moment 
 of Emma's marriage Normandy not only stood apart 
 from the Danish attack on its neighbor realm, but 
 drifted more and more into an attitude of hostil- 
 ity against the Dane. It gave refuge to yEthelred 
 when he was driven from his kingdom. It enabled 
 him to return and again seize his crow^n. It shel- 
 tered his children from the hatred of Cnut. It at 
 last plunged into war with the Danish kings for 
 their restoration. But the indirect effects of Em- 
 ma's marriage were far more momentous than its 
 direct effects, both for England and for Normandy. 
 In severing the duchy from all connection with its 
 Scandinavian kinsmen, as in binding its rulers by 
 blood-ties to the English crown, it suddenly opened 
 for its rulers a distinct policy, a distinct course of 
 action, which led to the Norman conquest of Eng- 
 land. From the moment of Emma's marriage Nor- 
 mandy became a chief factor in English politics. 
 
 * After the time of Swein's withdrawal, that is, from 997 to 1002. 
 the war had really been a Norman war, fed by fleets finding harbor 
 in Norman ports. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 zn 
 
 988 1016 
 
 For the next sixty years we shall have to watch the chap. vm. 
 gradual strengthening of the tie which now for the Thi 
 first time bound the two countries directly together. co^iTq'^Mt 
 For fifty years to come England saw a Norman lady 
 as queen or queen-mother wielding power in the 
 land. The Norman settlement in England began 
 with that of her train. With the shelter given to 
 ^thelred at the Norman court, which was the first 
 result of the marriage, as with its secondary issues 
 in the protection of his children, their Norman train- 
 ing, and the gradual espousal of their claims on the 
 English throne by the Norman nobles, began that 
 interference of the Norman in the fortunes of Eno-. 
 land which w^as at last crowned by the victory of 
 Senlac. 
 
 Few of these issues, however, could be foreseen Poutuai 
 when ^thelred, in the spring of 1002, brought """^/''' 
 home the duke's daughter as his wife." All that the ^"-^''"^' 
 king aimed at was to guard against any co-operation 
 of Normandy in the coming attack of Swein, and 
 that result was secured. But Swein had still to be 
 met; and whatever strength ^thelred had gained 
 for this struggle by his foreign policy was more than 
 compensated by the growing weakness within the 
 realm. Since the revolution which followed on the 
 death of Byrhtnoth and TEthelwinc the number and 
 order of the great ealdormen had remained the 
 same. At their head had stood the two West- 
 Saxon ealdormen, ^thelweard and (in spite of his 
 treason and temporary exile) ^Ifric ; then the 
 Northumbrian ealdormen, .tlfhelm and Waltheof ; 
 then Le ofwine of the Hwiccas, and Leofsige of Es- 
 
 ' In Lent, 1002.— Eng. Chron. (Peterborough). 
 
37^ 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. sex. Ulfcytel, though probably ruling at this time 
 The in East Anglia, still bore only the title of thegn.' In 
 c^quMt 999 /Hthelweard seems to have been removed by 
 988^16 <^cath, and ^^Ifric takes his place at the head of the 
 — eaklormcn, but his three fellows remain as before. 
 Leofsige was as active as of old; and while i^thel- 
 red was negotiating his Norman marriage, the eal- 
 dorman of Essex was sent to the pirate fleet to buy 
 a truce at a cost of twenty-four thousand pounds.' 
 But the king was still secretly at feud with his coun- 
 sellors; and in the case of Leofsige, the hostility was 
 embittered by the disappointment of the hopes with 
 which /Ethelred had raised him to his post. Favor- 
 ite as he was, no sooner was he made ealdorman 
 than his " pride and daring," and the offence he gave 
 to the king, equalled those of his fellow -nobles.' 
 i^thelred took refuge in a fresh expedient by rais- 
 ing a new favorite, .^fic, to the post of high reeve,* 
 in which we may, perhaps, again see a foreshadow- 
 ing of the coming justiciary. But the attempt was 
 
 ' He first signs as minister in 988 (Cod. Dip. 1289), and is never 
 
 found as " dux." 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. looi. The old Winchester Chronicle has here 
 appended a curious entry of the year, which gives its proceedings 
 in greater detail. 
 
 » " Leofsinum," says yEthelred in a charter (Cod. Dip. 719), " quern 
 de satrapis nomine tuli, ad celsioris apicem dignitatis dignum duxi 
 promovere. ducem constituendo, scilicet eum unde humiliari magis 
 debuerat. . . . Sed ipse hoc oblitus, cernens se in culmine majoris 
 status sub rogatu famulari sibi pestilentes spiritus promisit, superbiae 
 scilicet et audaciae, quibus nichilominus ipse se dedidit in tantum ut 
 floccipenderet quin offensione multimoda me multoties graviter 
 
 ofFenderet." 
 
 ♦ " Prsefectum meum iEficum, quern primatum inter primatos meos 
 taxavi.'— Cod. Dip. 719. " The King's High Reeve."— Eng. Chron. 
 a. 1002. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 379 
 
 roughly met; for Leofsige at once broke into ^Efic'scHAP. vm. 
 house, and there slew him.' ^ 
 
 In the general disgust at such a deed of violence, c^nq^JJt 
 it was easy for ^thelred to win from the Witan a ^^~^^ 
 sentence of degradation and banishment airainst — 
 Leotsige;- but the outrage had revealed the inner o/ 
 strife within the royal council which was paralyzing ^'^"^''''^' 
 all effective resistance to the Dane. The military 
 measures of resistance were defeated by yEthelred 
 limiself. The chastisement of the Ostmen and the 
 marriage alliance with Normandy had deprived 
 Swein of his main sources of help without the 
 realm; while for the defence of England itself 
 yEthelred counted on the help of Northmen like 
 Pallig, whom he had drawn into his service by 
 offers of pay,' and who, like the huscarls that fol- 
 lowed them, seem to have been quartered over the 
 country throughout southern Britain. But, however 
 effective these measures might have been, they w^ere 
 frustrated by the king's quick changes of purpose. 
 Distrust grew up between the king and the northern 
 mercenaries whom he had hired to meet the coming 
 invasion. The security which ^thelred felt from 
 his connection with Normandy showed itself in a 
 haughty indifference to their aid, while in both king 
 
 1 « 
 
 Non cunctatus in propria domo ejus co inscio perimere."— Cod 
 Dip. 719. 
 
 =" Eng. Chron. a. 1002. Leofsige's signature as ealdorman disap- 
 pears after the year looi. Cod. Dip. 719, which shows the Witan s 
 part. The charter is of 1012, and shows how the deed rankled in 
 /Ethelred's mind ten years after. 
 
 ' This employment of hired Danes may have been as much to 
 strengthen him against his own ealdormen as against the Northmen 
 —an attempt to bring together a standing army. 
 
38o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Sweift's 
 
 attack. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. and people the dread of Swein's invasion broke out 
 
 T^ in whispers that these strangers were plotting the 
 
 cSTqTest. murder of the king and his Witan, and the seiz- 
 
 988^16 ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^"^' ^"^ ^^ November, 1002, the panic 
 
 — spread to ^thelred himself. An order of the king, 
 
 which was welcomed everywhere, brought about a 
 
 general massacre of the Danes on St. Brice's Day,' 
 
 and those who were not slain by the sword were 
 
 burned in their houses. 
 
 The whole plan of defence was thus thrown into 
 confusion, when Swein's fleet reached England in 
 the spring of 1003. It steered for Exeter, the dow- 
 ry town of Emma, and the surrender of the city by 
 Hugh; a Norman follower of the queen whom she 
 had%pointed its reeve, at once proclaimed the ruin 
 of yEthelred's hopes from his alliance with the Nor- 
 mans, while it gave a new character to the war. 
 During the previous fifteen years the Danish at- 
 tacks had been mere plunder-raids ; but the fall^ of 
 Exeter gave Swein a base of operations from which 
 he could advance into the heart of the country. He 
 had marched into Wiltshire before any force could 
 be gathered to oppose him, but here he was met by 
 the'^fyrd of Wiltshire and Hampshire under the 
 command of their own ealdorman, .^Ifric. For the 
 last few years .^Ifric had stood at the head of the 
 royal counsellors ; but he was now prostrated with 
 sickness, and his camp torn with strife which in the 
 end left Swein master of the iield.^ Th e f yrd, in 
 
 » November 13.— Eng. Chron. a. 1002. 
 
 ' Eng Chron. a. 1003. The attack on Exeter looks as if Swein 
 came from Normandy, which would explain the betrayal of the city 
 
 by the Norman Hugh. 
 
 ' JEMncs sickness, which the Chronicle brands as mere treachery, 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 381 
 
 Danish 
 
 Conquest 
 
 988-1016. 
 
 fact, broke up without fighting, and Swein marched chap, vn 
 by Wilton and Old Sarum to the sea unhindered.' lihi 
 But the war was now to take a wider range. With 
 the exception of a few raids, it had been limited for 
 fifteen years, from 9S8 to 1003, to Wessex. But 
 Wessex must now have been harried till little booty 
 was left. In the next year, 1004, his fleet appeared 
 " unawares " on the coast of East Anglia, seized and 
 harried Norwich, a town which had grown up at the 
 junction of the Wensum with the Yare, and which 
 was now the chief port on the eastern coast. Ulfcy- 
 tel, whose name tells of northern blood, was ruler in 
 East Anglia ; and though he bore but the title of 
 thegn, his position seems to have been one of as 
 great independence as that of the earlier ealdormen. 
 The Danes knew the land as " Ulfcytels land ;" and 
 now that Swein appeared off the coast, the thegn 
 and his Witan made their own treaties and fought 
 their own fights as if East Anglia were again a sep- 
 arate kingdom. The Witan saw^ at first no course 
 left save to buy off the invaders; but while the 
 truce for this purpose went on, the Danes suddenly 
 marched inland and plundered Thetford. Ulfcytel 
 summoned the fyrd in haste, and thin as were his 
 ranks, the Danes themselves owned that " never 
 worse hand-play met they among Englishmen.'" 
 But the day still went for the Northmen. The 
 East-An glian fyrd broke with the loss of its noblest 
 
 was probably real enough. The strife within the camp had more to 
 do with the breakdown of the fyrd than the sickness of the general. 
 ** Hi anraede naeron." 
 
 ' " To the sea again, where he knew that his sea-horses were."-^ 
 Eng. Chron. a. 1003. 
 ■■' Eng. Chron. a. 1004. 
 
3^2 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Internal 
 troubles. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. warriors, and no hindrance lay in the way of Swein's 
 
 The march into the heart of Britain. 
 Coyest. Again, however, the doom of the country was de- 
 988^16 J^ycd. We do not know whether dangers at home 
 drew Swein from his enterprise, or whether his force 
 was insufficient for a more serious campaign ; but 
 from East An2:Ha his fleet sailed back asrain to Den- 
 mark, and for a year, at least, the country had a res- 
 pite from Danish attack. But it had no respite 
 from the more fatal troubles within, i^fic s place 
 at court was filled by a new high-reeve, Wulfgeat, 
 who probably directed the king s policy in the short 
 interval of peace that followed Swein's departure at 
 the end of 1004. ^^^^ only two years later, in 1006, 
 the new minister was displaced by a revolution, 
 which seems to have been accompanied by deeds of 
 violence like those which had accompanied the fall 
 of ^fic* The murder of the Deiran ealdorman 
 itlfhelm, in the course of this revolution, brought 
 about a change of government in the north ; for 
 i^thelred saw himself forced to undo the policy of 
 Dunstan and Eadgar, to mass together Deira and 
 Bernicia into a single earldom, and to place it in the 
 hands of Uhtred, whose father, Waltheof, had, as we 
 have seen, been Earl of the Bernicians. Uhtred 
 showed his strength by a victory which he gained 
 
 * The Chronicle says: "Wulfgeat was deprived of all his goods, 
 Wulfeah and Ufegeat were blinded, and Ealdorman ^Elfhelm (of 
 Deira) was slain." This short entry is expanded by Florence, in the 
 twelfth century, into an ambush and murder of i^lfhelm at Shrews- 
 bury by Eadric. and a blinding of " his sons," Wulfeah and Ufegeat, 
 by i^thelred. The story is legendary in form, evidently looks on 
 Eadric as already Ealdorman of Mercia in 1006, a year before his ap- 
 pointment, and is of no contemporary value. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 383 
 
 988-1016. 
 
 Eadric. 
 
 at Durham over the Scot king, Malcolm, who made, chap. vm. 
 at this time, an inroad into the north, and ^thelred Thi 
 was glad to bind him to his cause by a marriage cSTq'^St. 
 with his daughter yElfgifu.* 
 
 The fate of ^fic and of Wulfgeat was far from 
 turning i^thelred from his ministerial schemes. 
 The number of the great ealdormen and their influ- 
 ence at court had gone on steadily diminishing. 
 The places of those that died do not seem to have 
 been commonly filled up; and after the death of 
 ^Ifhelm, only ^Ifric and Leofwine remained to 
 sign the royal charters. Uhtred and Ulfcytel exist- 
 ed as provincial rulers, but can have hardly swayed 
 the policy of a court in which they seldom appear. 
 That policy was now ^thelred s own, or rather that 
 of a new high-reeve, Eadric, for whom the disgrace 
 of Wulfgeat seems to have made room. While later 
 tradition charged the new minister, as political fac- 
 tion has always charged its opponents, with faith- 
 lessness, haughtiness, and pride, it owned his intelli- 
 gence and his eloquent tongue. W1iat is most 
 notable in the charges brought against him is that 
 of low birth. The tendency of the time, as the grow- 
 ing feudalism of the Continent proves, lay the other 
 way; but while rulers like the Norman dukes would 
 not suffer any but men of noble blood at their court, 
 
 ' Simeon of Durham (Twysden), p. 80. Mr. Freeman seems to 
 have rightly consigned the Scot invasion to this year, though Sim- 
 con dates it earlier. It may have been connected with ^Ifhelm's 
 murder, which, if we set aside the story in Florence, would seem 
 rather to form part of a struggle which had been going on during 
 this period between the Deiran and Bernician earls, and which, in 
 spite of Waltheof 's displacement by the Witan, ended eventually in 
 the triumph of the latter. 
 
384 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.viir. it marked a larger temper in ^thelred when he 
 The raised into power this low-born ceorl, solely for his 
 Conquest, w'ise head and skill of speech/ Eadric may thus 
 988^16 have been the predecessor, not only of the obscure- 
 — ly-born Godwine before the Conquest, but of the 
 new^ men whom our Norman kings, in spite of their 
 nobles, called to the council-board after it. From 
 the outset of his administration we feel a firmer 
 hand in the management of affairs. Though the 
 Danes reappeared on the southern coast, ^thelred 
 himself seems to have met them with the land-fyrd ; 
 and while avoiding an engagement, to have held 
 them in check through the autumn. On their ap- 
 parent withdrawal into winter-quarters in the Isle 
 of Wight, the king marched westward to Shrews- 
 bury, and took post on the Severn, no doubt to 
 check the growing turbulence of the Welsh. But 
 the pirates no sooner saw the land clear than they 
 again made a raid as far inland as Berkshire, light- 
 ing their war-beacons as they went, and marching 
 along Ashdown as far as the mound of Cuckamsly, 
 as though to defy the old proverb, " Men said if they 
 sought to Cwichelmslowe — they never to sea should 
 gang again.'" The fyrd of the shires was hastily 
 summoned to cut off their retreat ; but it was easily 
 brushed aside, and the pirates carried their booty in 
 triumph to their quarters in the Isle of Wight. As 
 they w^ere masters of the sea, it was impossible to 
 drive them from this stronghold, and in 1007, 
 
 ^ Eadric was known in after-times as "Edricus Streona" (Flor. 
 Wore, ed. Thorpe, i. 158), or "acquisitor " (Orderic, Duchesne, Hist. 
 Norm. Script, p. 506, B). The nickname evidently alludes to his 
 great accumulations of property. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 1006. 
 
 385 
 
 the heavy sum of thirty tliousand pounds ^ 
 
 But the t«o years of peace which this tribute .°'^'"' 
 purcliased were not thrown away as previous breath' -"*• 
 .ng-spaces had been. Reversing his policy of de ""'-'• 
 
 ti'i7"fde''lhe^'''H>"'^'r"'"'' "^^ '^^'^'^y ^^t- "= 
 ting aside the tradition of intrusting these govern- 
 ments to the royal kin, ^thelred now set Eadric as 
 ealdorman over Mercia,' or rather over all of it sa;e 
 the land of the Hwiccas, whose ealdorman, Leofwine 
 still sat in the royal councils.' Eadric was bound' 
 hke the Northumbrian ealdorman, to the interests 
 of the crown by a marriage with one of yEthelred s 
 daughters, and it was doubtless to him that the 
 active measures of political and military organization 
 which distinguish this period were due. A enera" 
 oath of fidelity to the king was now exacteS from 
 every subject, while a promise of just laws and m^ld 
 government appealed to the loyalty of all. The 
 oath of allegiance was, indeed, coupled with the 
 same declaration of loyalty to God and the Church 
 But If the hand of Archbishop ^Jfheah ' is seen n 
 he mjunctions for a better observance of festivals 
 and Church dues, and avoidance of "heathenism '' 
 the more practical mind of Eadric turned to meas- 
 ures of defense. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. loo;'. 
 
 ' Leofwine still goes on signinc-chartors u^^lfV, 1,..- u 
 '^Ifheah was translated from wfnchestert-^^^^^^^^ Precedence, 
 death of yElfric in ioo5.--(A. g'^J^'"^^^^^^^ '^ Canterbury on the 
 
 * "^Icne haethendom mid ealle aweoroin " Thr^.r.^ a 
 and Inst. i. ^m Th^^^ r..A- ^^«^orpan. — Ihorpe, Anc. Laws 
 
 refers to about the tale tl"^h''H "' "'^'^ ''^'' ^''- ^'''"^^- 
 Evesham.-^Norm. Conq iT/s. """ '' ^'^ ""'^^^'^ ^^"^'^ «^ 
 
 25 
 
386 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The 
 
 Danish 
 
 Conquest. 
 
 988-1016. 
 
 The fyrd 
 aud the 
 fleet. 
 
 The 
 hoard. 
 
 An attempt was made to give fresh life to the 
 fyrd system by dividing the country into military 
 groups, so that " every eight hides sent a helmet and 
 coat of mail," ' by exacting heavy penalties from 
 all who did not come to the hosting at the king's 
 call, and by provisions for a punctual payment of 
 the local contributions which were due for the ex- 
 penses of forts and bridges, or the defence of the 
 land. More effective steps were taken for the re- 
 organization of the fleet. Nothing is more remark- 
 able throucrhout yEthelred's reign than the absence 
 of any attempt to meet the Danish ships at sea. It 
 is clear, whatever the cause may have been, that the 
 naval organization of the country had broken down ; 
 and it is probable that the small fishing vessels, 
 which were all that the English ports could provide, 
 were unable to cope with the large war vessels now 
 used by the Danes. A special war fleet had, in 
 fact, to be created ; and to create such a fleet it was 
 necessary to call on the resources of the country at 
 large. By the new fleet-law it was provided that 
 every three hundred and ten hides should build and 
 equip a war-ship, and that the fleet should gather 
 round the king once in every year." The law was 
 successfully carried out, and in 1009 yEthelred saw 
 assembled at Sandwich "so many ships as never 
 were before among Angle kin in any king's day." 
 
 The eatherino- of this fleet is remarkable, not so 
 much in our military as in our financial history. 
 Up to this time the revenue of the crown had been 
 
 ■ Eng. Chron. a. 1008. 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 1008, with Earle's note, pp. 336, 337. Stubbs, 
 Const. Hist. i. 124. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 1^1 
 
 drawn mainly from the rents of its own demesne cm., v,,.. 
 and the royal dues collected in every shire from Si 
 thegns who held grants of folk-land. The " hoard " ' '"^^ 
 was made up from other sources of wealth Here -"" 
 were stored the actual jewels and " ornamenta " of "-'"• 
 the crown, vvith such treasures as poured in at the 
 death of bishop or earl or thegn.' The best horses 
 went to the kmgs stable; into his armory went 
 helmet and coat of mail and spear and sword and 
 shield With them passed into the hoard the two 
 pounds of the dead thegn or the two hundred man- 
 cuses of the dead carl; and beside the coin stood 
 henots o pncc-such silver cups as those of Bishop 
 1 heodred.thesilvervessels of Ealdorman ^thelwold 
 heavy gold rings and gold-hilted swords, costly dishes' 
 spears twined with gold, palls of silk, and drinking- 
 horns. There, too, came the costlier chattels fo"- 
 eited by their owner's treason or desertion in war- 
 tL'-TT " """'X^' Sems"of the treasure-trove,' 
 the finds .n mound or burial-place, in spite of spells 
 and dragon watchers ; the bribe or fee for charter 
 
 Sno^H "'' /' ^'''^ °'^''' ""' bishoprics ; the Jew's 
 tine, the widow s marriage dues.' 
 
 «.urum regis Wintoni^/si^ Durh Hst EcTc'reTrn' 't'"" 
 den, p. 65) ; in Dunstans day. as we see from fh. . . ,:' ^*y'" 
 death, it was with the king li O^Z:^::;Z etewhe7e °' '■^'"'''' 
 See .nstances ,n Kembic, Sax. in EngJi. 99, etc 
 
 .and!ofXh;th d tZ: realeTonrs' 'T^^f^'^'' ^ ''"^- 
 crown it<? vill« an^ f ^^^* ^- ^^^ demesne of the 
 
 folMand o "com fu tl'l'n' T' ""f '"^""«'^^- ^- ^'^-^^ -e 
 of ^thel ed th s tl d ls"s T '° '''^P'^"^^'"^- " Afterthe reign 
 
 the crown dem ne'^I^Ib d h^ '"'""" ^"""^ '" "^^^'^ "'''^^' '" 
 
3SS 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The 
 
 Danish 
 
 Conquest 
 
 988-1016. 
 
 TAe 
 
 land-tax. 
 
 But a revenue of this sort was wholly inadequate 
 to meet the new charges of a government which had 
 
 {b) Other revenue : i. Proceeds of courts of law, escheats and for- 
 feitures. 2. Right of maintenance on progress. 3. Wreck and treas- 
 ure-trove. 4. Mines and salt-works. 5. Tolls, market-dues, and 
 port-dues. 6. Heriots and other semi-feudal payments. 
 
 Of these, the first division contributed little to the hoard. The 
 payments from private or public lands of the crown were almost 
 wholly ui kind. Till the time of Henry I. the tenants on royal de- 
 mesne paid their dues in kind. Feorm-fultum was not commuted 
 mto a money-payment till after the Conquest. It is hard to esti- 
 mate the revenue drawn from the demesnes of the crown, from the 
 boroughs in demesne, from lands falling in by escheat, whether 
 through treason and confiscation or through death without heirs, 
 from the justice-dues of courts— whether roval or hundred-courts— 
 m the royal demesne which the king held as land-owner, from ship- 
 money, from fultum, wrecks, etc., market-tolls and port-dues, salt- 
 dues, mines, treasure-trove, compositions for military service.' See 
 Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 88. 117, 143. But, clearly, all these made a 
 much larger sum than we commonly think of as the royal revenue 
 of the time. See Freeman, Norm. Conq. v. 437-441, 471. 
 
 Feorm-fultum, the tax for the king's sustentation as he went 
 through his realm, was, in fact, a tax for the " civil sen^ice,'' as the 
 whole machinery of government and administration passed with 
 him over the country. The composition for it varied greatly. As 
 it arose from what had been the folk-land, this may vary wi'th the 
 shire. Thus Oxfordshire paid feorm of three nights or /i 50 ; War- 
 wick,^65 and thirty-six sextaries of honey; Northamptonshire, feorm 
 of three nights; Dorset paid feorm of seven days and nigliLS (cf. 
 Ellis, Introd. to Dom. i. 261, 262. who adduces others). The king's 
 demesne— exempt from Danegeld— paid the feorm. In Dorset the 
 royal manors were grouped for this purpose : three such groups pay 
 each "firma unius noctis ;" two, "dimidia firma unius noctis ;" one 
 paid in refined coin— "hoc manerium cum suis pertincntibus reddit 
 45 libras albas." One sees here a minute and well-organized ma- 
 chinery of finance. 
 
 Thus, under iEthelred. the scheme of taxation stands thus: The 
 royal demesnes, including the towns, bear the cost of the civil ser- 
 vice, so far as it had yet been concentrated round the crown. The 
 cost of the military services was borne directly by the thcgns, who 
 contributed personal service, and whose demesne lands were in re- 
 turn exempted from geld ; and indirectly by the general land, which 
 was assessed on a scheme of hideage or proportionate value. '" Ship- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 389 
 
 become national, or the cost of national defence. The chap. vm. 
 ship-levy and the Danegeld were the first beginnings i.a 
 of a national taxation.' They were, in fact, the fir^st cott^ 
 forms of that land-tax which constituted the most ^~,,, 
 miportant element in the national revenue from the — 
 days of /Ethelred to the days of the Georo-es As 
 a national tax levied by the Witan of all EnHand 
 and passing into the hands of the king of alfVno-^ 
 land, this tax practically brought home^he national 
 idea as it had never been brought home before Its 
 levy, too, must have necessitated the preliminary 
 steps of a national survey, and of some record of 
 that survey like the later Domesday book, in which 
 as it would seem, the hide was taken no longer as a 
 local measure, but as a measure of value, l^he levy 
 again, of these taxes could only have been made by 
 the royal reeve in each shire, whose post was thus 
 raised to a higher importance, while their payment 
 mto the royal hoard implies that some such admin- 
 istrative machinery as the later exchequer for the 
 due receipt and acquittal of these sums was already 
 in existence, though unnoticed by our chroniclers. 
 
 It IS thus that our financial system traces itself ^"^^^ 
 back to the days of ^thelred. But its organization, /C?;^, 
 like the attempt to reorganize the system of na- 
 tional defence, came too late. The country was 
 cowed. During the past twenty years every shire 
 ^-^Z^!!^L^!!lJ^!!^^ and if 
 
 carl-tax of Gnut looks like a diversion of the " feorm-fultum " of the 
 boroughs on which it fell to military services 
 
 called ^ver'^exls?^^^^^^^ T'''''^ '"^ """^^ ^^^^^'^"' P^^P^^^X ^o 
 
 rer4;:S^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^-^geld by ^L- 
 
390 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ^"^_^"^' the rest of England had, as yet, been spared, the pi- 
 The rates had at any rate once carried their ravages over 
 Conquest. East Anglia. So utterly had the fyrd system broken 
 98a^i6. ^'lo^^Ti that in the past year, when the Witan of Wes- 
 sex was gathered together to repel the Danes, none 
 could bethink them how " to drive out " the stran- 
 gers, and, as we have seen, a truce was purchased with 
 hard cash. The attempt to command the sea broke 
 down at the first trial of the new fleet. A detach- 
 ment of eighty ships sent to clear the coast of Sus- 
 sex of an English pirate ' who was harrying it was 
 dashed to pieces by a storm ; and when the news 
 reached the main force under the king'' the panic 
 was so great that on the withdrawal of yEthelred 
 the fleet w^ent round to London and broke up. The 
 ships had hardly gone home when a Danish squad- 
 ron appeared in the Thames, ravaging Kent, harry- 
 ing the Thames valley as far as Oxford, and burn- 
 ing that city. The leader of this force was Thurkill, 
 a son of Strut-Harald, the Jarl of Zeeland, and per- 
 haps his father's successor in this jarldom, while his 
 brother, Sigwald, was jarl at Jomsborg. Both had 
 joined in the vow at Harald's funeral feast; but 
 while the bulk of the Jomsborgers fell in the fight 
 with Jarl Hakon, the two brothers returned un- 
 harmed to Denmark ; and it w^as to Thurkill that 
 Swein intrusted forty ships with some three thou- 
 sand men to carry on the attack on England. Small 
 as the force was, the measures taken to meet it 
 
 • A charge brought against this " Child VVulfnoth, the South Sax- 
 on," by Eadric's brother, Byrhtnoth, and the flight of Wulfnoth with 
 his ships, show the strife that was still going on between the nobles 
 and the " new men " about the king. — Eng. Chron. a. 1009. 
 
 * The Chronicle says, " It was as though all were redeless." 
 
 391 
 
 proved utterly ineffective. Even when his fyrd chap. vm. 
 fronted the Danes, Eadric hindered it from eno-acr ~~ 
 
 ing, and the wisdom of his caution was shown in co^jf^ett 
 the next year, loio, when Thurkills force sailed ° — " ' 
 round to East Anglia, and after a stout fight with — '' 
 Ulfcytel utterly defeated its fyrd. After harrying 
 East Anglia for three months, and ravaging the 
 whole country to the "wild fens," Thurkill returned 
 to the mouth of the Thames ; but in a second raid 
 suddenly swept westward into Oxfordshire and 
 Buckinghamshire, and thence along the Ouse to 
 Bedford ; a third took the pirates inland as far as 
 Northampton, where they had burned the town and 
 harried the land before the close of November; and 
 thence passed over the Thames again to plunder 
 Wessex and Wiltshire before returning at midwinter 
 to their ships. 
 
 The rapidity of the Danish movements still, as of ^'^'^.^^^^^ 
 old, baffled resistance. " When they were east, then '''^''^'' 
 held men the fyrd west, and when they were at the 
 south, then was our fyrd northwards." The Witan 
 again gathered round ^thelred, and devised how to 
 guard the land. But " though they devised some- 
 what, that stood not so much as a month." The 
 want of national unity could not be remedied by 
 laws, and what most helped Thurkill was the growth 
 of provincial isolation. All national organization 
 seemed to^have broken down.' Eadric himself fell 
 
 a'^^'^u ^^''"''"''^'^ ^^yS' "Ealdorman Eadric hindered it, as he ever 
 did. but mentions no other instance. Florence, of course, trreatlv 
 expands this entry. ^ 
 
 » " At last there was no leader that would gather forces, but each 
 fled as he best might ; nor, at the last, would shire help shire "— 
 Eng. Chron. a. loio. 
 
392 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. VIII 
 
 The 
 
 Danish 
 
 Conquest 
 
 98a-1016 
 
 Conquest 
 of Swein. 
 
 back into his own " Myrcenarice," or Mercian realm, 
 as it is still significantly called,' which had remained 
 till this last raid of Thurkill's untouched by the pi- 
 rates; and when a fresh withdrawal of the Danes 
 was purchased by a promise of a yet larger tribute, 
 he seized the moment to secure his own western 
 frontier against the Welsh, whose attacks must have 
 been roused by the raids of the pirates, and carried 
 his ravages along the whole Welsh coast as far as 
 St. David s. But while he was busy with the Welsh 
 ^thelred had failed to pay the tribute, and Thurkill 
 again swooped upon Canterbury, sacked the town, 
 and seized Archbishop ^Ifheah as a hostage for its 
 payment.' P>esh promises were made, and in the 
 spring of 1012 the Witan again met to provide the 
 sum. An outbreak of drunken wrath, indeed, de- 
 prived the Danes of their hostage, for on his refusal 
 to redeem himself, ^Ifheah was pelted by the 
 drunken warriors with stones and ox-horns till one 
 more pitiful clave his head with an axe. In spite, 
 however, of this brutal deed the great tribute was 
 paid, and the Danish fleet at last sailed away from 
 the English coast. 
 
 Their leader, Thurkill, however, remained with 
 forty.five ships as a mercenary in English pay.^ The 
 humiliation, indeed, to which the realm had stooped 
 in the payment of the great tribute had been forced 
 on it by more than its terror of Thurkills force, for 
 it must have been known now that a far more'ter- 
 
 ^ Eng. Chron. a. 1007. Mbid.a.ioii. 
 
 Ibid. a. 1012. The Encomium Emmae (Langebek), ii. 475 repre- 
 sents the desertion of Thurkill and his detention of Swein s ships as 
 a cause of Svvein's after-attack. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 393 
 
 rible attack under Swein himself was preparing in chap. vm. 
 the north. In July, 1013, Swein appeared off^he Thi 
 coast, and after landing at Sandwich suddenly en- ^l^^^^^^ 
 tered the Humber. The size and number of his ^^—^^^ 
 ships, the splendor of their equipment, the towers on — 
 their forecastles, the lions, eagles, and dragons of 
 gold and silver which glittered on their topmasts, 
 their brazen beaks, the colors that decked their keels,' 
 showed that his aim was no mere plunder-raid. The 
 time had, in fact, come for the conquest of England. 
 Wessex, spent with the long strife, lay helples"^ and 
 inactive, while Swein called on the Danelaw to finish 
 the work which had been so long held in check by 
 the vigor of the house of /Elfred.^ But even Alfred 
 or Eadward would have failed to check it had it 
 been backed, as now,' by the armed force of Denmark 
 Itself. All was, in fact, over when the presence of 
 Earl Uhtred with his Northumbrians in Swein's 
 camp announced that the Danelaw had risen. The 
 fiction of a single England, of an English empire 
 throughout Britain, which the clerks of Winchester 
 had dressed up in the pompous titles of their char- 
 ters, disappeared like a dream. The great ealdor- 
 men again showed themselves in their true light 
 as disintegrating forces. The Northumbrian earl 
 joined Swein as an independent power. The East- 
 Anglian ealdorman followed his example. The Lind- 
 sey folk and the Five Boroughs, all England north 
 of Watling Street, submitted to him at Gainsbor- 
 ough, and hostages were delivered to him from every 
 shire. Eadric seems to have withdrawn into his 
 g^^;^^_Mcrcian^e aldormanr y along the Severn, and to 
 
 ' Encom. Emmae (Langebek). ii. 476^ 
 
394 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^viir. have stood apart from the struggle. From Em 
 DSi^h ^]'''^\ '^"^ Lord of Britain, /Ethelred saw himself 
 Conquest shnnk at the hard touch of reality into a Kino- of 
 M3_ioie. Wessex, and of a Wessex helpless before the junction 
 of the rest of Britain with a foreign foe 
 
 Fltrht of "O ^ ' . . , . ^ 
 
 ^iheirej. Kcsistancc was, m fact, impossible. Master, with- 
 out a blow, of northern and midland Britain, Swein 
 horsed his host, and gathering the fyrd of the shires 
 which adhered to him, marched southward. " After 
 they came over Watling Street they wrought the 
 most evil that any host might do." ' By Oxford he 
 passed into the heart of Wessex, where Winchester 
 submitted to his arms. From Winchester he turned 
 upon London, into which ^thelred and Thurkill 
 had thrown themselves. But the town made a vicr- 
 orous defence, and Swein was forced to fall back t'^o 
 Wallingford for a passage over the Thames to Bath 
 to complete his work by the reduction of Wessex' 
 The submission of Winchester had carried with it 
 that of the Central Provinces, whose ealdorman, 
 ^-^Ifric, still clung to the court. But the Western 
 Provinces, the Wessex beyond Selwood,where yElfred 
 had rallied his men at the last moment of the fight 
 with Guthrum, remained unconquered under yEthel- 
 macr, who a few years back had succeeded ^thel- 
 weard as ealdorman.^ But even in this heart of 
 W^est- Saxon life provincial was stronger than na- 
 tional feeling. At Bath, Swein was met by ^thel- 
 m^r and the western thegns; and their submis- 
 sion left him lord of all England. London itself, left 
 alone in i tsj-esista nce, sen t hostages to the Danish 
 
 * Eng. Chron. a. 1013. ~ 
 
 ' Ibid. a. 1013. ^thehveard disappears from the charters in 999. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 395 
 
 king, while ^thelred, after sending Emma and her chap. vm. 
 two boys to their uncle, Duke Richard, took refuge Th^ 
 in Thurkills squadron, and, after hovering through cJ^^^JJ^ 
 the early winter off the coast, sailed in despair at ^gg— ^g 
 Christmas-tide to join them in Normandy. — 
 
 With the flight of the king ended the long effort ^^^ results. 
 of Wessex to maintain her supremacy over Britain. 
 It had, indeed, other issues little foreseen at the mo- 
 ment, for it was the Norman influences which from 
 this time surrounded the English royal house that 
 prepared the way for the presence of the Norman 
 in England itself, ^thelred's two boys were from 
 this time dwellers, not on English, but on Norman 
 soil. From childhood to manhood they grew up as 
 Normans among their Norman kinsfolk. .Alfred, 
 the elder of them, was to return to England with 
 Norman soldiers to claim his father s realm, to per- 
 ish on the ground he claimed, and to leave a heritage 
 of revenge among the Normans against Englishmen 
 which only slaked itself in the bloodshed of Senlac. 
 The fortunes of his brother Eadward were destined 
 to be yet more fatal to England. Bred and shel- 
 tered in the Norman land till its temper and lan- 
 guage became his own, he came as a Norman to the 
 English throne, and the reign of the Normanized 
 Confessor brought with it as an inevitable necessity 
 the Norman conquest of England. 
 
 Had ^thelred delayed his flight but for a month Death of 
 the scene would suddenly have changed. At the ^'"""' 
 opening of February, 1014, Swein died suddenly at 
 Gainsborough, and his death at once broke the spell 
 of terror which had fallen on the land. The Witan 
 gathered to send letters over sea to ^thelred, bid- 
 
 I 
 
396 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cH.vrvvrin. ding him know that " no lord was more dear to them 
 
 conquest. Her wise than he did aforetime." The terms were 
 988loi6. accepted, ^thelred sent Eadmund with pledges 
 that he would be a faithful lord to them and amend 
 all they hated ; " they then established full friendship 
 by word and pledge on either half, and declared ev- 
 ery Danish king an outlaw from England forever." 
 Leaving Emma and her two children at Richard s 
 court, the king at once put to sea, to receive a joy- 
 ous welcome in London, and, hastily gathering 
 troops, marched upon Gainsborough, where the Dan- 
 ish host had chosen Cnut, Swein's young son, for 
 king. Cnut was, in fact, already bargaining with 
 the men of Lindsey for aid in a joint raid on the 
 south, but before yEthelred s vigorous attack he for- 
 sook Britain and sailed away to his northern home. 
 It may be doubted, indeed, whether his return to 
 the north was due as much to the attack of yEthel- 
 red as to the news that another son of Swein, Har- 
 ald, had already mounted the Danish throne. It is 
 said that an arrangement was made between the 
 brothers by the wisdom of Thurkill, who proposed 
 that Harald should rule in Denmark while Cnut re- 
 turned to conquer England. However this may 
 have been, it is certain Thurkill quitted ^thelred 
 — it may be this was in itself a part of the bargain 
 between the king and his subjects— and in the com- 
 ing struggle fought side by side with his own north- 
 ern folk. Cnuts ambition can have needed little 
 urging to the winning of a land twice the size of his 
 own Denmark, and vastly greater in wealth and 
 population. His vigor showed itself in the rapidity 
 
 Cntifs 
 invasion 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 397 
 
 with which a fleet even more numerous and splen-ciiAr.vin. 
 did than his fathers gathered, in ioi5,for a fresh 11,0 
 attack on Britain. Fortune already favored his ^^""''^ 
 cause. The loss of Thurkill's military force was ^~'''' 
 not made up by national vigor. The union which ^^ — ^^' 
 had been sealed by solemn pact between yEtheh'ed 
 and his Witan was already at an end ; the English 
 court was again torn with strife; and though the 
 king himself, who was drawing fast to the death 
 which followed in the coming year, could take little 
 part in the struggle, the fight he had fought against 
 the great nobles was taken up fiercely by his son. 
 The contest between Eadmund and Ealdorman Ead- 
 ric proved more fatal to England than any of its 
 predecessors. Of the origin or real nature of the 
 quarrel we know nothing, but Eadmund seems to have 
 revolted against the power which Eadric exercised 
 over the king. Its first outbreak was at the Wite- 
 nagemot at Oxford, where Eadric is said to have 
 drawn two " chief thegns of the Seven Boroughs " 
 mto his chamber and to have slain them. ^The 
 thegns may have been supporters of Eadmund, for 
 after a short while Eadmund, against his father's 
 will, took the widow of one of them to wife, seized 
 their lands, and made himself head of their people ' 
 
 The quarrel had just broken out when Cnut ap- Diss.. 
 peared ravaging the Wessex coast, and its results at ^l^!, 
 once showed themselves in the old fatal discord in 
 the face of the national enemy. The host gathered 
 t^^meetQiut under Eadric, but no sooner had Ead- 
 
 J Eng. Chron. a 1015. As these lands were in Eadric's ealdorman- 
 ry this may have been an effort to break up the ealdorman 's power 
 at home ; but we have no means of deciding the matter. 
 

 98 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 399 
 
 CHAP. VIII. mund joined it with forces from the North than 
 The charges of treachery parted the two leaders, and the 
 Conquest. English army broke up without any fight. A yet 
 Qsslioia "^ore fatal issue followed, ^thelred must now 
 — have been dying, and Eadric, conscious that his 
 death would leave him in the hands of a king who 
 was his avowed enemy, saw no resource save one. 
 He joined Cnut with forty ships, and the balance of 
 the war turned at once in favor of the Dane. The 
 men of Wessex submitted to him, and with the 
 opening of the year 1016 his host advanced across 
 the Thames, ravaging at its will. It was in vain 
 that Eadmund gathered forces to oppose Cnut and 
 Eadric, for the army was no sooner assembled than 
 it refused to march without the king; and when 
 y^thelred joined his son, and a more stringent sum- 
 mons called men to the royal standard, the gen- 
 eral distrust still paralyzed action. " It was made 
 known to the king that men would betray him ;" 
 and i^thelred sailed again in terror to London, 
 while his son fell back on Northumbria and sought 
 aid from his brother-in-law. Earl Uhtred. Their 
 joint army, however, broke up as soon as Cnut, who 
 had been wasting eastern Mercia unopposed, ad- 
 vanced by Lincoln upon York, and while Uhtred 
 and the Northumbrians submitted to the conqueror, 
 Eadmund fled to join his father in London. 
 
 It was at this moment that London first took the 
 leading part in English history which it has main- 
 tained ever since. The city stood alone in its loy- 
 alty to the house of Cerdic, for almost all England, 
 from the Channel to the Forth, had now bowed to 
 the Dane. But the spirit of its burghers remained 
 
 Eadmuttd 
 Ironside. 
 
 unbroken. As Cnut and Eadric advanced from the chap. vm. 
 north to complete their work by a siege of the town, Th^ 
 ^thelred died within its walls in April, 1016; but c?n\^J^t 
 Eadmund was at once chosen king by those of the ggg^iQ^ 
 Witan who remained with him and by the London- — 
 ers. Once crowned, he showed a temper worthy of 
 his line. Quitting London before its investment, he 
 hurried into Somerset and Devon, the only shires 
 that still clung to him, where his presence roused 
 part at least of the West Saxons from their apathy, 
 and again returned with a small force to the relief 
 of the town, which, though girt by a great trench 
 and repeatedly attacked, held its assailants stoutly 
 at bay. The news of his advance forced Cnut to 
 leave the besieging army round London, and to 
 march with an English host under Eadric and two 
 other ealdormen to meet the king. Two indecisive 
 engagements on the borders of Wiltshire were fol- 
 lowed by the withdrawal of both tlie fighting forces ; 
 but, rapidly gathering a greater host, Eadmund took 
 advantage of the opening left by Cnut's retreat, 
 and, striking along the north bank of the Thames,' 
 succeeded in his aim. London was relieved, and 
 the besiegers were driven to their ships and beaten 
 in a sally at Brentford. The relief, indeed, was only 
 for a moment; Eadmund retreated again to the 
 west, and Cnut drew his levies again round about 
 London. But his renewed attack was as unsuccess- 
 ful as his old; and the Danish host were at last 
 forced by want of supplies to break up the siege. 
 
 The failure gave fresh strength and hope to "E^.^. Assandun, 
 mund. While Cnut ravaged in Mercia and coasted 
 back with less spirit to the Medway, the young king 
 
400 
 
 THE COx\QUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^viir. again advanced with his forces from the west, broke 
 Dli^sh "^^ ^^.^ Danish quarters in Kent, and drove their 
 Conquest, host into the Isle of Sheppey. The change of fort- 
 988-1016. ""c was seen in Eadric s change of attitude. From 
 — the hour of strife after Eadmund s marriage Ead- 
 ric had stood firmly by the Danes. But with the 
 progress of the struggle, and the development of the 
 kings noble qualities, the family ties which bound 
 Eadric to his royal brother-in-law regained their 
 power. It may be, too, that Eadric already discerned 
 Cnut s jealousy of his influence, and that he was 
 shaken by the murder of his brother-in-law, Uhtred 
 of Northumbria, who had been slain after his sub- 
 niission, and his earldom given to Eric the Norwe- 
 gian. Whatever was the ground of his resolve, king 
 and ealdorman now met at Aylesford, and Eadric 
 forsook Cnut to resume his place beside Eadmund 
 Ironside, as he was now called for his " snell schipe." 
 The accession of strength which his junction gave 
 Eadmund spurred the king to a decisive struggle. 
 His force, indeed, had now swelled from the " fy?d " 
 of a couple of shires, such as fought at Pen and 
 Sherstone, to a national host; for Eadric brought 
 him the Mercians even to the Magescetas of Here- 
 fordshire, while Ulfcytel had joined him with the 
 East Anglians, who had already exchanged such 
 hard blows with the Danes at Maldon. Eadmund 
 marched resolutely on Cnut's army, which had 
 crossed the Thames and was slowly withdrawing 
 through Essex. He forced it to engage at Assan- 
 dun, on a swampy field along the Crouch. The 
 fight was a stubborn one ; the sun set on the still 
 struggling hosts, but the day went against the Eng- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 401 
 
 lish army. Its loss was terrible. The two chiefs chap. vm. 
 of East Anglia, Ulfcyfel and -^thehveard, the son Se 
 of ^thelwine, lay amidst a host of dead. " All the cSf^^ 
 English nobles were slain," says the chronicler The ° ~**** 
 Old jealousies and suspicions, indeed, raged even on — 
 the battle-field. The reconciliation with Eadric had 
 been sullenly submitted to by Eadmunds West- 
 Saxon followers, and their ill-will broke out in a 
 charge that Eadric and his men were the first to fly 
 from the field of Assandun. But in spite of these 
 charges of treason, it was Eadric who was now Ead- 
 mund s only hope. The king fell back with the 
 ealdorman on the Severn, pursued by Cnut as soon 
 as he learned the line of his retreat, and it was by 
 Eadric's interposition that further conflict was 
 averted. Pledges and oaths were given by the two 
 rivals to each other in the Isle of Olney in the 
 Severn by Deerhurst, and the realm was divided be- 
 tween the English and the Danish leaders as in 
 Alfred's day, Wessex and the English Mercia re- 
 maining to Eadmund.' But the strain and failure 
 of his seven months' reign proved fatal to the young 
 king. He shared, no doubt, the weak constitution 
 of his race, and at the close of November his body 
 was borne to Glastonbury to lie beside his grand- 
 father Eadcrar. 
 
 o 
 
 ' The Encomium and Florence of Worcester make Cnut fall back 
 on London ; and Henry of Huntingdon says, " Lundoniam et seep- 
 tra cepit regalia," p. 185 (ed. Arnold). ^ 
 
 26 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The rule 
 of Cuut. 
 
 THEREIGNOFCNUT. 
 1016-1035. 
 
 With the death of Eadmund the whole aspect of 
 English affairs suddenly changed. The land which 
 had seemed under ^Ethelred but a bundle of isolated 
 shires, and whose fortunes had been the sport of 
 warring ealdormen, became a great and tranquil 
 nation, owning from end to end the supremacy of 
 the crown. The secret of the change lay in more 
 than the exhaustion and the passion for rest which 
 always follow a period of weary strife; it was that 
 the country now found itself in the hands of a great 
 ruler. Cnut was still in the first flush of youth, for 
 he was but twenty-two when the death of his rival 
 left him unchallenged king of all England, and his 
 temper, so far as it had yet been seen, promised 
 little more than a brutal conqueror. Quick in 
 seizing the decisive point of attack in his siege of 
 London, and stubborn in holding it, he had proved 
 himself, indeed, a born general, as great on the battle- 
 field as in the plan of his campaign. But the skill 
 and bravery of the Northman seemed linked in him 
 to the Northman's ruthlessness. Men remembered 
 the pitiless cruelty which was so long to sully his 
 greatness, when three years before, in his retreat 
 from Gainsborou2;h, he had mutilated and set ashore 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 403 
 
 the hostages whom Swein had taken to secure the chap.ix. 
 loyalty of Englishmen. And in the first months Si 
 ot his rule the same stern temper was shown in the ^'^^ °' 
 measures by which his authority was secured -' 
 Policy, indeed, had its share with cruelty in die '''-''• 
 blood-shedding with which the reign opened The 
 new king's hand fell heavily on the great nobles 
 whose strife had been the weakness of the crown 
 The two ealdormen of East Anglia lay dead at As* 
 sandun. The sons-in-law of ^thelred who held 
 north and middle England in their hands met a 
 iike fate; for a murder rid Cnut of Uhtred the Eal 
 dorman of Northumbria, while Eadric of Mercia 
 whom the division of the realm had left all power^ 
 ful was summoned to the court at Eadmund s death 
 and fell by an axe-blow at the king's signal. Before 
 the year was out, three other nobles of dangerous 
 rank and position had been condemned and slain at 
 1-ondon. 
 
 England indeecl. ]ay crushed and Iielpless under ^.s 
 tne rule ot its foreign master; for if Mercia was """'■'"-"■'• 
 placed after Eadric s death in the hands of the Enl 
 hsh ealdorman Leofwine, Northumbria was given 
 
 rhulm"' rP^v"^"'' '"^ ^^'' ^"S"^ *° *'^^ Dane 
 Hunk II. while Wessex was held by the conqueror 
 
 himself Nor was Cnut less ruthless in the'steps 
 
 by which he secured liis throne against the Hou'se 
 
 of Ccrd.c. Murder removed a brother of Eadmund 
 
 Ironside, while Eadmunds children were hunted 
 
 into Hungary by h,s pitiless hate. But the removal 
 
 ittr;"f '*'" '"'' ^"""* ""^'-^-^^^ °" hi-^ throne 
 ^Ifr d1 V7 T' ?\'" "'-"-"^Se with Emma, 
 Alfred and Eadward, had remained with their 
 
404 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^ix. mother at the court of Rouen ; and Richard the 
 
 Bern of ^^^^' hampered though he was with border wars, 
 
 cnut° was too dangerous a foe to neglect. The youno- 
 
 loieToss. Normans who, weary of peace and order, were just 
 — now following Roger de Toesny to Spain for a blow 
 at the Moslem, would as soon have followed him to 
 England to strike a blow for their duke's nephews. 
 But Cnut matched the marriage policy of yEthelred 
 with a marriage policy of his own. Young as he 
 was, he was, perhaps, already father by an earlier 
 wife of two children, Swein and Harald ; but these 
 with their mother were set aside, and the king 
 sought for wife yEthelred s widow and the mothe'r 
 of his only rivals, Emma herself. Emma was ten 
 years older than her new wooer, but her consent 
 seems to have been quickly given, and her brother, 
 the Norman duke, would naturally see in this new 
 alliance the advantage he had seen in the old. 
 
 ..unu. ^^'^^^ *^^ murder of Eadric and the marriage of 
 
 Conquest. Emma all danger of a disputed throne was at an 
 end ; and with the passing away of his dread, the 
 nobler and grander features of Cnut's temper were 
 to develop themselves. The conqueror rose sud- 
 denly into a wise and temperate king. In nothing 
 did his greatness show itself more clearly than in 
 his anxiety to obliterate from men's minds the for- 
 eign character of his rule. At first sight, indeed, 
 his triumph appeared to be a crowning of the long 
 effort which the Northmen had been making for 
 two hundred years to win Britain for their own^; for 
 in spite of Alfred's struggle and of the victories of 
 his sons, it seemed as though a Danish conquest 
 and the rule of a Danish king had won the land for 
 
 Da ft is h 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 405 
 
 the Dane. It would be hard to overrate the results chap.,x. 
 of such a winning. England would have been torn Si 
 trom all union with western Christendom; it would "??*"/' 
 have sunk into one of the Scandinavian realms; '^L 
 and Its fortunes would have been linked with those - 
 of northern Europe. Nor would the results of such 
 a change have been simply political ; for the country 
 would have been cut off from the enlightenment 
 and civilization which its actual relations with the 
 west were slowly introducing, while Scandinavia, 
 whose lands were even now hardly emerging from 
 barbarism, had no new clement of progress to offer 
 But what might have been possible a hundred years 
 before was impossible now. The success of the 
 Dane had, in fact, come too late. Had ^:ifred 
 ailed to arrest Guthrum's conquest our whole his- 
 tory might have changed. In spite of its union 
 under Ecgberht, England was then but a mass of 
 isolated kingdoms without national consciousness or 
 national cohesion. Once at the Northman's feet 
 there Nvas ittlc to prevent it from becoming a North' 
 man s land, like its own Danelaw or like the Nor- 
 mandy at the mouth of Seine, a land where the bulk 
 
 tfirf T" '-^"'^ '^''^^'^ '^^'^" Scandinavians, 
 and ^^ hose local position would have made possible 
 
 hat ocal position made impossible for Normandy, 
 that It should be linked politically with the Scand^: 
 navian realm. But what might have been in .El- 
 reds day could no longer be now. The work of a 
 hundred years had made the country a single Eng- 
 land. The long war had kindled a national con- 
 
 ^^T^'^'/f ^""^ brought about a national union, 
 which no defeat could undo. The victories and the 
 
4o6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Its 
 charactet 
 
 CHAP. IX. greatness of the house of Alfred had begotten a 
 
 The pride in the English name, while the peace and 
 
 c^t.*' prosperity of reigns like those of yEthelstan or Ead- 
 
 1016^1035 S^^ ^"^^ raised the land to a new wealth, a new in- 
 
 — dustrial energy. Political feuds might lay such a 
 
 land at the feet of a Scandinavian ruler, but it was 
 
 impossible that it could henceforth live a merely 
 
 Scandinavian life. 
 
 The conditions, too, under which a nation loses 
 its older identity were no longer present. The 
 social and political traditions of the English people 
 were henceforth in no danger of being merged and 
 lost in the customs of its conquerors. Had the 
 pirates won a hundred years back, their settlement 
 in England would have been an element of the first 
 importance in determining its political character. 
 The earlier Danish conquerors were colonists as 
 well as conquerors, and settlers in the lands they 
 won. But the old period of dispersion, of wander- 
 ing, of colonization, was over for the Scandinavian 
 peoples. Their revolutions at home had built up 
 the petty realms of the North into great monarchies, 
 whose military force had been shown in the con- 
 quest of England. But with these revolutions the 
 misfration and settlement of the sea-rovers had 
 ceased. The colonists of the Danelaw had been 
 fairly absorbed in the English people, and Cnut's 
 conquest brought no new settlers. Guthrum was 
 the head of a host which settled on the soil which 
 Guthrum won. Cnut was the general of an army 
 which sailed back again homewards when its war 
 work was done. 
 
 The result of the Danish conquest was, in fact, 
 
 Its results. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 407 
 
 the very reverse of what it seemed destined to be. chap. uc. 
 It was not Scandinavia that drew England to it, it Th^ 
 was England that was brought to wield a new in- ^%^C^ 
 fluence over Scandinavia. The North was gov-i^jj— ^^ 
 erned by orders from Winchester. Cnut s northern — 
 realms sank into under-kingdoms, ruled by under- 
 kings ; Denmark by one of his young sons, Norway 
 in later days by another. It was with English 
 troops that Cnut sailed at long intervals to repress 
 revolt in the northern seas, to fight the Wends, to 
 annex Norway to his Danish realm. It was by de- 
 spatching English bishops and English preachers to 
 the north that he pushed on the work of its civili- 
 zation and its conversion to Christianity. The 
 Danes who remained with the king in England 
 held only subordinate offices. Even those whom 
 he had rewarded with high rank in the first flush of 
 victory were gradually set aside for men of English 
 blood. Thurkill was driven from the land only'four 
 years after he had entered on his earldom of East 
 Anglia; ' Cnut's nephew, Hakon, was sent to rule in 
 Norway;^ while of his two brothers-in-law, one, Earl 
 Ulf, quitted England to bear rule in Denmark,' and 
 a second. Earl Eric, was stripped of his power in 
 Northumbria and banished from the realm.* 
 
 Cnut was himself the most prominent sign of the The poUcy 
 mfluence of England on its Danish conquerors. '-^^'""• 
 With the instinct of genius, the young king from al- 
 most the first moment of his reign cast off the Dane 
 
 » In 1029.— (A. S.G.) 
 
 ' In 102 1. Eng. Chron.— (A. S. G.) 
 ' Probably in 1019.— (A. S. G.) 
 
4o8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 409 
 
 CHAP. IX. to stand before his people as an English ruler. 
 The Fresh from the bloodshed of Assandun, fresh from 
 ^t.° the brutal murders which secured his throne, Cnut 
 1016^035 threw himself on the loyalty of his English subjects. 
 — Of the fleet and host which had brought England 
 to his feet, he kept but forty ships and a few thou- 
 sands of huscarls, a paid bodyguard which was 
 strong enough to check isolated disaffection, but 
 helpless against a national revolt. By the summons 
 of the bishops, ealdormen, and thegns to a great as- 
 sembly on Eadmund's death, he showed that his au- 
 thority was henceforth to rest, not on force of arms, 
 but on law and custom. The solemn choice and 
 crowning of Cnut at London stamped him in the 
 eyes of the people at large as an English king rather 
 than a foreign master; while his formal renewal of 
 Eadgar's laws in a Witenagemot at Oxford marked 
 his resolve to rule in English fashion. How com- 
 pletely, indeed, he had already identified himself with 
 his new English realm, we see from his relations 
 with his Danish kingdom.' If he visited it during 
 the winter of 1019-20, it was but to make such ar- 
 rangements as left Denmark practically a sub-king- 
 dom, whose interests were subordinated to those of 
 England. Jarl Ulf, who was bound to the throne 
 by his marriage with the king's sister Estrith,' was 
 placed as governor over Cnut's hereditary kingdom, 
 which, henceforth, saw itself ruled by orders from a 
 king transformed from a Dane into an Englishman, 
 
 * Denmark probably passed to Cnut little more than a year after 
 his coronation as king of the English if his brother Harald died 
 about 1018. Dahlmann, Gesch. v. Dannemark, i. 105. — (A. S. G.) 
 
 ' This cannot have been later than 1019, as the age of Swein Es- 
 trithson shows. Dahlmann, Gesch. v. Dannemark.— (A. S. G.) 
 
 and reigning at Winchester. With the early spring cap. ,x. 
 Cnut was back in England, and, save for this and m 
 perhaps one other brief absence, the first eight years "c^,"' 
 of his reign seem to have been spent in the settle- — 
 ment of English affairs. "^ti"«- 
 
 The pledge he gave at the outset of his reign that t'is <;ov. 
 he would rule after Eadgar's law, that he would be '"""""' 
 true— in modern phrase— to the traditional consti- 
 tution and usages of the realm, was religiously ob- 
 served. The laws he enacted later followed those 
 of his predecessors. The structure of government 
 the control of the Witan, the rule of ealdorman and 
 bishop, the jurisdiction of shire-moot and hundred- 
 moot and town -moot, remained unchanged. The 
 royal progresses were diligently carried on, when 
 the king, with his following of counsellors and 
 scribes, adr.inistcred justice and redressed wrong 
 as Eadgar and .Ellfred had done before him The 
 old organization of the country, too, was gradually 
 restored, and the more galling marks of foreign rule 
 done away. Englishmen were set over the great 
 earldoms; and even the traditional connections of 
 the ruling houses were respected. The new Earl of 
 Mercia, Leofwine, had before been ealdorman of the 
 Mercian district of the Hwiccas, and was succeeded 
 in this post by his son Leofric ; and when Eric the 
 Norwegian, was driven into exile, Eadwulf, a brother 
 of the murdered ealdorman Uhtred, was suffered to 
 hold the hereditary possession of his house as Earl 
 of Northumbria. Wessex remained for a time the 
 special district of the king. But when, in 1020, pos- 
 sibly as a result of the addition of the Danish mon- 
 archy to his English realm, and the administrative 
 
4IO 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IX. difficulties which this brought about, Cnut formed it 
 i^ into an earldom, it was the English Godwine whom 
 
 ^'c^ut'' he chose for its ruler. 
 
 — From the outset of his reign the king had shown 
 
 ioifr-1035. ^^^^^ ^^ Godwine, a thegn of West-Saxon blood, but 
 
 6Wt.///.. ^j^^^^ parentage and rank are utterly unknown. 
 The tradition of a humble origin, and his position 
 at the court, show that Cnut was imitating ^thel- 
 red's policy in raising " new men " to high place in 
 the royal councils. But whatever may have been 
 his early rank, the ability Godwine showed both in 
 the field and at the council-board, his eloquence, his 
 pleasant and ready temper, and his laborious indus- 
 try, were soon rewarded with the hand of Gytha, the 
 sister of Jarl Ulf, who was himself wedded to the sis- 
 ter of Cnut. Such an alliance brought the new fa- 
 vorite near to the throne itself ; but it was the prel- 
 ude to yet greater honors. From 1020 he became 
 the chief councillor of the king; he held an impor- 
 tant office as governor of the realm in Cnut's absence 
 during the wars in the north, and he probably pos- 
 sessed the earldom of Wessex, with which we find 
 him invested at Cnut's death. By that time, as his 
 signatures show, he ranked first among the English 
 nobles, and before even the kinsmen of the king, 
 while his wealth was enormous and his possessions 
 extended over nearly every shire of southern and 
 central England. 
 T/t^ The history of England, in fact, under its Danish 
 
 eaidormen. ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^.^g really a development of those insti- 
 tutions, whether administrative, fiscal, or judicial, 
 which had been growing into shape under its West- 
 Saxon kings. The conquest brought no violent in- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 411 
 
 terruption to this development ; rather, by the social chap. ix. 
 and political revolution it wrought, it enabled the The 
 conqueror to carry out the work of his predecessors ^JSJ^t.*^' 
 more rapidly and completely than would have been^Q^— ^^3^ 
 possible without so great a shock. In the local — 
 organization of the realm the circumstances of Cnut's 
 conquest left him no choice but to carry out in its 
 entirety that change in the character of the great 
 provincial governments which had been attempted 
 by yEthelred in the case of Mercia. yEthelred's 
 policy had implied the breaking-down of the tra- 
 ditional West-Saxon system of the government of 
 these dependencies by men of royal blood, and the 
 appointment of ordinary delegates of the crown. 
 Under Cnut this system was rapidly extended. The 
 ealdormanries were changed into earldoms and the 
 earls into pure nominees and dependants of the 
 crown, a transformation which was marked by their 
 summary displacement and replacement in their 
 posts; and the policy of /Ethelred, adopted first by 
 his Danish successor, was finally made the basis of 
 the system of the Norman conqueror. 
 
 The administrative system, too, had been taking ''tJ'^''^''^^/ 
 new form under yEthelred, and the stormy character ''f>'u!m' 
 of his reign had shown the difficulties that attended 
 the change. In his youth, indeed, when little alter- 
 ation seems to have been made, government was still 
 in the hands of one of the great ealdormen, and even 
 after the king had arrived at full power. Archbishop 
 Sigeric seems to have retained something of the 
 same position of standing councillor of the realm 
 which Dunstan had identified with the office of the 
 primate. But as years drew on the appearance of a 
 
412 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciiAP^ix. new officer at court, the high thegn, marked the 
 The bei^^innino^ of an attempt on the part of the kine to 
 
 Reign of i .1 . iv i 1 • • , . • 
 
 cnut. supersede the traditional and constitutional advisers 
 
 1016^035. ^y ^iiiriisters of a more modern type chosen by and 
 dependent on himself. Some such modification had 
 become absolutely necessary under the conditions 
 of the new English kingdom. With the increasing 
 demands for government and administration over so 
 wide an area, and the growing complexity of Eng- 
 land's foreign relations, the need of a continuous 
 ministry in constant communication with the king 
 made itself more and more felt; and unpopular as 
 was the institution of the head thegn, it became of 
 the first importance from the wide extent of the em- 
 pire over which Cnut ruled, and the necessity of del- 
 egating his authority during any absence from his 
 English dominions. The office, indeed, was not only 
 continued by Cnut, but raised by him into a promi- 
 nence it never afterwards lost. The transformation 
 of the head thegn into a " Secundarius Regis " in 
 the person of Godwine, marked a step towards the 
 creation of the later justiciary and of the ministerial 
 system which lasted on to the close of the Angevin 
 reisfns. 
 ,^^^, With the creation, however, of such an officer the 
 
 king s 
 
 chaplains, systcm of Duustan came practically to an end. The 
 primate retained his position as councillor of the 
 realm in virtue of his representation of the liberties 
 of the Church and of the people, but his power was 
 that of a constitutional check, not of a minister of 
 the crown ; while the earls were only summoned to 
 the three great Witenagemots to counsel on the 
 affairs of the realm. The ordinary administration 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 413 
 
 lay, therefore, wholly in the hands of the king and chap. ix. 
 of his ministers. But for the carrying. out of the Thi 
 details of government a staff of secretaries had now ^^1^^°' 
 become necessary, and there are found from this time,,,,— ,, 
 
 i.1 1* > 1 I* 1016— lOoo. 
 
 in the kings chaplains a group of men, some of — 
 whom were foreigners, like Duduc, who may have 
 been chosen specially with a view to the transaction 
 of foreign affairs, while others, like Stigand, were 
 Englishmen; but all of whom were clearly picked 
 men, and, as we see when they appear as bishops in 
 later days, men of ability. The reward for their 
 work was, in most cases, an episcopal see, and from 
 now right up to the Reformation, service at the royal 
 council-board became the ordinary road to a bishop- 
 ric. It was to this fact that the English episcopate 
 from this time owed its peculiarly political character 
 and its close relations to the crown, and hence the 
 institution of the '' Royal Chapel " is one of the most 
 important landmarks in our ecclesiastical history. 
 But politically its effects were far greater. Admin- 
 istration, indeed, in any true sense was now for the 
 first time made really possible by the existence of a 
 body of selected and trained administrators, con- 
 stantly at work, and always at the disposal of the 
 crown for fiscal, political, or judicial purposes ; a body 
 which, reappearing in the justiciary and his ring of 
 assistant secretaries, formed the nucleus of that per- 
 manent royal council out of which all our judicial 
 institutions, and to some extent our Parliament it- 
 self, has sprung. 
 
 ^ Of even greater moment than ^Ethelred s admin- Taxation. 
 istrative changes was his fiscal revolution. The es- 
 tabhshment of a land- tax had been attributed in 
 
414 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^ix. popular fancy to the need of paying Danish tribute, 
 The as its name of Danegeld shows. But its continu- 
 ^c?!?t°' ance from this moment, whether Danes were in the 
 1016T035 ^^"^ ^^ ^^' shows that the need of meeting their de- 
 — mands had only forced to the front a financial meas- 
 ure which had become inevitable, and which w^as 
 necessarily carried on under ^thelred's successors. 
 The land-tax thus imposed formed the chief resource 
 of the crown till the time of the Angevins ; and 
 though the taxation of personalty was introduced 
 by Henry II., the land-tax still remained the main 
 basis of English finance till the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century. Its direct effects from the first 
 in furnishing the crown with a large and continuous 
 revenue gave a new strength to the monarchy, while 
 its universal levy over every hide in the realm must 
 have stremrthened the national feeling. 
 "^^^ To these two main bases of the royal power, a 
 permanent administration and a fixed revenue, Cnut 
 added a third even more directly important engine 
 of government in the institution of the huscarls. 
 The tendency to provincial isolation, the temptation 
 of the ealdormen to sheer off into independent 
 princes, remained as strong as in y^thelred's day. 
 But now for the first time the king had an armed 
 force ready at his call. The huscarls, whom Cnut 
 retained as a bodyguard when he sent home the 
 bulk of his Danish host, three or six thousand men 
 as they were, were too few to hold the land against 
 a national revolt. But they were a force strong 
 enough to repress local rebellion ; they furnished a 
 disciplined nucleus for the fyrd to gather round ; in 
 the field they gave the king a new position as gen- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 415 
 
 eral among his warring lieutenants; and in more chmmx. 
 tranquil times they raised him high above the local ^ 
 governors, who had no force save the hasty levy of ^cl?t°' 
 shire and province at their call. The strength — * 
 which was given to the French crown by its " arch- ^^^— ^^^' 
 ers" in days long after, was given to the English 
 crown by the huscarls. Continued by Cnut s sue- * 
 cessors to the Norman Conquest, imitated by the 
 Norman kings in the "paid knights," who held 
 themselves at the king's call, it was in great part to 
 their existence that the new tranquillity which from 
 this time characterized England must have been 
 due. 
 
 Still more significant of Cnut's temper than his <^^"''^ 
 development of the existing civil organization of the cw'. 
 realm were his dealings with the Church. His aim 
 seemed to be not only to wipe away the memory of 
 the stern deeds by which he had won his throne, but 
 to identify himself even with the patriotism which 
 had withstood the stranger. The saints he honored 
 were saints who had won martyrdom at the hands of 
 the Danes. Eadmund, of East Anglia, was the mar- 
 tyr of the early Danish conquest, and Cnut refound- 
 ed the abbey which had grown up over his tomb. 
 Archbishop yElfheah was the martyr of the later 
 Danish conquest, when the host of Thurkill harried 
 the land, and Cnut followed the saint's body in its 
 translation to Canterbury.' On the hill of Assandun 
 the king built a church,^ which commemorated alike 
 the men who had fallen in fight for him and those 
 \vho had fallen in fight for Eadmund; while with a 
 
 ' In 1023.— (A. S.G.) 
 
 ' Begun in 1020, finished in 1032.— (A. S. G.) 
 
4i6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 4^7 
 
 CHAP. IX. Still more marked intent he made his way in Idter 
 The days as a pilgrim to Glastonbury, that he might 
 ^^t.°' spread a gorgeous pall over Eadmund's tomb/ The 
 loieToss i'eligious houses of Ely and Ramsey, the resting- 
 — places of Englishmen slain at Maldon and Assandun, 
 were especially enriched by his gifts ; and the names 
 of Dunstan and Eadward the Martyr were honored 
 by the anniversaries he instituted in their memory. 
 Nor were these acts of Cnut's mere stratagems to 
 break the nation's discontent at a stranger's rule. 
 They w^re the signs of a settled policy, and of a 
 policy which sprang from the temper of the king. 
 Scarcely had the Danish kingdom fallen to him when 
 he began to carry out the same work there. English 
 priests were sent to fill the Danish bishoprics ; even 
 Roeskilde by Lethra, the old royal seat of the first 
 Danish kings, received its bishop from England, con- 
 secrated by an English primate. Indeed, the change 
 which had turned Normans into Frenchmen, and 
 men of the Danelaw into Englishmen, was seen 
 workimr with a startlinof suddenness in Cnut himself. 
 He had the Northman's gift of adaptation, the gift 
 of absorbincr the character and fashions of the men 
 about him ; and in him the change w^as made the 
 easier by his youthfulness. Within the young king's 
 heart, indeed, the wild passions of the North slum- 
 bered rather than died. In his own fatherland, on 
 his own native seas, if Northern legend may be trust- 
 ed, they leaped into fresh life. The Cnut of the Sa- 
 gas is to the last the Cnut of the wars with Eadmund, 
 vigorous, unscrupulous, passionate, revengeful, thirsty 
 of blood. But the wuld mood w^as h ushed on Eng- 
 
 ' In 1032. — (A. S. G.) 
 
 Peace 
 of the 
 Lvid, 
 
 lish ground. The traditions, the songs which told chap.ix. 
 of him in after- time to Englishmen, were peaceful, Th^ 
 gentle, even familiar in tone. " Merrily sang the' ^S°' 
 monks in Ely as Cnut King rowed by," runs a%erse -- 
 of one of these songs which has floated down to us ^^^— ^^^ 
 across the ages to tell how the music-loving king 
 bade his men row near one of his favorite religious 
 houses, " Row, cnihtes, near the land, and hea^i' wc 
 these monks sin^f." 
 
 Cnut's greatest gift to his people was that of peace. 
 All fear of the pirates was henceforth at an end. 
 The Dane was no longer an enemy. Danish fleets 
 no longer hung off the coasts. On the contrary, it 
 was English ships and English soldiers who now fol- 
 lowed Cnut in his Northern wars. With ]n*m began 
 the long internal tranquillity which was from This 
 time to be the special note of our national history. 
 For seventeen years the country rested in profound 
 repose. There were troubles, indeed, in the Welsh 
 marches; and a raid of the Scots wrought evil in 
 Northumbria. But with these slight exceptions the 
 land was untroubled from without. The absence of 
 discontent is proved by the quiet of the country dur- 
 ing the long periods of Cnut's absence in the North 
 m the latter part of his reign. Such an internal 
 tranquillity came, no doubt, in great measure from 
 the exhaustion of the country, from that craving for 
 peace and order which follows on long periods of 
 anarchy, and which gives a new strength to the 
 crown. But the temper, the greatness of Cnut, must 
 have counted for much. The tendencv to a semi- 
 feudalism which had baffled .Ethelred was held 
 sternly down. The murder of Eadric showed how 
 
 27 
 
4i8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Cftufs 
 temper. 
 
 CHAP. IX. ruthlessly Cnut meant to deal with any attempt at 
 The independence, while in the banishment of Eric and 
 ^tottt.°' Thurkill it was seen that the new earls held their 
 lOieToas po^ts solely at the king's will. The political instinct 
 — of Cnut, too, trusted to something more than personal 
 dread ; for in the efficiency of the huscarls he found 
 a ready and irresistible means of enforcing the com- 
 mon decisions of the government. 
 
 But behind the material forces by which the pow- 
 er of the crown was guarded, and breathing life into 
 the strict fulfilment of his pledge to rule according 
 to the laws of the English kings, was Cnut's own 
 resolve to govern rightly. In him, as in Alfred, we 
 are able to reach to the very heart of the man by 
 the fortune which has preserved to us the king's 
 own words. After ten years of rule he addressed 
 his people from the foreign land where he was then 
 in pilgrimage, in a letter memorable as the first per- 
 sonal address of an English king to Englishmen 
 which has reached us, but even more memorable 
 for the light it throws on the simple grandeur of 
 his character and the noble conception he had 
 formed of kingship. " I have vowed to God to lead 
 a right life in all things," he wrote, '" to rule justly 
 and piously my realms and subjects, and to admin- 
 ister just judgment to all. If, heretofore, I have 
 done aught beyond what was just, through headiness 
 or negligence of youth, I am ready with God's help 
 to amend it utterly." No royal officer, either for 
 fear of the king or for favor to any, is to consent to 
 injustice : none is to do wrong to rich or poor " as 
 they prize my friendship and their own w^elfare." 
 He especially denounces unjust exactions : " I have 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 419 
 
 no need that money be heaped together for me by chap. ix. 
 unjust demands." " I have sent this letter before Th^ 
 me," ends the young king— he was still little more ^cnuV' 
 than thirty— "that all the people of my realm may^oig— gg 
 rejoice in my well-doing; for as you yourselves — 
 know, never have I spared nor will I spare to spend 
 myself and my toil in what is needful and good for 
 my people." 
 
 One of the most important results of the lono- Oxford. 
 peace under Cnut, and of the new connection with 
 the Scandinavian countries which was brought about 
 by his rule, was the development of English trade 
 and commerce. As yet, indeed, the inland trade of 
 the country was very small. The rivers were its 
 roads, and it was along the rivers that the trading 
 towns for the most part sprang up. But though the 
 Thames was already a waterway by which London 
 could communicate with the heart of England, no 
 town save Oxford had as yet arisen along its course. 
 The name of the place tells the story of its birth. 
 At a point where the Thames suddenly bends for a 
 while to the south, and just before its waters are 
 swollen by those of the Cherwell, a wide and shallow 
 reach of the river offered a ford by which the cat- 
 tle-drovers from Wessex could cross the stream and, 
 traversing the marshy fields which edged it, mount 
 the low slope of a gravel spit, between the two rivers, 
 that formed the site of the latter city. On this slope 
 a house of secular canons had grown up, by the close 
 of the ninth century, round the tomb of a local saint, 
 Fritheswith or Frideswide ; and at the point where 
 the road, reaching its summit, broke into three 
 branches, to run northward, eastward, and westward, 
 
420 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IX. a little town furnished the germ of the future Ox- 
 The ford. It probably extended only over the site of 
 
 ^cnut°* three of its later parishes — that of St. Martin, whose 
 claims to be the earliest of its churches were con- 
 firmed by its recognition as the " city church," and 
 by the meeting of the Portmannimot in its church- 
 
 EARLY OXFORD. 
 
 1016-1035. 
 
 Soale of Feet 
 
 $30 too 90O fjeo 
 
 vard;' that of St. Mildred,' whose name shows its 
 Mercian date; and the parish of All- Hallows be- 
 tween them ; while it was linked to the ford by a 
 thin line of houses, the later Fish Street, with a 
 
 ' A charter (Hist. Mon. Abingdon, ed. Stevenson, i. 439) shows 
 the church to be older than Cnut's day. 
 
 ' The site of this parish is now covered by Lincoln and E.\eter col- 
 leges. Mildred, who died towards the close of the seventh century, 
 was niece of Wulfhere of Mercia, and one of the most noted of the 
 old English saints. — (A. S. G.) 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 421 
 
 church of St. Aldad, or Aldate, in the midst of it. cur. ,x. 
 The httle borough was probably extending its bounds n<, 
 to the westward over the ground marked by the "°'*° "' 
 parish of St. Ebbe' when ^/Elfred established his — 
 mint there ; and the presence of a mint shows that '"'— '* 
 It was already a place of some importance. The 
 loss of London and of the lower Thames valley in 
 the Danish wars had, in fact, made it a border-town 
 of the Mercian ealdormanry after the peace of Wed- 
 more; and the mound upon which its castle-keep 
 was afterwards reared may have been among the 
 first of those works of fortification by which /Ethel- 
 red and his lady held their own against the Danes. 
 As from this time it grew in importance and wealth, 
 O.xford divided with London the traffic alono- the 
 Thames : we catch our first glimpse of its buro-hers 
 when an abbot of Abingdon, in return for a toll of 
 hernngs which their barges paid in passing, con- 
 sented to cut a new channel for their transit.' 
 
 What Oxford had become to the trade' of the aw/.«,.. 
 Ihames, lorksey and Nottingham were becomino- ''"""• 
 to the trade of the Trent. Nottingham, where 
 Ladwards bridge spanned the river, while his two 
 mounds commanded its banks, was growing into im- 
 portance not merely as a point of contact between 
 tngland and the north, but as a centre of internal 
 navigation. The town was still a small one, with 
 but two churches, one on cither side the river, and 
 ^^iW^wasjnirely industrial, for no abbey towered 
 
 ■ As Ebbe was martyredl^Ts^^T^e churches of her d^di^Zd^ 
 generally mark the revival under Alfred and his children and so 
 the.r parishes may be assigned to this time. 
 
 us tr^ansVumlSaber."' °"^' ' ^"' " ^^"^ "'°™'" "^^'«'"'" ^P'" 
 
422 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Gloucester. 
 
 CHAP. IX. over its lanes, nor was the rock that overhung it 
 The crowned yet with its castle. To keep open the two 
 cnut.° highways by land and by water that intersected 
 
 1016^035. '^^ ^^^^^ point was the main duty of the burghers ; 
 — they were bound to guard alike " the water of the 
 Trent " and " the foss and road that leads to York." 
 A fine of eight pounds punished any one who 
 ploughed or trenched within two perches of the 
 road, or hindered in any way the passage of boats 
 alons: the stream.* Tolls for the river traffic formed 
 part of the revenues of the town, and the existence 
 of a merchant-gild side by side with its cnichten- 
 gild showed its trading activity. 
 
 In the richer and busier valley of the Severn, 
 where fisheries were now of great value, for at least 
 sixty-five are mentioned in charters along its course,' 
 Gloucester was fast rising into importance. The 
 foundation of a nunnery there in 68 1 showed that 
 life had, even in the seventh century, returned to the 
 ruins of the Roman Glevum, and in the time of 
 yElfred the town was already of sufficient note for 
 him to establish a mint there. In later days the 
 nunnery gave place to a college of secular priests, 
 and that again, under Cnut, to a Benedictine abbey. 
 But besides its religious life, the position of Glouces- 
 ter was rapidly giving to the town an increasing po- 
 litical importance. Lying, as it did, in the border- 
 land between the two races, in a territory where the 
 Welsh blood and the Welsh tongue were still com- 
 
 * See the description of the town in Domesday Book, and its char- 
 ter. — Stubbs, Select Charters, 1 59. 
 
 ' There were at least thirty-three on the Wye. The salmon fish- 
 eries of these rivers were already leased. — Cod. Dip. 695. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 423 
 
 Chester. 
 
 mon, Gloucester was destined in the following reio-n chap. ix. 
 to become one of the state-towns of the realm. As The 
 yet, however, Worcester, as the dwelling-place of ^cl?t.°' 
 ealdorman and bishop, retained its supremacy; and^oi^Qj^ 
 the gift of its market dues, w\iin-shilling and load- — 
 penny, was the costliest among the many boons 
 which yEthelred and ^^thelflacd showered on Bishop 
 Werfrith. 
 
 Small, however, as were the beginnings of English 
 trade, it had begun ; and a survey of the seaports will 
 show how much it owed to the impulse of the Danes. 
 The port of Chester depended on the trade with 
 Ireland, which had sprung up since the settlement of 
 the Northmen along the Irish coasts. The town — 
 as we know — was one of the most recent in Britain ; 
 for its site had lain waste for three hundred years 
 before .^thelfla^d, in 907, restored and enlarged its 
 Roman walls, raised the mound beside its bridge, 
 and created the new Chester, which, like its prede- 
 cessor, watched alike the country to the north and 
 the Welsh passes to the south and westward of the 
 river. It was probably to aid in its repeopling that 
 the secular house of the Mercian saint, Werburgh,' 
 was founded in the northeastern quarter of the city, 
 
 ' Indications of the j^rowth of population in towns may be found 
 in the provision of new churches, dedicated to saints in popular fa- 
 vor at the time. The conversion of the En^dish kingdoms gave rise 
 in the seventh century to a number of saints ; as, for example. St. 
 W ilfrid. St. Werburgh, St. Mildred. St. Etheldreda. etc. Saints, such 
 as St. Swithin. St. Eadmund, and St. Ebbe. in the ninth century, 
 marked the early period of the West-Saxon monarchy, as St. Duns- 
 tan and St. ^Ifheah marked its later period. The northern saints 
 of the eleventh century— St. Olaf and St. Magnus— only just pre- 
 ceded the influx of Norman saints to whom so many later churches 
 were dedicated.— (A. S. G.) 
 
424 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^ix. while its security was provided for by a custom re- 
 
 The corded in Domesday, which bound every hide in the 
 
 cnut. shire to furnish a man at its town-reeve's call to re- 
 
 ioie^35 P^^^ walls and bridge. The new town probably grew 
 
 up by degrees over the ruins of the old : St. Wer- 
 
 EARLY CHESTER. 
 
 burgh's house stood alone in the northeastern quar- 
 ter, and the absence of any older churches in the 
 northwestern makes it possible that at first only the 
 southern part of the city, as was likely from its neigh- 
 borhood to the bridge, was built over, for here we 
 find on either side of the street leading to the bridge 
 the churches of St. Martin, St. Bridget, and St Mi- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 425 
 
 chad; while yet more to the south the church of St chap.ix. 
 Olaf pomted, like the twelve law-men who presided Si 
 m Its law-court, to a Danish settlement, the result ^c^V' 
 perhaps, of a Danish occupation of the city in the ,,~^,^ 
 later course of the struggle between the Danelaw - 
 and the English kin^rs. 
 
 Chester lay in a wild and half-barbarous region- //^ /;-../. 
 the country round it, like most of northern En-land ' 
 was almost destitute of wheat and grain,\and formed 
 a vast pasture-land, whose inhabitants differed little 
 m their mode of life from their Welsh neighbors 
 across the Dee. Their main food was barley-bread 
 or oat-cake. Only the richer ate meat, the bulk con- 
 tented themselves with milk and cheese.'' But in 
 spite of such a neighborhood the town grew fast • 
 and the legend which makes it the scene of Ead^ 
 gar s triumph, when he was rowed upon the Dee by 
 vassal kings, and knelt with them about him in the 
 church of St. John without its walls, shows at any 
 rate its importance in Dunstan's day. Its position, 
 indeed, was as valuable commercially as it was polit- 
 ically; and its market-place offered one of the wild- 
 est and most picturesque scenes of the new commer- 
 cial life. Among the piles of cheeses which then, 
 as now, formed the main produce of the Cheshire 
 plain, the piles of bannock and barley-bread, and the 
 erates of fish which the fish-wives brought from the 
 fisheries of the Dee, its sturdy burghers pushed their 
 way through a motley crowd, in which the trader 
 from the Danish towns of Ireland strove in his 
 
 ' Will. Malm., Gest. Pontif. (Migne). p. 308. 
 
 Farris et maximc tritico inops."— p. 308. 
 
 ' Will. Malm., Gest. Pontif. (Migne), p. 308. 
 
426 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 1016-1035. 
 
 Bristol, 
 
 CHAP. IX. northern tongue to draw buyers to his gang of 
 The slaves, while the Welsh kerne, wrapped in his blank- 
 SJTt.^ ct, who had driven across the bridge the small and 
 wiry cattle from his native hills, chattered as he 
 might with the hardly less wild Cumbrian from the 
 lands beyond the Ribble. 
 
 Whatever part the slave-trade played in the com- 
 merce of Chester, it was the main traffic of Bristol. 
 The rise of Bristol had been probably as recent as 
 that of its rival port on the western coast; a num- 
 ber of coins,' indeed, which witness to the presence 
 of a mint here in Cnut s day, form the first historic 
 evidence of the existence of the town itself, though 
 the presence of a parish of St. Mildred within its 
 bounds suggests an earlier life in Mercian days. 
 The trade with southern Ireland, from which its 
 importance sprang, originated at any rate with the 
 planting of Danish towns on the Irish coast, and 
 the rise of Bristol into commercial activity cannot 
 have been earlier than that of Dublin or Waterford. 
 For a trade with Ireland the estuary of the Severn 
 was the natural entrepot, and the deep channel of 
 the Avon furnished a port at that point of the est- 
 uary from whence roads led most easily into the 
 heart of Britain. The town, however, was still a 
 small one in the days of the Confessor," nor was its 
 
 * Mr. John Evans writes to me that he has in his collection four 
 coins of Cnut struck at Bristol by the moneyers, ^gelwine and 
 ^Ifwine. Hildebrand describes thirty-two varieties of Cnut's coins 
 struck at Bristol which are now in the Stockholm Museum. In the 
 same collection is one coin of ^thelred the Second, minted by 
 iELFPERD ON BRIE — , of which Mr. Evans has also a specimen. 
 — (A. S.G.) 
 
 ' It was coupled with the manor of Barton in a joint payment of 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 427 
 
 general traffic probably as yet of much consequence, chap.ix. 
 But nowhere was the slave-trade so active. The m 
 Bristol burgher bought up men over the whole face ^c^°^ 
 of England for export to Ireland, where the Danes — 
 as elsewhere, acted as factors for the slave-marketJ '''~ '*' 
 of half Europe. Youths and maidens were, above 
 all, the object of their search ; and in the market of 
 the town rows of both might be seen chained and 
 roped together for the mart. With a yet viler 
 greed the girls were hired out for purposes of pros- 
 titution as well as of sale, and often sold in a state 
 of pregnancy.' It was in vain that canon and law 
 forbade that Christian, guiltless men should be sold 
 out of the land, and, above all, to heathen purchasers, 
 or that this proh^ibition was repeated in the laws of 
 Cnut.^ It was easy, indeed, to evade such enact- 
 ments. The man who had been reduced to slavery 
 by sentence of law, or the children who inherited 
 his taint of blood, could not be held as the guiltless 
 persons mentioned in it; and no English law would 
 be made to apply to slaves either purchased or tak- 
 en in war from the neighboring Welsh. 
 
 While the trade with the Irish Ostmen was thus Seaports 
 raismg Chester and Bristol into importance, \\^^ sou^jlLt. 
 towns of the English Channel continued little more 
 than fishing towns. Exeter, perhaps, may have 
 carried on some slight traffic with the land of the 
 Fra nks. The town stood two miles above the mouth 
 
 a hundred and ten marks of silver as "fcorm" to the royal excheq- 
 uer, as though it had grown out of this manor at but a recent time 
 
 W^J^'T^-'' ^^"^^^^^y)- Jt «eems as yet to have been an open 
 Dorough ; Its castle was certainly of far later date. 
 ^ Malmesbur)-, Vit. Wulstani, Angl. Sacr. p. 258. 
 Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 377-379. 
 
428 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAR IX. of the Exe, but shallow as its channel seems nowa- 
 Re^nof ^''^^'^' ^'^^. small craft of the town could easily moor 
 cnut. beneath its walls, and the part it played in the after- 
 ioieTo35. ^^'^'^^ ^^'it^"i the Normans shows that it had grown into 
 — a strong and wealthy place. But eastward of Exe- 
 ter we see only a trace of little ports to which the 
 fisheries were beginning to give life. Of those on 
 the Dorsetshire coast Wareham was the most thriv- 
 ing; it was the shire-town, with a house for the king 
 when he came there on his ridings, a dwelling fo^ 
 the shire-reeve, and inns for all the leading thegns 
 of the shire ; but like its fellow towns it had hardly 
 risen to the dignity of really civic existence, it had 
 never bought its '^feorm," and each of its burghers 
 paid his dues either directly or through his lord to 
 the king s reeve. Farther westward Hampton and 
 Portsmouth are but names to us, and it is only when 
 we reach the Kentish coast that we find a real com- 
 mercial life in Sandwich and Dover. Dover had 
 long been the point of passage for Gaul ; and on 
 the silting up of the channel between Thanet and 
 Kent, Sandwich had risen from a little hamlet on 
 the sandy flats beside the ruined Richborough, into 
 the main port of the Channel. Its " butsecarls " 
 were present in the fleets that the kings gathered 
 in the channel;' its ferry-dues and port-tolls formed 
 a good part of the revenue of Christ-Church at Can- 
 terbury, to which Cnut granted them in later days;' 
 
 ' In 1009 ^thelred gathered his fleet there. Tostig took "butse- 
 carls*' or sailors from it, doubtless as the best mariners of the coast. 
 
 » Cod. Dip. 737. Cnut grants to Christ-Church the port and all 
 the "exitus" of its waters, amongst them the right of "wreck"' or 
 "strand." so far as a man can throw from a siiip fully laden and 
 floating in the river " securis par\ula quam Angli vocant Taper-eax 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 429 
 
 they were rich enough, indeed, to tempt the greed c„.p... 
 
 be>s into a long strife for their possession. But in ''^^^^ °' 
 spite of '^ the craft that lay at its Jharf," its reckon n' "" 
 
 was Jtill '.^^ "^'"^^ ''^^' SandwiciV^"^^" 
 
 Nvas still a fishing town rather than a merchant port. 
 
 Along the eastern coast, however, the trade with Tr.,..r 
 
 he north, which had followed In the wake of the tr 
 
 Danish conquest, was now arousing commerce into 
 
 a far more vigorous life. '' What do you bring to 
 
 us the merchant is asked in an Old -English 
 
 dialogue. '^I bring skins, silks, costly gems,\nd 
 
 gold he answers, '' besides various garments, pig. 
 
 -cnt wine oil, and ivory, with brast and coj^^er 
 
 and tin, silver and glass, and such like"' The 
 
 two herrinc-sea on," 7"'' '. ""'I *"= '^<=P' " to himself well-nigh 
 
 ■<'n.i„« rorsr„r:H, aJr^r :h:;rotHrr;.t ^ r" 
 
 a third pen^ o the tol,; a^d t"to°"^^^^^^^ '■»<' 
 
 Churrh^ .^n L J ^ ^ *° ^""^ the convent (of Christ- 
 
 use asking '^ And" i'"=V'^'"-^ '•' -""Sether, and said it was no 
 
 leave to make a w.f/f " '"""' ""' «" "" '" ""' ^^^' "<= ^^^ed 
 
 fcrrv but all tL^ °^f/8!':"^t Meldthryth's aere opposite the 
 
 A-lfsian se to with T ,"?r"^ °PP°'''' '^'"- " • ' The Abbot 
 
 ^andwiS'htreVf::Vttsi;'rt."-^ -^ -^''-- - 
 
 ... Quotod from MS. T,b. A. 3, in Sharon Turner, Hist. Anglo-Sax. 
 
430 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 1016-1035. 
 
 CHAP. IX. main trade with the Wash or the Humber was, 
 The probably, of rougher wares than these— the skins 
 
 ^tout^* and ropes and ship -masts which, at a later day, 
 formed the staple of the Baltic trade in the hands 
 of the Hanse Towns, and, above all, the iron and 
 steel that the Scandinavian lands so long supplied 
 to Britain. The herring-fishery in the German Sea 
 had long been a lucrative branch of employment 
 among the northern peoples ; and as this was al- 
 ready absorbing the boats of Dover and Sandwich, 
 we cannot doubt that it formed as large a part of 
 the business of the eastern ports. With the grow- 
 ing rigidity of the ecclesiastical rules for fasting and 
 abstinence, the supply of fish as an article of diet 
 became every day a more important matter. The 
 inland -fisher supplied eels, haddocks, minnows, and 
 eel-pouts, skate and lampreys, from rivers and fish- 
 ponds ; the sea-fisher brought herrings and salmon, 
 porpoises, sturgeons, oysters and crabs, mussels, 
 winkles, cockles, flounders, plaice, and lobsters, as 
 the harvest of the sea.^ With the whale-fishery of 
 the northern ocean, which was to bring wealth, in 
 later days, to the Humber, the English seaman, if 
 we may trust a representation of the time, w\as too 
 timid to meddle. " Can you take a whale r asks 
 his questioner. " Many," he answers, " take whales 
 without danger, and then they get a great price, 
 but I dare not, from the fearfulness of my mind.'" 
 But Dane and Norwegian were traders over a 
 yet wider field than the northern seas;' their barks 
 
 > ^Ifric's Dialogues in the Cotton Library MS. Tib. A. 3; quoted 
 
 ports. 
 
 in Sharon Turner, Hist. Anglo-Sax. iii. 20. 
 
 « Ibid. 22. 
 
 ' As early as Harald Fair-hair's time, his son, Biorn, *' ruled over 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 431 
 
 entered the Mediterranean, while the overland route chap. ix. 
 through Russia brought the silks and gold-work of Thi 
 Constantinople and the East to their Eastland ^cnuV' 
 traders; and the tempting list of wares which thcnicTn^^ 
 merchant describes m ^Ifric's dialogue may have — 
 fairly represented what the Northmen brought to 
 their markets at Grimsby or York. The growth 
 of this northern trade, at any rate, is shown by 
 the growth of the ports along the eastern coast. 
 Ipswich was becoming a considerable town, with 
 some five hundred houses and between two and 
 three thousand inhabitants; Dunwich, too, though 
 even then threatened by the sea, was growing fast; 
 but neither could vie in size or wealth with Nor- 
 wich. Its site, at the confluence of the Wensum 
 with the Yare, at the highest point to which the 
 tidal water then penetrated, could not fail to call to 
 the town population and traffic ; and the wealth and 
 daring of its six or seven thousand inhabitants soon 
 became proverbial. Many of these w^ere probably 
 Danes ; and the town gave an odd proof of its con- 
 nection with the Scandinavian lands by paying, as 
 Domesday tells us, among its yearly dues to the 
 king, "a bear, and six dogs for the bear-baiting." 
 The merchants of Lincoln were also closely linked 
 with the north ; a Norwegian king, indeed, on the 
 
 Westfold, and generally lived at Tunsberg, and went but little on 
 war expeditions. Tunsberg at that time was much frequented by 
 merchant-vessels, both from the Wik and the north country, and 
 also from the south, from Denmark, and from Saxon-land. King 
 Biorn had also merchant-ships on voyages to other lands, by which 
 he procured himself costly goods, and such things as he thought 
 needful, and so his brothers called him "the Freightman" and 
 "the Merchant."'— Harald Fair-hair's Saga, Laing, Sea Kings, i. 305. 
 
432 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IX. eve of an expedition, could leave his treasure in the 
 
 Th^ hands of one of them. No bishop's minster or earl's 
 
 ^(MuV* castle as yet crowned the hill -top of Lincoln; but 
 
 1016T035 ^^^ increase of trade was already drawing its long, 
 
 — steep street down the slope, at whose foot the 
 
 Witham breaks through the upland to the flats of 
 
 the Wash. In those flats Boston was growing up 
 
 round the abbey of St. Botulf, to depose Lincoln 
 
 as Hull deposed York, when the increasing size of 
 
 vessels made the Witham and Ouse impassable for 
 
 traffic. But as yet the tiny commerce needed only 
 
 vessels that drew little water; and Lincoln, with its 
 
 merchant -guild and its twelve lawmen ruling the 
 
 city sokes, was a mart of both inland and outland 
 
 trade.' 
 York. The centre, however, of the northern trade was 
 York. In the days of Dunstan' much of its Roman 
 glory still lingered on in noble buildings and mas- 
 sive walls, even then crumbling with age ; but its 
 later fortunes under Engle and Dane were marked 
 by the mound which rose on the tongue of land 
 at the junction of Foss and Ouse, a mound which 
 had probably been raised in the early Northum- 
 brian days to command the port, and on which the 
 northern conquerors of York had planted a for- 
 tress, whose demolition by ^^thelstan announced the 
 subjection of the Danelaw,' and whose site is now 
 marked by the ruined fortress of yet later days call- 
 ed Clifford's Tower. The city was proud of its pop- 
 
 1 <t 
 
 -Will. Malm., 
 
 Emporium hominum terra marique venientmm. 
 Gest. Pontificum (Hamilton), p. 312. 
 
 » Life of Oswald (Raine), Hist, of Church of York, p. 454, etc. 
 » Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 213. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 433 
 
 ulation and wealth. It boasted of thirty thousand ^"^'^• 
 dwellers; it really contained some two thousand The Reign 
 houses and about ten thousand inhabitants, a num- °'— *" 
 
 1016 1035. 
 
 EARLY YORK 
 
 ber far beyond that of any other English town save 
 London/ The city, indeed, now not only filled the 
 
 " Gaudet de multitudine populorum, non minus virorum ac mu- 
 herum, exceptis parvulis et pubetinis, quam xxx. milia in eadem 
 
 28 
 
434 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IX. wedge-like space between the Foss and the Ouse, 
 The but stretched to south-east and south-west, over both 
 ^tout.°* rivers, in considerable suburbs. Across the Ouse 
 ioiftTo35 houses gathered thickly round the two churches of 
 — St. Mary, Bishops-hill, in the fabric of one of which 
 we find frasfments of the Roman work with which 
 this part of York abounds, while across the Foss the 
 fishers gathered in their own Fisher-gate. A third 
 suburb along the Ouse is marked as a Danish 
 quarter by the later church of St. Olaf and by 
 Siward's choice of a burial-place there; and here, 
 no doubt, mainly centred the trade and wealth of 
 the town.' 
 Londott. From the first upgrowth of commerce, however, 
 the centre of the whole trading -life of England was 
 London. Its early history is lost in obscurity. We 
 know nothing of the circumstances of its conquest, 
 of the fate of its citizens, or of the settlement of the 
 conquerors within its walls. That some such settle- 
 ment had taken place, at least as early as the close 
 of the seventh century, is plain from the story of 
 Mellitus, when placed as bishop within its walls ; 
 but it is equally plain that the settlement was an 
 English one, that the provincials had here, as else- 
 where, disappeared, and that the ruin of the city had 
 been complete. Had London merely surrendered 
 
 civitate numerati sunt."— Life of Oswald, p. 454- Strictly con- 
 strued, this would mean some fifty or sixty thousand dwellers ; 
 but either number is absurd. Domesday gives 141 8 houses for five 
 of its "shires" and one "shire" waste, with 189 for the archbishop's 
 
 ♦'shire.'' 
 
 » " Inedicibiliter repleta est, et mercatorum gazis locupleta qui 
 undique adveniunt. maxime ex Danorum gente."— Life of Oswald. 
 (Raine), Hist, of Church of York, i. 454. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 435 
 
 to the East Saxons and retained its older population chap. ix. 
 and municipal life, it is hard to imagine how, within Th^ 
 less than half a century, its burghers could have so ^cnut.*^ 
 wholly lost all trace of Christianity that not even,.,— ^»« 
 a rumed church, as at Canterbury, remained for — 
 the use of the Christian bishop, and that the first 
 care of Mellitus was to set up a mission -church 
 in the midst of a heathen population. It is even 
 harder to imagine how all trace of the municipal 
 institutions, to which the Roman towns clung so 
 obstinately, should have so utterly disappeared. 
 But more direct proofs of the wreck of the town 
 meet us in the stray glimpses which we are able to 
 get of its earlier topographical history. The story 
 of early London is not that of a settled community 
 slowly putting off the forms of Roman for those 
 of English life, but of a number of little groups 
 scattered here and there over the area within the 
 walls, each growing up with its own life and insti- 
 tutions, guilds, sokes, religious houses, and the like, 
 and only slowly drawing together into a municipal 
 union which remained weak and imperfect even at 
 the Norman conquest. 
 
 Unluckily, it is only here and there that we can ^'"'6' 
 even dimly trace the growth of these little commU'^'luZnL' 
 nities. The first which we can clearly follow is 
 that of the church and monastery of St. Paul. The 
 ground which yEthelbcrht gave Bishop Mellitus for 
 his minster and its accompanying buildings — ground 
 which formed the highest point in the city, and 
 whose area corresponds with that of the present pre- 
 cmct of the cathedral-church — was no doubt a spot 
 waste and uninhabited, and thus formed part of the 
 
436 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. >x. folk-land which was at the king's disposal.' But from 
 ne other indications we may gather that not this spot 
 
 BeigB oj ^,, Ij^j^ ji^^. ^^.^oie ^-irea about it, was waste and un- 
 — '■ inhabited. Tothenorthof St. Paul's, for instance, the 
 
 X016-1035. ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^j^.^j^ g^_ Martin's-le-Grand was planted 
 
 seems, from the rise of this great church there, to 
 have been mainly open ground at the eve of the 
 Norman conquest ; while to the westward it was still 
 easy for the Franciscans to find room for their set- 
 tlement as late as the thirteenth century. The space 
 south of the precincts was chiefly occupied in later 
 days by the soke of Castle Baynard, a fortress with 
 which the Norman kings bridled the city on the 
 westward, as they bridled it to the east with the 
 Tower,' and which was probably built, like the Tow- 
 er itself, on open ground which may have been only 
 recently won from the foreshore of the river. The 
 waste state of the ground has left its mark even 
 on the little lane now known as St. Benet's, which 
 stretches along the borders of this soke, from Paul s 
 Chain to Paul's Wharf. As one of the i^rst needs 
 for the fringe of population which would naturally 
 grow up around the precincts was that of access to 
 the river, this lane can hardly have been later in 
 growth than the close of the eighth century, and 
 formed a part of the bishop's liberty; but as neither 
 this liberty, nor the parish of St. Benefs. which ec- 
 
 • The bounds of the grant were probably much the same as those 
 of the present precincts, with Old Change to the eastward. Pater- 
 noster Row to the north, Ave-Maria Lane and Creed Lane to the 
 west, and Carter Lane to the south. , , j. . a 
 
 ' The soke of Castle Baynard comprised the whole district round 
 the precincts of St. Paul's, from Benefs Lane to the Wall, and north- 
 ward as far as Ludgate, 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 437 
 
 Reign of 
 Cnut. 
 
 clesiastically represented it, extended much beyond chap, ix 
 the lane itself, we may conjecture that it ran through Thi 
 a district which was at this time unoccupied. 
 
 The settlement about St. Paul's, however, was far^Q^g ^^3^ 
 from being as early as the age of Mcllitus, for the . — 
 work of that missionary was interrupted by the apos- JopuUu 
 tasy of the East Saxons; and it is not till half a cen- *''"' 
 tury later, when London had passed under the Mer- 
 cian rule,' that we again find bishops settled there. 
 The most famous of these is Erkenwald," and it is 
 to him and his immediate successors that we must 
 attribute the little ring of churches and parishes — 
 such as St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Benet, and 
 St. Faith' — which show a growth of population round 
 the precincts of the minster. The legend of Erken- 
 wald for the first time brings us face to face with 
 the new burghers in their struggle with the monks 
 of Chertsey and the nuns of Barking, at whose house 
 he had died, for the possession of the sainted bishop's 
 remains. They broke into the death-chamber, runs 
 the legend, seized the corpse, and set it in a wagon, 
 drawn by oxen, to carry it to the city. Their torches, 
 however, were blown out by a mighty storm, they 
 could not ford the swollen waters of the Lea, nor 
 find boats to cross it, and a fresh strife rose over the 
 
 ' Wulfhere of Mercia sold its bishopric to Wini in 666.— Bzeda, 
 H. E. lib. iii. c. 7. 
 
 Baeda, H. E. lib. iv. c. 6. He became bishop in 675 or 676. and 
 died about 693.— Stubbs, article on " Erkenwald " in Diet. Christ. 
 Biogr. ii. 178. 
 
 ' The dedications to St. Augustine and St. Gregory bear evidence 
 of close association with the conversion of England. St. Bcnet's 
 or St. Benedict's recalls the* fact that it was during Erkenwald's 
 episcopate that the Benedictine rule first began to make its way in 
 England. St. Faith was a favorite early dedication.— (A. S. G.) 
 
438 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP^ix. remains, which only ended in both parties praying 
 iii for a miracle to decide between them. At their 
 »^/ prayers the waters parted and suffered the wagon to 
 ,ni«"7n.. pass through, the torches relighted themselves, the 
 1016^035. ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ burghers brought the body 
 
 of their saint in triumph into London/ About the 
 .same time, in the reign of Wulfhere's successor, 
 i^thelred, we catch the first indication of a revival 
 of the trade and foreign commerce of the town in 
 its mention as a mart for slaves, and the presence 
 there of merchants from Frisia;^ while towards the 
 close of the seventh century its "wic reeve" is men- 
 tioned in the laws of the Kentish kings/ 
 nea,a/>. If we look for the site of the early community to 
 which reeve and market and burgesses belonged, 
 tradition takes us to the district afterwards known 
 as the Ward of Cheap, as the oldest part of London. 
 Nor is the tradition at variance with the indications 
 of the ground itself. Nowhere was life so likely to 
 awake again as along the banks of the Walbrook, 
 then and for centuries to come a broad river-channel, 
 between whose muddy banks the stream was still 
 deep enough to float the small boats used in the 
 traffic up from the Thames to the very edge of the 
 " Cheap," or market-place, at the hythe or port which 
 tradition fixed in the modern Bucklersbury.* But 
 
 » We may oerhaps find a trace of Erkenwald in the church of All 
 Hallows. Barking, in the neighborhood of the Tower. Erkenwald 
 was the founder of the monastery at Barking, and the church and 
 parish may mark the locality of a soke or manor which he had 
 granted to it. / Baeda. H. E. lib. iv. c. 22. 
 
 3 Laws of Hlothere and Eadric— Thorpe, Anc. Laws, 1. 35. 
 
 * Stow's London (ed. Thoms). p. 97- Cheapward runs along the 
 Walbrook, from Bucklersbury to the Poultry. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 439 
 
 1016-1035. 
 
 that the space between this border of the Cheap and chap. ix. 
 the minster precincts was already fairly peopled by Thi^ 
 the close of the eighth century, we may gather from ^c^t.^' 
 the site of two of the churches within this area. 
 From the days of Wulfhere to those of Ecgberht, 
 London, save for its temporary subjection to the 
 West- Saxon rule by Ine, remained under the rule 
 of the Mercian kings, one of the greatest of whom, 
 Offa, is traditionally said to have occupied a king's 
 vill in what must have then been open ground to 
 the north of the little borough we have been describ- 
 ing, at a spot now marked by St. Alban's church in 
 Wood Street' Mildred was a popular Mercian saint 
 of the time ; and if the two churches dedicated to her 
 in Bread Street and in the Poultry be, as is likely, 
 of this date, they would show that the space between 
 the Cheap and the minster, from Fish Street on the 
 south to our Cheapside on the north, had grown 
 into a single borough before the days of Ecgberht." 
 
 ' In Abbot Paul's time— 1077-1093— the Abbey of St. Albans ac- 
 quired "plures ecclesias in Lundoniis, quarum unius donationem, 
 scilicet Sancti Albani, pro patronatu alterius, nescitur qua consi- 
 deratione Abbati Westmonasteriensi concessit. Fuit autcm capella 
 regis Oflfa, fundatoris, cui fuit continuum suum regale palatium. 
 Sed incuria sequacium et desidia omnis locus ille, improba occu- 
 patione civium vicinorium, in parvum mansum, libertatem tamen 
 antiquam retinentem, coartatur."'— Hist. Mon. S. Albani (ed. Riley), 
 1. 55- That is, an old chapel, perhaps of Offa's king's-tun, was 
 given to St. Alban's after the conquest, and ///^// made a church 
 under the abbey-saint's name. Stow and the ordinary London 
 historians blunder wildly about this. A grant of the last Mercian 
 king, Burhred, of a "gaziferi agelluli in vico Lundoniae, hoc est ubi 
 nominatur Ceolmundingchaga, qui est non longe from (sic) West- 
 getum positus" (Thorpe, Diplomatarium, p. 118), points to some 
 dwellings about " Westgate," the " Newgate" of later days. 
 
 ' That this early London grew up on ground from which the 
 Roman city had practically disappeared may be inferred from the 
 
440 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CAP. .x. The Story of the eastern half of London is, in its 
 ST. earliest part, even more obscure than the story of the 
 
 Reign of ^^,estern half The great central road from Newgate, 
 -' which crossed Walbrook at the Poultry, stretches 
 
 ^°^«±°"- thence through its area to London Bridge ; and a 
 S::^. Cheap grew up, probably at a very early time, on the 
 southern side of this road, the East-Cheap of later 
 days, though far smaller and less important than the 
 Cheap in the west. But this Cheap must at fust 
 have stood almost isolated;' it was only slowly that 
 population spread over the space about it, and dwell- 
 ings rose scantily and sporadically along the line of 
 communication which led from the bridge over Wal- 
 brook to the various gates, and through these to the 
 country beyond. It is thus as a place of traffic that 
 London reappears in history. Its position, indeed, 
 was such that traffic could not fail to re-create the 
 town ; for, whether a bridge or a ferry existed at this 
 
 change in the main line of communication which passed through 
 the heart of each. This was the road which led from Newgate to 
 he Se. In Roman London this seems to have struck through 
 the city in a direct line from Newgate to a bridge m the neighbor- 
 hood of the present Budge Row. Of this road the two extrem.t.es 
 sunted in English London : one from the gate to the precmcts of 
 St pIuI. he other in the present Budge Row. But between these 
 p^'ints a 1 trace of it is lost. The lines of the street that ran through 
 Ae a ea which it must have traversed are not only not m accord 
 ance with i-, but thrown diagonally across it. It ,s the same wher- 
 ever we dig over the site of the ancient city ; the remams of Roman 
 iTndon wlich we discover have litUe or no relafon to the Imes o. 
 
 ''? WetT i^: Iwever, extending as early as the close of the eighth 
 century, when Offa (Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 34. note) confirms a g,ft 
 of two^^rothers to the church of S. Denys of a plot of ground m 
 2>rtu qui nuncupatur Lunden-wick," in which we may probably ,ee 
 ?^e orSn of S. Dionis Backchurch at the south end of L>me Street, 
 just to north of the East-Cheap. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 441 
 
 time/ it was here that the traveller from Kent or chap. ix. 
 Gaul would still cross the Thames, and it was from iht 
 London that the roads still diverged which, silent ^^^"^ 
 and desolate as they had becom'e, furnished the,^, — „ 
 
 r . . iU Id— 1030. 
 
 means of communication to any part of Britain." — 
 The same advantages of site, in a word, which had 
 so rapidly drawn trade and population to the Roman 
 Londinium, would, though in a less degree, draw 
 trade and population to the English London.' 
 
 Though its growth was for a while arrested by B.^^in. 
 the early struggle with the Northmen, a new life Jll^S^^: 
 began for the city with its conquest by yElfred. ^'^'' 
 The most important part of his work was his resto- 
 ration of its walls. Like the rest of the Roman 
 town, the walls themselves had fallen into such de- 
 cay that they hardly formed any obstacle to an 
 assailant; and it is thus that we hear of no opposi- 
 tion to its repeated occupation by the Danes. Their 
 condition, indeed, is illustrated by the fact that the 
 very position of the gates must have become in 
 some cases uncertain; for the Bishopsgate which 
 dates from this time is considerably to the east of 
 the Roman gate which it represented. The secu- 
 rity, however, which was given by these walls, the 
 ne\v ^impulse derived from thei r rebuilding, and 
 
 'The first historical proof of the existence of a bridge is in Ead- 
 gar's day, when a witch was drowned there. "Da nam man «2et 
 wif, and adrencte hi act Lundenbricge."— Cod. Dip. 591. 
 
 = See Making of England, pp. 103, 104.— (A. S. G.) 
 The influence, of the bishops on its early development should 
 be noticed. Bishop Theodred, in his will (Thorpe, Diplomatarium, 
 P- 512), calls himself "bishop of the Lunden-wara," and this close 
 association of bishop, minster, and town is seen in the gathering of 
 me to k-moot at the eastern end of S. Paul's, summoned by its bell, 
 as well as in the muster of the citizens in arms at the western. 
 
442 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cnAi>. IX. above all, the peace and prosperity won by the great 
 Thi sovereigns who followed Alfred, are seen in the 
 ^c^t°' rapid extension of London through the following 
 j^jj— 035 century. The "eight moneyers" whom we find 
 — allotted to London by v^thelstan's laws show the 
 position it already held for wealth and importance. 
 Under ^thelstan, too, we find the first document 
 which throws light upon its municipal and commer- 
 cial life.' It is the record of a gild of a hundred 
 burghers who, with the sanction of the king and 
 bishop, organize themselves in groups of three, each 
 with its head-man, the whole body being united un- 
 der an ealdorman, with definite provisions for com- 
 mon meeting and common contributions, with a 
 view to the enforcement of a rough police and self- 
 government. The agreement constituting this frith- 
 gild is drawn up by the bishops and r.eeves belong- 
 ing to London, and confirmed by the pledges of the 
 friUi-gegildas. If this, as it seems, is the act of a 
 voluntary association, we have in it the first indica- 
 tion of the way in which the new London was to be 
 formed.' Frith-gilds such as this, church-sokes and 
 lay-sokes, were growing up side by side at various 
 points of the area within the walls, each with its 
 separate life and jurisdiction,' bu t all bound together 
 
 ' The Judicia Civitatis Lundoniae : Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 229 et 
 
 seq. 
 
 « •• London, when it springs into historical hght, is a collection ot 
 
 communities based on the lordship, the parish, and the gild ; and 
 
 there is no reason to doubt that similar coincident causes helped 
 
 the growth of such towns as York and Exeter."— Stubbs, Const. 
 
 Hist. i. 107. 
 
 ' The twelve "lawmen, habcntes sacam et socam," at Lincoln. 
 Stamford, and Cambridge, show a like organization in other English 
 towns. So at York, " in Eboraco civitate," says Domesday, " tem- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 443 
 
 Beign of 
 Cnat 
 
 London. 
 
 by a common relation to the king's reeve, port-reeve, chap, ix 
 or wick-reeve, as well as by those beginnings of a Thi 
 true municipal life which are to be seen in "the ex- 
 istence of a common Port-mannimot, or moot of ihc^^^^ ^^^ 
 burghers from all parts of the city. That this mu- — 
 nicipal life was furthered by and closely connected 
 with the bishops of the town was shown by the fact 
 that this moot was called together by the bell from 
 the bell-tower of St. Paul's, and that it met in the 
 space within the precinct to the eastward of the 
 church. Nor is it less remarkable that when the 
 burghers gathered for purposes of war they mus- 
 tered on the open space at the west end of the 
 church, and marched under the banner of St. Paul.' 
 
 It is only by conjecture that we can associate the Grmviu of 
 gild with its ealdorman at its head, whose memory 
 is preserved in the Dooms of ^thelstan, with the 
 Cnichten-gild of Eadgar's day, out of which the 
 later "merchant-gild" may have grown, or with the 
 "lithsmen" who play so important a part in Cnut's 
 day, and who seem to have conducted the inland 
 traffic with Oxford and the towns along the Thames. 
 Still more conjectural, perhaps, is the connection of 
 this gild with the borough which grew up to the 
 north of the earlier Lundon-burh, and which has left 
 a trace of itself in the name of Aldermanbury, a 
 name now lost in that of Cripple-gate ward. How- 
 ever this may be, it is probable that it is to this pe- 
 riod that we must refer the beginnings of this Eal- 
 dorman-bury, as well as of the Loth-bury which lay 
 
 pore^ regis Edwardi praeter scyram Archiepiscopi fuerunt sex 
 scyrae." 
 
 ' Stow's London (ed. Thorns), p. 12. 
 
444 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IX. on the banks of the Walbrook to the eastward, 
 Tho though the two boroughs were still parted from one 
 ^cnut°* another by a space which is now represented by 
 101^035 ^^^'^^g ' hall ward, and were far from extending 
 — ' northward to the wall' But to the eastward of the 
 Walbrook London must have been increasing even 
 more rapidly. While western London was growing 
 into the borough between the Poultry and St. Paul's, 
 eastern London seems still to have remained bare 
 of dwellings, save for the little group at its East- 
 Cheap and the houses which fringed the lanes that 
 led from the Poultry to the Bishopsgate and the 
 Bridge. The most important of these was probably 
 that^which led up Cornhill and along our Bishops- 
 gate Street to the great manors of the bishops on 
 the north of the city. As Cornhill was a bishop s 
 soke, it is likely that the string of dwellings which 
 came to creep up its ascent, with their church of St. 
 Peter in the midst of them, were due originally to 
 the needs of this communication with the episcopal 
 manors, while the bounds of the soke, as shown in 
 those of the modern wards, prove it to have been 
 originally a mere lane of houses, straggling, as we 
 may suppose, through an otherwise untenanted area. 
 Bishopsgate ward, which consists simply of that 
 street with the houses on both sides of the road, still 
 more clearly looks back to a time when the lane to 
 the Gate was a mere double line of houses running 
 through an area as yet unoccupied. 
 Grc,vf/i of But with the age of Eadgar came a time of rapid 
 ^Vad!. development which told yet more on eastern than 
 
 > The one monument on the west side of Walbrook which we can 
 certainly assign to this period is the church of St. Swithun. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 445 
 
 1016-1035. 
 
 on western London; for the trade which we find chap. ix. 
 established in the regulations of ^thelred' must The 
 have grown up under his father's reign. The com- "^J^°t°^ 
 merce with the north, which had come with the 
 Danes, was backed by a trade with the Rhineland 
 as well as by one with Normandy. " The men of 
 Rouen," runs the Institute, " who came with wine 
 and sturgeon, gave as dues six shillings for every 
 big ship and the twentieth piece of every sturgeon. 
 The men of Flanders and Ponthieu and Normandv 
 and France showed their goods for sale and paid 
 toll ; so did the men of Hogge and Liege and 
 Neville ; and the Emperor's men, who came in their 
 ships, were held worthy of good laws even as we." 
 The seafaring vessels in which this trade was con- 
 ducted, no longer able from their size to reach the 
 hythe in the Walbrook, moored along the Thames 
 itself at Billingsgate and Oueenhythe, on whose rude 
 wharves the laws show us piled a strange medley of 
 goods — pepper and spices from the far East, crates 
 of gloves and gray cloths, it may be from the Lom- 
 bard looms, sacks of wool, the lowly forerunners of 
 England's own great export in later days, iron-work 
 from Liege, butts of French wune and of vinegar, 
 and with them the rural products of the country 
 itself — cheese, butter, lard, and eggs, with live swine 
 and fovv'ls. The influence of the port at Billings- 
 gate was seen in the rapid peopling of eastern Lon- 
 don. Houses must have been already clustering 
 round the gates ; and it is probable that the district 
 just within the Aid-gate,' which was a soke in the 
 
 De Institutis Lundoniae : Thorpe, Anc. Laws, i. 300. 
 ' Now represented by its ward. 
 
446 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Reign of 
 Cnat. 
 
 1016-1035. 
 
 cHAP^ix. twelfth century,' was already to some extent peopled 
 Thi by Eadgar's day. If the tradition of the Cnichten- 
 gild, at any rate, is to be trusted, and if the district 
 without the gate,' then " desolate " from the Danish 
 ravages, was given to the gild as a soke by Eadgar,' 
 this would date the beginning of buildings in this 
 quarter and that of the church of St. Botulf, round 
 which they clustered as " the head of the soke," in his 
 reign. Just to the south of this district, and occupy- 
 ing the whole space between the East-Cheap and 
 the Tower, is another large area now represented by 
 Tower Ward. The church of All Hallows, Barking, 
 near the south-eastern angle of this ward, may, as we 
 have said, represent some slight gathering of people 
 there on land belonging to that house at an earlier 
 date, but the bulk of the area is divided between the 
 parishes of St. Dunstan in the East and St. Olave's, 
 Hart Street, and can therefore hardly have been 
 peopled at an earlier time than the reign of Eadgar 
 and ^thelred. If much of this sudden growth of 
 London was due to the new trading energy, much 
 was due to an actual settlement of Danes. Malmes- 
 bury indeed speaks of London as having become 
 half-barbarized at this time by the abundance of its 
 Danish inhabitants ;* their influence is shown by the 
 conversion of its Portmannimot into a "Husting;" 
 while the churches of St. Magnus and St. Olave, at 
 either end of the Bridge, suggest that the steep slope 
 down to the river along which Thames Street runs 
 
 » When it was held by Queen Matilda. 
 
 ^ Our Portsoken ward. 
 
 =■ Stow's London (ed. Thorns), p. 46. 
 
 * Will. Malm., Gest. Reg. (Hardy), i. 318. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 447 
 
 on either side Walbrook, as well as the similar slope chap. ix. 
 across the water, were both peopled by Northmen at Thi 
 about this period. It is possible, indeed, that the ^^^ut."^ 
 district that lies between the present Thames Street ^^^"^3^ 
 and the river was only reclaimed in the days of Cnut ; — 
 none of the dedications of the parishes in this region 
 point to an earlier date. 
 
 The wealth which had been brought to London ^'«A''- 
 by this rapid development of trade may be estimated Lo,Zon. 
 by the tribute demanded from it even in the first 
 year of Cnut's reign ; while the whole of England 
 had to pay a Danegeld of seventy -two thousand 
 pounds, the townsmen of London were taxed at ten 
 thousand five hundred pounds. And with the up- 
 growth of commercial activity and wealth there had 
 come, as we have seen, a new political importance 
 which, from the time of the later Danish wars, Lon- 
 don was never again to lose. Under Cnut it became 
 not only the commercial but the military centre of 
 the kingdom, and soon rose to be its political centre 
 as well. When the King of the West Saxons be- 
 came finally, in fact as well as in name. King of all 
 England, Winchester could no longer serve as the 
 seat of the royal powder, the capital of the larger 
 State ; and the new necessities of the time led to the 
 rapid rise in political importance of London, whose 
 position, commanding the highway of the Thames 
 and the great lines of communication which struck 
 from the chief port of the realm across the island, 
 made it the natural centre of the English provinces, 
 while it was no less fitted by position to become the 
 centre of the great empire which Cnut was building 
 lip on either shore of the North Sea. 
 
448 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 c..Af..x. The firm hold which Cnut had gamed on Eng- 
 ^e land during the eight years which followed his cor- 
 *''*^ °' ©nation, now left him free to turn to the affairs ot 
 — ■ his northern realm. He was already master of Den- 
 ioi»^035. ^^^^ ^^^ Norway had risen in revolt the year after 
 ^w«.i:;'"his conquest of England, 1017, and had driven out 
 his nephew, Jarl Hakon, who held it in the Danish 
 name. For a time Cnut took no measures of re- 
 venge, but remained firm to his policy of the con- 
 solidation of his power in England and Denmark. 
 In 1025, however, the peace and security of his em- 
 pire left him free to turn his thoughts to the asser- 
 tion of his supremacy, and to make a formal de- 
 mand for the submission of Norway. The mocking 
 answer of its native ruler, the famous St. Olaf, was 
 not followed at once by open war, but led to a train 
 of negotiations in which the prudence and skill of 
 Cnut showed themselves. While attempting to 
 break the alliance between Sweden and Norway, 
 and to spread disaffection and distrust among the 
 Norwegians, he sought to strengthen his hold in 
 Denmark itself by leaving as its ruler his son Har- 
 thacnut, a child of seven years old, in the charge 
 of his brother-in-law, Ulf. His next step showed 
 the large political conceptions which ruled his ac- 
 tion. The Scandinavian kingdoms had, up to this 
 time, lain outside the European commonwealth, 
 the terror and scourge of Western Christendom. 
 Heathenism still held its ground in the forests of 
 the North, and the peoples of Europe saw in the 
 pirates the deadly enemies alike of their civilization 
 and of their religion. Cnut's first aim was, by a 
 decisive act on his own part, to bring his northern 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 449 
 
 kingdom into a new union with Christendom. He chap.ix. 
 undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. As a West- rai 
 Saxon king he was, indeed, but following in the "jJSt" 
 steps of his predecessors for more than three hun- ,„,—«« 
 dred years past, but no Danish king or jarl had ever — 
 yet left the shores of Denmark as a pilgrim ; and 
 there was no longer any doubt as to the character 
 which the young king meant to impress on the gov- 
 ernment of his northern realm when, at twenty-six, 
 he set sail for Rome. From the moment of his 
 landing on the coast of Flanders the political char- 
 acter of his journey was clearly marked, whether he 
 turned aside to secure the friendship of Count Al- 
 bert at Namur, or astonished Bishop Fulbert of 
 Chartres by the wisdom and splendor of a king who 
 had till now been in the eyes of Europe but a leader 
 of heathen pirates. As he journeyed along the pil- 
 grims' route, he secured, by treaties with the masters 
 of the Alpine passes, safety for English merchants 
 and travellers to the Papal City, and in Rome itself 
 won from the Pope immunity from all tolls and 
 taxes for the Saxon school which had grown up 
 there. 
 
 His political work was completed in the spring //^s jVor/A. 
 by his meeting at Rome with the Emperor Conrad, ""'//f."" 
 when the master of the two kingdoms of Denmark 
 and England was strong enough to wring from the 
 Emperor the restoration of the land beyond the 
 Eider which had been seized by Otto the Second, 
 and to throw back the German frontier to that 
 river; while a treaty was arranged for the future 
 marriage of Cnut's daughter to the son of Conrad, 
 afterwards the Emperor Henry HI. But from his 
 
 29 
 
450 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ciiAT^ix. triumphant pilgrimage Cnut returned to fresh 
 ^ troubles at home. England, indeed, remained 
 ^cnuV^ peaceful, but Denmark had revolted in favor of the 
 101^035 ^^'^^^^ Harthacnut and the regent Ulf, and, torn by 
 — civil strife, was in no state to resist the combined 
 attack with which it was threatened by Norway and 
 Sweden. Cnut, however, backed by the steady loy- 
 alty of his English realm, and strengthened by the 
 new naval power which it had developed in these 
 years of prosperity, was able to make himself quick- 
 ly master of Denmark and to repulse the invasion 
 of the allied fleets; and in the following year, 1028, 
 he sailed from England to Norway with fifty great 
 ships, and drove King Olaf out of the land, over 
 which he set his nephew, Hakon, as jarl. A last 
 rising of the Norwegians against his power, in 1029, 
 was at once stamped out, and till his death Norway 
 owned his rule. 
 T/i^Scof- Lord of three realms, Cnut could now turn to the 
 ''Vfi!!^^' last troubles that seemed to threaten him, and act 
 as decisively on the borders of his English realm as 
 in the northern seas. His power was shown by the 
 ease with which he crushed difficulties that had 
 hardly tried the resources of the earlier English 
 kings. A rising of the Welsh had been checked in 
 the first years of his rule by the march of an army 
 on St. David's, and among the last events of his 
 reign we hear of the slaying of a Welsh prince by 
 the"^ English. These later years were marked, too, 
 by his action in putting an end to the dangers 
 which sprang from the new attitude of the Scottish 
 kings. We have already seen how the political re- 
 lations of the Scots with their southern neighbors 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 451 
 
 had been affected by the action of the Danes, chap. ix. 
 Pressed between the Norse jarls settled in Caith- The 
 ness and the Danelaw of central England, the Scot ^J^t**' 
 kings were glad to welcome the friendship of Wes-j^j^^jg^ 
 sex; but with the conquest by the house of Alfred — 
 of the Danelaw, and the extension of the new Eng- 
 lish realm to their own southern border, their dread 
 of English ambition became in its turn greater than 
 their dread of the Dane. In the battle of Brunan- 
 burh the Scot king Constantine fought side by side 
 with the Northmen against ^thelstan. Eadmund's 
 gift of southern Cumbria showed the price which the 
 English kings set upon Scottish friendship. The 
 district was thenceforth held by the heir of the 
 Scottish crown, and for a time at least the policy 
 of conciliation seems to have been successful, for 
 the Scots proved Eadred's allies in his wars with 
 Northumbria. But even as allies they were still 
 pressi'ng southward on the English realm. Across 
 the Forth lay the English Lowlands, that northern 
 Bernicia which had escaped the Danish settlement 
 that changed the neighboring Deira into a part of 
 the Danelaw. It emerged from the Danish storm 
 as English as before, with a line of native ealdor- 
 men who seem to have inherited the blood of its 
 older kings. Harassed as the land had been, and 
 changed as it was from the Northumbria of Baeda 
 or Cuthbert, Bernicia was still a tempting bait to 
 the clansmen of the Scottish realm. 
 
 One important post was already established on ^^s-u/n- 
 Northumbrian soil. Whether by peaceful cession Nonhem 
 on Eadred's part or no, the border fortress of Edin- ^''"'"''' 
 burgh passed during his reign into Scottish hands. 
 
452 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IX. It is uncertain if the grant of Lothian by Eadgar 
 m followed the acquisition of Edinburgh ; but at the 
 ^?j??t'' close of his reign the southward pressure of the 
 loieToM Sco^^ ^^'^^^ strongly felt. " Raids upon Saxony " are 
 — ' marked by the Pictish chronicle among the deeds of 
 King Kenneth; and amidst the troubles of yEthel- 
 red's" reign a Scottish host swept the country to the 
 very gates of Durham. But Durham was rescued 
 by the sword of Uhtred, and the heads of the slain 
 marauders were hung by their long, twisted hair 
 round its walls. The raid and the fight were mem- 
 orable as the opening of a series of descents which 
 were from this time to form much of the history of 
 the north. Cnut was hardly seated on the throne 
 when in 1018 the Scot king, Malcolm, made a fresh 
 inroad on Northumbria, and the flower of its nobles 
 fell fighting round Earl Eadwulf in a battle at Car- 
 ham, on the Tweed. For a time the blow passed 
 unavenged, and it was not till 103 1 that Cntit was 
 forced by fi'esh outbreaks to march upon the Scots. 
 The might of the great conqueror must have been 
 overwhelming, for Malcolm submitted without a 
 battle; but his pledge to become Cnut's "man" 
 seems to have been part of a political arrangement 
 by which the possession of his conquests was con- 
 firmed to the Scottish king, and by which the north- 
 ern half of the old Northumbrian kingdom became 
 henceforth part of the Scottish realm. 
 Its results. Fcw gaius havc told more powerfully on the po- 
 litical character of a kingdom than this. King of 
 western Dalriada, king of the Picts, lord of Cum- 
 bria, the Scot king had till now been ruler only of 
 Gaelic and Cymric peoples. " Saxony," the land of 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 453 
 
 the English across the Forth, had been simply a chap. ix. 
 hostile frontier — the land of an alien race — whose The 
 rule had been felt in the assertion of Northumbrian ^c^t*^ 
 supremacy and West-Saxon over-lordship. Now for^Qj^^g^ 
 the first time Malcolm saw Englishmen among his — 
 subjects. Lothian, with its Northumbrian farmers 
 and seamen, became a part of his dominions. And 
 from the first moment of its submission it was a 
 most important part. The wealth, the civilization, 
 the settled institutions, the order of the English ter- 
 ritory won by the Scottish king, placed it at the 
 head of the Scottish realm. The clans of Cantyre 
 or of the Highlands, the Cymry of Strathclyde, fell 
 into the background before the stout farmers of 
 northern Northumbria. The spell drew the Scot 
 king, in course of time, from the very land of the 
 Gael. Edinburgh, an English town in the English 
 territory, became ultimately his accustomed seat. 
 In the midst of an English district the Scot kings 
 gradually ceased to be the Gaelic chieftains of a 
 Gaelic people. The process at once began which 
 was to make them Saxons, Englishmen in tongue, 
 in feeling, in tendency, in all but blood. Nor was 
 this all. The gain of Lothian brought them into 
 closer political relations with the English crown. 
 The loose connection which the king of Scots and 
 Picts had acknowledged in owning Eadward the 
 Elder as father and lord, had no doubt been drawn 
 tighter by the fealty now owed for the fief of Cum- 
 bria. But Lothian was English ground, and the 
 grant of Lothian made the Scot king "man" of the 
 English king for that territory, as Earl Eadwulf was 
 Cnut's "man" for the land to the south of it. So- 
 
454 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CH.P..X. cial influences, political relations, were henceforth 
 S; to draw the two realms together; bu it is in the 
 »«*' "' cession of Lothian that the process really began. 
 
 """■ At "he moment this settlement of the north was 
 ^o"^"**- ,hi,fly in^portant as freeing Cnufs hands to deal 
 ^.SW^with dangers which -ere now gathering in the 
 '"^'"r- south The policy by which A-thelred had de- 
 '"""" Ltd Normandy from its old association wi h the 
 Danes was at last bearing fruit. Of the 1 ne of 
 Cerdic, none remained to dispute Cn"t s throne 
 save the two sons of Eadmund Ironside, who had 
 found a distant refuge in Hungary, and their uncle 
 the sons of ^thelred by his second n^-nage with 
 Emma, the ^thelings Alfred and Eadward. F om 
 the time of their father's flight from England these 
 had remained at the Norman court, and thoug. m 
 weddin- Emma anew to Cnut, Richard the Good 
 virtually pledged himself to give no Norman aid to 
 hfs n Phews'^claims, their presence at Rouen was 
 St 11 a check on the English king. Children as they 
 were of Emma, and bred up from childhood at the 
 ducal court, the two ^thelings seemed, to every 
 NoTman, members of the ducal house and Normans 
 likeThemselves; and from after-events we see how 
 readUy the Norman knighthood would have followed 
 hem 'in any effort to gain the E^gbsh crow. 
 Everv day made the chance of such an attack a 
 ^ore formidable danger; for not only was Norman- 
 I growing fast in population and military power 
 but the energy of its people was already m secret 
 revo t a^insf the peaceful system of the,r dukes. 
 The duchy was seething with hot-blooded soldiers, 
 bnting for enterprise, as well as envious of the 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 455 
 
 Danes who put into their harbors with booty won chaf. ix. 
 on English ground; and an occasional march to aid The 
 the Parisian king, or to avenge a wrong offered by ^c^ut°' 
 the Burgundian duke, or to drive off neighbor ^q^q^^^qj^ 
 princes from the border, was all that Richard's — 
 peaceful reign offered in the way of outer warfare, 
 while his stern hand crushed roughly out all chance 
 of disorder at home. Little by little, therefore, the 
 old northern spirit of wandering and venturing 
 found outlets elsewhere. Roger de Toesny led a 
 troop of warriors to Spain, and some Norman pil- 
 grims in Apulia grew fast into a war-band which 
 was to change the destinies of southern Italy. 
 
 England offered a nearer field for adventure than Robcnthe 
 Italy or Spain; and, wedded as he was to a Norman 
 wife, Cnut must have watched jealously the temper 
 of the Norman people through the reigns of Rich- 
 ard the Good and of his son and successor, Richard 
 the Third. The danger which he dreaded at last 
 actually fronted him on the accession of Robert — 
 Robert the Devil, as men called him in after-time — 
 who became duke of Normandy on his brother's 
 death in 1028. The land was now ringing with the 
 marvellous victories over Greek or Moslem which 
 Normans were winning in far - off fields ; poor 
 knights and younger sons, sick of peace and good 
 order, were streaming off, in band after band, over 
 Alps and Pyrenees ; and the restless temper of his 
 people stirred the blood in the veins of their duke. 
 From the first Robert showed his warlike activity, 
 crushing revolt within his duchy, bringing Brittany 
 back into submission, restoring Count Baldwin to 
 power in Flanders, and seating King Henry, in the 
 
45^ 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 The 
 
 Reign of 
 
 Cnut. 
 
 1016-1035. 
 
 IVilliam 
 
 Ihe iYor- 
 
 man. 
 
 face of all opposition, on the French throne. But 
 France offered no such scope for greed and ambi- 
 tion as the land over the Channel. England was 
 nearer than S^3ain or Apulia, and the title of the 
 sons of .^ the: red gave a fair pretext for attack. 
 We are left to Norman writers for the incidents of 
 the quarrel, and we know nothing of its cause, or of 
 the grounds which induced Robert to set aside the 
 claims of his sister and of the child she had borne 
 to Cnut. But if greed and ambition were strong 
 enough to set these aside, the claims of the sons of 
 ^thelred, who were equally akin to him, gave Rob- 
 ert a fair pretext for attack. The Norman baron- 
 age at once backed him in his plan of invasion, and 
 the duke set sail with the eldest of the two .^thel- 
 
 ings — Alfred. 
 
 That Robert's fortune would have been that of 
 the later conqueror may well be doubted. Cnut 
 was at the height of his power, and the one chance 
 of success against him lay in an English rising 
 which might have welcomed the ^theling. But 
 contest there was to be none. Robert's project 
 broke down before the obstacle which had so often 
 foiled attacks on the English shore; for a storm 
 carried the Norman fleet down the Channel, and 
 flung it, wrecked, on the coast of Jersey. It may 
 have been the bitterness of this failure which drove 
 the duke from his throne. Pilgrimages to the Sep- 
 ulchre of Christ were now growing common in Nor- 
 mandy, and Robert announced his purpose of going 
 as pilgrim to the Holy Land. But some prevision 
 of the doom which awaited him drove the duke to 
 name his successor ere he left. Claimants of the 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 457 
 
 duchy there were in plenty, whether of the stock of chap. ix. 
 Richard the Fearless or of the stock of Richard the The 
 Good. Child of his own, Robert had but one. In ^t."* 
 the little dell which parts the two cliffs, the two^^^rTn,^ 
 
 r n " 1*11 • 1 • lUiD-iOoo. 
 
 '' tells which have given their name to Falaise, one — 
 may still hear the chatter of the women who w^ash 
 their linen at the brook. One of such a group — a 
 tanner's daughter of the town— had cauirht the liirht 
 fancy of Robert and became the mother of his boy. 
 At the moment of the child's birth the gossips 
 noted the sturdy grasp with which his fingers seized 
 and held the straws scattered on the floor. He 
 would be no Norman, they laughed, to let go what 
 once he had gripped. The laugh proved a true 
 prophecy, but none of the laughers knew how 
 mighty a prize that hand was in after-days to grip. 
 It was this boy, William, whom the duke forced his 
 barons to choose as their future lord ere he left the 
 land which he was never to see again; for after a 
 few months' stay he died on his return at Nicaea in 
 July, 1035. The news of his death set Normandy 
 on fire. The boy-duke was a child and a bastard, 
 scorned for age as for shame of birth by the haughty 
 lords whom the upgrowth of feudalism had made 
 powers in the land. Even the dukes before him had 
 found it hard to secure peace and order in a coun- 
 try which was filled with turbulent nobles, and whose 
 people had still the wild northern blood, with its love 
 of lawless outbreak stirring in their veins. " Nor- 
 mans must be trodden down and kept under foot," 
 sang one of their poets, " and he who bridles them 
 may use them at his need." But no child-duke could 
 bridle them. The great border nobles held William s 
 
453 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 459 
 
 Death of 
 Cnut. 
 
 CHAP. IX. rule at defiance. On every height and mound rose 
 
 ne square keeps of solid stone, which helped their build- 
 
 ^Sfnt°' ers to hold the child-duke at bay. The land became 
 
 nifi"To35 ^ chaos of bloodshed and anarchy, while William 
 
 — saw his friends murdered beside him, and was driven 
 
 from refuge to refuge by foes who sought his life. 
 
 That the boy whose reign began in this wild 
 storm was to tear England from the grasp of the 
 Dane and to hold the land at his will, Cnut could 
 not know. What he saw was the drifting away of 
 the danger to his throne from the ^thelings across 
 the Chalinel. From a boy-duke of eight years old, 
 from this chaotic Normandy, small aid could come 
 to the sons of yEthelrcd. But it was at the moment 
 when his last difficulty vanished that Cnut's vigor 
 suddenly gave way. Long and eventful as his reign 
 had been, he was still only a man of forty when he 
 died, in Novembei, 1035, leaving his work all un- 
 finished. The empire he had built up at once fell 
 to pieces at the tidings of his death. Norway threw 
 off the Danish yoke by driving out Cnut's son, 
 Swein, and chose as king the child Magnus, son of 
 Olaf, while Swein fled to Denmark to share the 
 kingdom with his brother Harthacnut, till his death 
 a few months after. For years to come Hartha- 
 cnut's energies were wholly absorbed in guarding 
 Denmark from the danger of Norwegian invasion, 
 and his treaty with Magnus, that if either of the 
 kings died childless his dominions should pass to 
 the%ther, showed the insecurity of the house of 
 Cnut even in Denmark itself. The kingdom of 
 England which was to have fallen to Harthacnut by 
 hislather's will, and, doubtless, was to have carried 
 
 with it the over -lordship of the whole empire, lay chap. ix. 
 beyond the reach of the hardly - pressed ruler of The 
 Denmark ; it was claimed by another son of Cnut, ^c^t.*^' 
 Harald, and itself fell asunder into two parts. A^Q^gT^^g^ 
 tragic fate, too, av/aited the house of Cnut. Be- - - 
 fore seven years were past the same weakness which 
 had cut short his own life had carried off his four 
 children, not one of them having reached twenty- 
 four years of age, and all childless save Gunhild, the 
 wife of the German, Henry HI., whose only child 
 became a nun. The race of Gorm in the direct line 
 of descent thus became extinct in little more than a 
 hundred years after he had finished his work of the 
 creation of the Danish kingdom. 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 461 
 
 <( 
 
 
 
 it 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF GODWINE. 
 1035-1053. 
 
 r.Mono/ The death of Cnut left Godvvine the greatest 
 CM,,.. jijj^^i po,,.er in the land. For years he had stood 
 second only to the king in his English realm ; as 
 Earl of Wessex he was master of the wealthiest and 
 most powerful portion of the kingdom ; and Cnut's 
 absences on foreign campaigns had accustomed 
 Englishmen to look on Godwine as the real centre 
 of administrative government. The will of Cnut, 
 that he should be succeeded by Harthacnut m the 
 En<^lish kingdom and the over-lordship of his north- 
 ern^realms, embodied no doubt not the king's pur- 
 pose only, but that of the minister who had been his 
 chief counsellor for fifteen years past, and repre- 
 sented that connection with the North, that main- 
 tenance of a Scandinavian empire, which was as yet 
 the policy of Godwine as it had been the policy of 
 the king. For English as was his blood, and Eng- 
 lish as his policy wrs to become in later days, God- 
 wine can have shared but little the general drift of 
 English feeling against the Dane. As yet, indeed, 
 he must have seemed to Englishmen more Dane 
 than Englishman. He had risen through the favor, 
 he had guided the counsels, of a Danish conqueror. 
 His renown as a warrior had been won in Danish 
 
 wars. He was wedded to a wife of Danish blood, chap. x. 
 and his two eldest children, Swein and Harold, bore The 
 the Danish names of Cnut's elder boys. It was ^"Le 
 no wonder, therefore, that he supported, on Cnut's j^j^qj, 
 death, the continuance of that union of Enarland — 
 with Denmark which Harthacnut's succession se- 
 cured. 
 
 But the internal poHcy of both king and minis- Godwine' s 
 ,ter had made their outer policy impossible. Their 
 whole system of government and administration had 
 nursed English feeling into a new and vigorous life. 
 To England Cnut had been an English king. If 
 he had ruled other lands it was from Winchester, 
 as dependencies of his English crown. The very 
 Danes who had settled in England had learned 
 through his long and peaceful reign to look on 
 themselves as Englishmen, and on Denmark as a 
 foreign land. But Harthacnut had scarcely been 
 seen in England ; from early childhood he had been 
 trained in Denmark as its kins:, and it mi2:ht well 
 be thought that his rule meant the rule of England 
 from a Danish throne. If the influence of Godwine 
 and the Lady Emma at Winchester was strong 
 enough to hold the West-Saxon earldom true to the 
 claims of Harthacnut, the rest of England called for 
 a national king. In pleading for the succession of 
 Harthacnut, Godwine doubtless seemed to the peo- 
 ple at large to be pleading for Danish rule. To his 
 fellow earls he seemed no doubt pleading for his 
 own, and political rivalry united with national feel- 
 ing in urging Earl Leofric of Mercia to withstand 
 him. It marks the hold which Cnut's greatness had 
 given him on the affections of Englishmen, that even 
 
462 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 Godwine. 
 
 1035-1063. 
 
 Harold 
 Harefoot. 
 
 Division 
 of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 in setting aside Harthacnut they showed no will to 
 set aside his father's Hne. Not a cry was raised 
 for the children of /Ethelred. Cnut's death, indeed, 
 had at onc^ been followed by a descent of the 
 ^theling Eadward with forty Norman ships at 
 SouthanTpton, but the attack had failed, and its 
 
 failure was decisive. 
 
 It was Cnut's elder son, Harald— " Harefoot, as 
 he was called for his swiftness of foot— who, Dane as 
 he was, at any rate represented an England separate 
 from Denmark, that Leofric and the " lithsmen,' a 
 merchant-gild of London, called to the throne. The 
 hus-carls of the dead king were still with Emma at 
 Winchester, and a word from Godwine would have 
 pluncred England into war. But warrior as he had 
 shown himself in earlier days, it is the noblest trait 
 in the character of Godwine throughout his political 
 career that he shrank from civil bloodshed. The 
 Witan gathered at Oxford to decide the question of 
 the succession ; Leofric demanded a division of the 
 realm, and stubborn as was Godwine's resistance, 
 he yielded at last to the doom of his fellow nobles. 
 For the moment, indeed, his influence, and it may 
 be dread of the dead king s hus-carls, saved his own 
 earldom, which was suffered to remain faithful to 
 Harthacnut; but the rest of England took Harald 
 
 for its king. . 
 
 It was, however, impossible that such a division 
 of the realm could last long. The strife which had 
 acrain broken the land into two parts was indeed 
 the renewal of the old contest between Wessex and 
 the rest of England ; but the new attitude of London 
 marked a decisive and important change. From 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 463 
 
 the moment that London sided, not with Wessex chap. x. 
 but with England, the relation of parties was altered, The 
 and the ultimate victory of the national will over G^^JinJ. 
 provincial jealousies could be no longer doubtful. 103^:7^53 
 If the new division of England between two claim- — 
 ants recalled the compromise of Olney, there was 
 still a significant difference. It was the king of the 
 joint Mercian and Northumbrian realms who was 
 now over-lord, while the West-Saxon ruler sank to 
 the position of under-king. Such a settlement struck 
 a hard blow at the authority of Earl Godwine. Un- 
 der Cnut he had been second only to the king in 
 his power over all England ; with a stranger such 
 as Harthacnut he w^ould have ruled supreme. But 
 Leofric's action limited his power to W^essex, and 
 even in Wessex it would seem as if Emma was a 
 formidable rival, for if, as is stated, she had been 
 already robbed by Harald of Cnut's treasure, she 
 still preserved Cnut's body of hus-carls round her at 
 Winchester. The continued absence of Hartha- 
 cnut, too, who was still held in Denmark, weakened 
 Godwine's position. Even in his own earldom 
 men's minds turned from the absent to the present 
 king; and it w^ould seem that public feeling was 
 wholly against Godwine's policy, for the Chronicle 
 says " the cry was then greatly in favor of Harald." 
 
 So difficult, indeed, was his position in Wessex, ^^"'''^<^'' c/* 
 that it woke the ^thelings over sea to a fresh 
 attempt. It may be that Emma, hopeless of in- 
 ducing Harthacnut to take possession of his West- 
 Saxon kingdom, had turned to the children she had 
 so long forgotten in Normandy. It was at any rate 
 in peaceful guise, and with the pretext of visiting 
 
464 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 465 
 
 cHAP.x. his mother, that /Elf red, the younger /Ethehng, 
 x7e landed with a train of Normans at Dover, and rode 
 5!?"^°' throucrh Surrey towards Winchester. He may have 
 - ^' hoped that the old West-Saxon loyalty would sprmg 
 ^'^- ^- into fresh life as he neared the West-Saxon capital ; 
 but whatever was his purpose it was ended by a 
 brutal deed. At Guildford he was seized earned 
 over the Thames to Harald Barefoot, and by Har- 
 aid's orders blinded, and left to die among the 
 monks at Ely, while the Normans who followed 
 him were put to the sword or sold for slaves. Even 
 amoncr Englishmen the cruel act was followed by a 
 thrill of horror. ''Viler deed was never done in 
 this land since Dane came here," sang an English 
 minstrel. Over sea it kindled among the Normans 
 a thirst for vengeance which never ceased till the 
 day of Senlac; and justly or unjustly, the Norman 
 hate centred itself on Godwine. What his part in 
 thfmatter had been it is hard to tell. Whether or 
 not the seizure was made by Godwine s men is a 
 matter of doubt, but it was made in Godwine s earl- 
 dom • and the success of /Elf red would have over- 
 thrown Godwine^s power. So general -- Jl^^-; 
 viction that the deed lay at his door, hat in the 
 next reign the earl was charged with the gmlt by 
 Archbishop ^Ifric, and forced to purge himself 
 solemnly of the charge by oath before the altar. 
 But though Godwine was acquitted oy the \\ 1 an 
 of the charge of betrayal, his oath w^eighed littk 
 with Alfred's kindred. Emma believed that it was 
 the earl who had given up her son, and Eadward 
 . looked on him as his brother's murderer. It wa. 
 no wonder that throughout the length and breadth 
 
 of Normandy men held that the blood of .Elfred, 
 and of the Normans who followed him, rested upon 
 Godwine and his house. 
 
 The political action of the earl after the murder 
 gave strength to the Norman belief. Godwine's 
 loss of power had already been great. His influence 
 was now bounded by Wessex, and even in Wessex 
 it was seriously threatened. The compromise which 
 reserved southern England to Harthacnut had every 
 hour grown more impossible ; men wearied of wait- 
 ing for a king who never came, and it seemed as if 
 Wessex had to choose between submission to Har- 
 ald Harefoot, or a rising in favor of the line of 
 Cerdic. But Godwine had as yet no mind to aban- 
 don the house of Cnut, though it seems as if despair 
 of Harthacnut's coming was already swaying him 
 to the side of Harald when Alfred landed. His 
 landing precipitated a change of policy which had 
 already become inevitable, and the murder made 
 further hesitation impossible. It was the alliance 
 with Emma which had enabled the earl to hold 
 Wessex for Harthacnut, and now that Emma was 
 parted from him by her belief in his guilt, Godwine 
 was forced from the position he had held so stub- 
 bornly. A new Witenagemot w^as gathered in 1037 
 to receive his submission. Emma was driven from 
 the country, Harthacnut was forsaken by the earl 
 and the men of Wessex, " for that he was too long 
 in Denmark," and Harald became king over all the 
 land. 
 
 Godwine remained Earl of Wessex. But if he 
 had forsaken Harthacnut, Emma was still faithful 
 to her son. She seems to have cared little for 
 
 30 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 
 HOUM of 
 
 Godwine. 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 Submission 
 of God- 
 wins. 
 
 Hartha- 
 emit. 
 
464 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP.X. his mother, that Alfred, the younger ^theling, 
 Thi landed with a train of Normans at Dover, and rode 
 Q^winl through Surrey towards Winchester. He may have 
 1035^053 hoP^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ West-Saxon loyalty would spring 
 — into fresh life as he neared the West-Saxon capital ; 
 but whatever was his purpose it was ended by a 
 brutal deed. At Guildford he was seized, carried 
 over the Thames to Harald Harefoot, and by Har- 
 ald's orders blinded, and left to die among the 
 monks at Ely, while the Normans who followed 
 him were put to the sword or sold for slaves. Even 
 among Englishmen the cruel act was followed by a 
 thrill of horror. "Viler deed was never done in 
 this land since Dane came here," sang an English 
 minstrel. Over sea it kindled among the Normans 
 a thirst for vengeance which never ceased till the 
 day of Senlac; and justly or unjustly, the Norman 
 hate centred itself on Godwine. What his part in 
 the matter had been it is hard to tell. Whether or 
 not the seizure was made by Godwine's men is a 
 matter of doubt, but it was made in Godwine's earl- 
 dom ; and the success of i^lfred would have over- 
 thrown Godwine's power. So general was the con- 
 viction that the deed lay at his door, that in the 
 next reign the earl was charged with the guilt by 
 Archbishop .^Ifric, and forced to purge himself 
 solemnly of the charge by oath before the altar. 
 But though Godwine was acquitted by the Witan 
 of the charge of betrayal, his oath weighed little 
 with yElfred's kindred. Emma believed that it was 
 the earl who had given up her son, and Eadward 
 looked on him as his brother's murderer. It was 
 no wonder that throughout the length and breadtli 
 
 465 
 
 of Normandy men held that the blood of Alfred, chap.x. 
 and of the Normans who followed him, rested upon Thi 
 Godwine and his house. ^°"»? 0^ 
 
 The political action of the earl after the murder ,^^r"'''" 
 gave strength to the Norman belief. Godwine's — 
 loss of power had already been great. His influence '"'^T.r 
 was now bounded by Wessex, and even in Wessex '^'"'' 
 it was seriously threatened. The compromise which 
 reserved southern England to Harthacnut had every 
 hour grown more impossible ; men wearied of wait- 
 ing for a king who never came, and it seemed as if 
 Wessex had to choose between submission to Har- 
 ald Harefoot, or a rising in favor of the line of 
 Cerdic. But Godwine had as yet no mind to aban- 
 don the house of Cnut, though it seems as if despair 
 of Harthacnut's coming was already swaying him 
 to the side of Harald when yElfred landed.^ His 
 landing precipitated a change of policy which had 
 already become inevitable, and the murder made 
 further hesitation impossible. It was the alliance 
 with Emma which had enabled the earl to hold 
 Wessex for Harthacnut, and now that Emma was 
 parted from him by her belief in his guilt, Godwine 
 was forced from the position he had held so stub- 
 bornly.^ A new Witenagemot was gathered in 1037 
 to receive his submission. Emma was driven from 
 the country, Harthacnut w^as forsaken by the earl 
 and the men of Wessex, " for that he was too long 
 in Denmark," and Harald became king over all the 
 land. 
 
 Godwine remained Earl of Wessex. But if he ^^'''■^^^^^ 
 had forsaken Harthacnut, Emma was still faithful ''"''' 
 to her son. She seems to have cared little for 
 
 30 
 
466 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 467 
 
 cHAP.x. her children by ^^thelred, whom she had not seen 
 The since their boyhood, and to have concentrated her 
 
 G^^ne. love on her younger children by Cnut. When 
 1035^053 ^^^^ sentence of the Witenagemot, therefore, drove 
 — her from Winchester, she took refuge not in Nor- 
 mandy, which was now backing the ^theling Ead- 
 ward, but in Flanders. Her temper was active as 
 of old. From " Baldwin's land " her messengers 
 again pressed Harthacnut to strike a blow for his 
 heritage; and in the winter of 1039 he sailed to 
 Flanders to devise plans with his mother for a great 
 invasion, and returned to the north at the opening 
 of spring to put himself at the head of the fleet 
 which he was preparing. But death had already 
 removed his rival. In March, 1040, Harald Hare- 
 foot died at Oxford, and was carried to Westminster 
 for burial. When Harthacnut touched at Bruges 
 with his fleet he was met by the news that the 
 English Witan had chosen him for their king; and 
 in the following June he landed peacefully at Sand- 
 wich, with the fleet of sixty vessels which had been 
 gathered for the conquest of the kingdom. The 
 fierce vengeance of the young sovereign, it may be 
 of Emma, tore up his predecessor's body from its 
 resting-place and flung it into a fen. Godwine 
 acrain found himself in hard straits. He had to 
 clear himself by solemn oath of the charge of be- 
 trayal of i^lfred brought against him by Archbishop 
 ^fric. All memory of the stand he had made for 
 the succession of Harthacnut was lost in the fresher 
 memory of his submission to Harald. But costly 
 gifts enabled him to retain his earldom through 
 Harthacnut's reign. The two years of the young 
 
 « 
 
 1035-1053 
 
 king's rule were marked by little save heavy taxa- chap.x. 
 tion for payment of the Danish host which was to xho 
 have won back England, and by the stern suppres- ^^nl 
 sion of resistance to this Danegeld at Worcester. 
 Discontent would probably have passed into revolt, 
 had not the certainty of his approaching end turned 
 men's minds to the /Etheling Eadward. The rise 
 of a new sympathy for the house of Cerdic had 
 been seen in the charge brought against Godwine, 
 and the misrule of Harald and Harthacnut had ren- 
 dered the succession of another Dane impossible. 
 Even Harthacnut turned to his mother's son ; and 
 ere he died Eadward was summoned by the king 
 himself from his refuge in Normandy, and recog- 
 nized as heir to the throne. 
 
 A halo of tenderness spread in after-time round ^^^'i 
 this last king of the old English stock. Legend Eadward. 
 told of his pious simplicity, his blitheness and gen- 
 tleness of mood, the holiness that won him in after- 
 time his title of Confessor, and enshrined him as 
 a saint in the abbey church at W^cstminster. His 
 was the one figure that stood out bright against the 
 darkness when England lay trodden underfoot by 
 Norman conquerors ; and so dear became his mem- 
 ory that liberty and independence itself seemed in- 
 carnate in his name. Instead of freedom, the sub- 
 jects of William or Henry called for the "good laws 
 of Eadward the Confessor." But it was, in fact, as 
 a mere shadow of the past that the exile returned 
 to the land that had cast him out in his childhood. 
 His blue eyes and flaxen hair, indeed, were those of 
 his race, but the fragile form, the delicate complex- 
 ion, the transparent, womanly hands of Eadward 
 
 'I 
 
 y% 
 
468 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 469 
 
 1035 1053. 
 
 cHAP.x. told that no great warrior or ruler was to mount 
 Th^ in him the throne of /Ethelstan and Eadgar. He 
 oodwLe was a stranger, too, in the realm. Thirty years had 
 passed since the child had been driven from Eng- 
 lish shores, and, save in his fruitless descent on 
 Southampton, he had never touched them since. 
 He had grown to manhood at the Norman court. 
 His memories were not of the father who had died 
 in his childhood, or of the mother who had forsaken 
 him through long years of exile, but of the Norman 
 dukes who had sheltered him, of his uncle, Richard 
 the Good, of his cousins, Richard and Robert, of 
 Robert's son, William, the young kinsman who was 
 battling with a storm of rebellion and treachery in 
 the land which Had ward loved. In all but name, 
 indeed, he was a Norman. He spoke the Norman 
 tono-ue ; he used, in Norman fashion, a seal for 
 his ^charters ; his sympathies lay naturally with the 
 friends of his Norman life. The Englishmen among 
 whom he found himself when Harthacnut summon- 
 ed him to his court were all .strangers to him, and 
 the shy, timid exile of forty had neither Cnut's tem- 
 per nor Cnut's youth to enable him to throw him- 
 self into new associations. It is characteristic of 
 Eadward's sympathies that, ailing as his half-brother 
 was, he seems again to have quitted England after 
 his recognition as heir to the crown, and to have 
 been still in Normandy in the summer of 1042, 
 when Harthacnut "died as he stood at his drink" 
 at a marriage feast in Lambeth. 
 Coronation Jt was uot, iudccd, till thc Easter-tide of 1043 that 
 t^^'* Eadward saw himself crowned at Winchester by the 
 two archbishops as English king. The months that 
 
 lay between this crowning and the death of his pred- chap.x. 
 ecessor had probably been months of busy negotia- The 
 tion with the English nobles, and above all with ?,XinJ. 
 the Earl of Wessex. For jealously as he had been loasliosa 
 looked on by Harthacnut, Godwine was still the — 
 greatest power in the land. Earl Siward was hard- 
 ly settled in his distant Northumbria, and the mu- 
 tilated Mercia of Leofric could not vie in extent or 
 power with the great West-Saxon earldom. Wealth, 
 character, political experience, the memory of his 
 long supremacy under Cnut, and of his personal 
 sway for two years over Wessex after Cnut's death, 
 as well as a sense of the skill and daring with 
 which he had faced and lived throusfh the ill-will 
 of Harald and the hatred of Harthacnut, crave God- 
 wine in fact at this moment a weight beyond that 
 of any other Englishman. Nor did it seem likely 
 that this weight would be thrown on Eadward s side. 
 The great house to which his wife belonged seems 
 to have clung almost as closely to the earl as his 
 own sons. Two of her brother Ulf's children, Beorn 
 and Osbeorn, were in England at this time, and 
 closely linked to the earl, while their elder brother, 
 Swein Estrithson, as he was called, was fighting in 
 the northern seas for the crown of Denmark. But 
 at the news of Harthacnut's death Swein sailed back 
 to England to claim a crown which seemed easier 
 to win. Kinship, gratitude, political tradition alike 
 seemed to sway Godwine to Swein's side, both in 
 his claims to the Danish and the English thrones. 
 The earl owed all to Cnut, and Swein was not only 
 his own wife's nephew, but he was Cnut's sister's 
 son, and nearest in blood, now Harthacnut was dead, 
 
 
 
 
468 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 469 
 
 cHAP.x. told that no great warrior or ruler was to mount 
 ^e in him the throne of ^thelstan and Eadgar. He 
 
 oI^U' was a stranger, too, in the realm. Thirty years had 
 — passed since the child had been driven from bng- 
 
 I035_i053. ^,^^ ^j^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ .^ ^jg fruitless descent on 
 
 Southampton, he had never touched them smce. 
 He had grown to manhood at the Norman court. 
 His memories were not of the father who had died 
 in his childhood, or of the mother who had forsaken 
 him through long years of exile, but of the Norman 
 dukes who had sheltered him, of his uncle, Richard 
 the Good, of his cousins, Richard and Robert, of 
 Robert's son, William, the young kinsman who was 
 battling with a storm of rebellion and treachery in 
 the land which Eadward loved. In all but name, 
 indeed, he was a Norman. He spoke the Norman 
 tongue; he used, in Norman fashion, a seal for 
 his°charters; his sympathies lay naturally with the 
 friends of his Norman life. The Englishmen among 
 whom he found himself when Harthacnut summon- 
 ed him to his court were all strangers to him, and 
 the shy, timid exile of forty had neither Cnut's tem- 
 per nor Cnut's youth to enable him to throw him- 
 self into new associations. It is characteristic of 
 Eadward's sympathies that, ailing as his half-brother 
 was, he seems again to have quitted England after 
 his recognition as heir to the crown, and to have 
 been still in Normandy in the summer of 1042, 
 when Harthacnut " died as he stood at his drink " 
 at a marriage feast in Lambeth. 
 0;:n.,fi.n It was not, indeed, till the Easter-tide of 1043 that 
 t^!!'!' Eadward saw himself crowned at Winchester by the 
 two archbishops as English king. The months that 
 
 lay between this crowning and the death of his pred- cuAr.x. 
 ecessor had probably been months of busy negotia- The 
 tion with the English nobles, and above all with 
 
 House of 
 Oodwine. 
 
 the Earl of Wessex. For jealously as he had been josgTioss 
 looked on by Harthacnut, Godwine was still the — 
 greatest power in the land. Earl Siward was hard- 
 ly settled in his distant Northumbria, and the mu- 
 tilated Mercia of Leofric could not vie in extent or 
 power with the great West-Saxon earldom. Wealth, 
 character, political experience, the memory of his 
 long supremacy under Cnut, and of his personal 
 sway for two years over Wessex after Cnut's death, 
 as well as a sense of the skill and darins with 
 which he had faced and lived throusfh the ill-will 
 of Harald and the hatred of Harthacnut, crave God- 
 wine in fact at this moment a weight beyond that 
 of any other Englishman. Nor did it seem likely 
 that this weight would be thrown on Eadward's side. 
 The great house to w^hich his wife belonged seems 
 to have clung almost as closely to the earl as his 
 own sons. Two of her brother Ulf's children, Beorn 
 and Osbeorn, were in England at this time, and 
 closely linked to the earl, while their elder brother, 
 Swein Estrithson, as he was called, was fighting in 
 the northern seas for the crown of Denmark. But 
 at the news of Harthacnut's death Swein sailed back 
 to England to claim a crown which seemed easier 
 to win. Kinship, gratitude, political tradition alike 
 seemed to sway Godwine to Swein's side, both in 
 his claims to the Danish and the English thrones. 
 The earl owed all to Cnut, and Swein w^as not only 
 his own wife's nephew, but he was Cnut's sister's 
 son, and nearest in blood, now Harthacnut was dead, 
 
 I 
 
 HI 
 I «] 
 
470 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. to the king who had raised Godwine to the power 
 The he held. His support of Cnut s will, his fidelity to 
 
 Godwine. Harthacnut, show that three years before Godwine 
 1035^063. had looked to a union of the crowns of England 
 and Denmark as of high political value, and such a 
 union might easily have been brought about by the 
 crowning of Swein, and his return to the North 
 with a force of Englishmen. But whatever may 
 have been the strength of God wine's family sym- 
 pathies, he must soon have seen that it was impos- 
 sible to indulge them. As in his stubborn effort to 
 secure half England for Harthacnut, Godwine found 
 himself face to face with the will of a whole people. 
 The worthlessness of Cnut's children had wiped out 
 the memory of Cnut's greatness and wisdom. It 
 was, indeed, the very policy of Cnut, the English 
 and national character of his rule, which had roused 
 into new and stronger life the national conscious- 
 ness of Englishmen — a consciousness which now 
 expressed itself in the sudden assertion of their will 
 to have no stranger to rule over them but one of 
 their own royal stock. Before King Harthacnut 
 was buried, says the chronicle, "all folk chose Ead- 
 ward for their king." 
 
 That there was still dispute among the nobles at 
 the Witenagemot shows that the acclamation of the 
 people found fierce opposition ; while the assertion of 
 Swein Estrithson in after-days that his claim was 
 bought off by a promise of the crown should he out- 
 live his rival, points to intricate negotiations before 
 Eadward was accepted by all. The negotiations 
 may have been aided in some measure by pressure 
 from the Norman court. The earlier troubles of 
 
 State of 
 
 Norman- 
 
 dy. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 471 
 
 the young duke's reign were now settling down, charx. 
 and under the guardianship of Ralf of Wacey the The 
 Norman baronage was brought back into a partial oodwino. 
 obedience, and the pacification of Normandy was^Qg^Q^j 
 aided by a movement which fell in with the relig- 
 ious excitement of the time. In the universal dis- 
 order which raged over feudal Gaul, men turned to 
 the Church as the one body which had preserved 
 some sense of its duty to save men from oppression 
 and bloodshed. Anarchy had been worst in the 
 south, and from the south came a reaction against 
 it. The bishops and abbots of Aquitaine met in 
 synod to bid men lay aside their arms, to denounce 
 the warfare and robbery about them, and to proclaim 
 a " Truce of God." As the preachers preached 
 this new gospel the crowds they gathered stretched 
 out their hands to heaven with shouts of " Peace ! 
 Peace !" The " Covenant " spread like fire through 
 southern and eastern France, but the first zeal of 
 its preachers had to content itself with more mod- 
 erate demands on human passion before it could 
 penetrate to the west, and the universal peace dwin- 
 dled to a suspension of arms from the sunset of 
 Wednesday to the sunrise of the following Monday. 
 Even this proved too hard a doctrine for Norman 
 ears. But a timely famine backed its advocates 
 with signs of the wrath of God, and the duke 
 pressed the truce on his subjects. A great council 
 of nobles and prelates, gathered at Caen in 1042, 
 enacted that for four days and five nights in every 
 week men should be free from dread of wound or 
 death, and castle and borough and village from 
 dread of attack. 
 
 i * J 
 
472 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 
 The 
 House of 
 God wine. 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 Duke 
 
 • 
 
 The " Truce," well kept or ill, aided the young 
 duke's efforts to restore order in the land. William 
 was no longer the mere child whom his father left 
 behind him. Young as he was, and he was still not 
 fifteen, he must have been already showing signs of 
 miuLi. the huge stature, the giant-like strength, which lifted 
 him in after-days out of the common herd of men. 
 From boyhood he was a mighty hunter, and the 
 twang of the bow that no arm but his could wield 
 was heard in the Norman woodlands. The temper, 
 too, which marked his later years was ripening un- 
 der the stress of his eventful history. No boy ever 
 had a rougher training. Friends had been hewn 
 down or poisoned beside him, and he had been 
 driven from refuge to refuge by foes who would 
 have slain him if they could.' The watchfulness, 
 the patience, the cunning, which lay throughout his 
 life side by side with a mighty energy and an awful 
 wrath in William's temper, had their first upgrowth 
 in these early days of peril; and with them must 
 have been already awakening, under the same pres- 
 sure, that political sense, that wide outlook and 
 clearness of vision, which lifts William so high 
 above the statesmen of his time. 
 Eadtuard But cvcn if the young duke himself had looked 
 "mandy. with indifference on the fortunes of a kinsman 
 whom he had known from his childhood, the sym- 
 pathies of his nobles would have been with one 
 whom they looked upon as himself almost a Nor- 
 man; and if we set aside the Norman boast that 
 England at this juncture yielded to the threats of 
 the court of Rouen, we may take the boast at least 
 as an indication that the influence of that court was 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 473 
 
 used to support the claim of Eadward. Even after chap.x. 
 his recognition as king, this influence must still The 
 have been employed in overcoming his fears. Ead- Q^^lnl 
 ward seems to have huns: back from the 
 
 crown. 
 
 The men among whom he was to go were strangers 
 to him and worse than strangers. Those who were 
 to be his counsellors had been the counsellors of 
 kings who had long held from him the throne of his 
 race. Those who w^ere to be his warriors were the 
 men who had but a year before driven off his fleet 
 from Southampton. The memory of his brother's 
 murder hung about him, rankling in his mind, as 
 we shall see, for years ; and the most powerful of 
 the earls who called him to the English throne was 
 the man whose hands he believed to be red with 
 his brother's blood. If the Norman story be true, 
 it was not till hostages for his safety had been sent 
 to the court at Rouen that Eadward would consent 
 to cross the seas. When he landed on the shores of 
 his new realm he brought with him a train that 
 showed his reliance on Norman support. In later 
 days William asserted that his cousin, prescient of 
 his coming childlessness, had promised in the fash- 
 ion which was getting common in the northern 
 States, and of which there had been many instances 
 among the Danish kings, to bequeath his realm to 
 him on his death. That this was so is likely enough, 
 though the bequest was one which English nobles 
 were hardly likely to recognize. But in any case 
 the young duke must have seen the shadow of his 
 after-conquest falling over England, as its new king 
 sailed from Norman shores with a train of Norman 
 knights and Norman churchmen. Foremost among 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 W 
 
474 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 475 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 Godwine. 
 
 1035-1053 
 
 The state 
 of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 these in rank was Eadward's nephew, Ralf, a son of 
 his sister Godgifu, by her Norman marriage with 
 Drogo of Mantes. Another Norman kinsman, Odo 
 or Odda, was probably in his train ; and Richard, 
 the son of Scrob, may have been among the Nor- 
 man knights who formed the kings guard. Two 
 Norman priests, WilHam and Ulf, came as his chap- 
 lains. But closer to Eadward stood one to whom 
 he had owed much in his exile, and his affection 
 for whom was of long standing, Robert, abbot of 
 Jumieges. Robert either accompanied or soon fol- 
 lowed the king to England, and was soon seen to 
 possess his confidence as no other man possessed it. 
 From the moment of their landing, however, the 
 king and his group of strangers found themselves 
 lonely and helpless in the land. With his accession, 
 indeed, the long struggle of the ealdormen for a 
 virtual independence seemed at last to have reached 
 its aim. The land appeared about to break up into 
 three great fiefs, as little dependent on the central 
 monarchy as the fiefs of the continent. Siward 
 ruled as he listed in the north, and no royal writ 
 ran across the H umber. Leofric was almost as 
 much his own master in Mid-Britain. Wessex, in- 
 stead of giving a firm standing-ground to the house 
 of Cerdic, was now in the hands of a master who 
 overawed the crown. Even more than in Cnut's 
 days Godwine's voice was supreme in the council- 
 chamber. The policy and government were alike 
 his own, and in both he showed his wonted ability. 
 Without, indeed, the realm was secured from attack 
 by the turn of foreign affairs, for Normandy was a 
 friend to the Norman-bred king, and the strife be- 
 
 tween Magnus of Norway and Swein Estrithson chap. x. 
 for the throne of Denmark shielded England from The 
 any invasion by the Northmen. Friendly embassies, GcSwine. 
 too, came from the French court, while the earlier ^^3^3^^^ 
 marriage of the emperor, Henry III., with Gunhild, — 
 a daughter of Cnut and Emma, had linked him by 
 blood to Eadward, and strengthened the friendly 
 intercourse between the German and Encflish courts 
 which had gone on from the days of Eadward the 
 Elder. Near home Gruffydd, the son of Llewelyn, 
 was building up a formidable power over the west- 
 ern border, but he was too busy as yet with his 
 Welsh rivals to seem a serious danger ; while in the 
 north Macbeth, who had lately risen, through the 
 murder of King Duncan, to the throne of Scotland, 
 showed himself a peaceful neighbor. It was rather 
 within than without that Godwine's w^ork had to be 
 done, and that it was well done was proved by the 
 peace of the land ; while the popularity which he 
 won in Wessex shows his good government of his 
 own earldom.' 
 
 ' The political structure of Cnut's administration, indeed, had 
 been tested by the troubles and revolutions which followed on his 
 death ; and the new strength of the crown was shown in the fact 
 that none of these troubles had in the least aflected that structure. 
 Even the fourfold division of the English earldoms and the sever- 
 ance of Wessex from the crown was retained, in spite of the return 
 of the line of Wessex to the throne. Part of this, no doubt, may- 
 be due to the influence of Godwine, but, in fact, the continuance of 
 Godwine's power may in itself be looked upon as a proof of the 
 strength of the administrative system and tradition of which he 
 was the embodiment. That system remained, indeed, in all respects 
 firmly established throughout the whole reign of the Confessor to 
 the very conquest of the Normans. The military organization con- 
 tinued unchanged, as we see later from the hus-carls quartered at 
 towns like Wallingford and Dorchester ; while, from the description 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
476 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ii 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Tlie 
 House of 
 Qodwine. 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 ; 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 Shvtud of 
 
 Nor t hum- 
 
 bria. 
 
 But however wise and successful Godwine's rule 
 micrht be, we shall see in years to come how bitterly 
 it was resented by the king, who found himself a pup- 
 pet in his hands. Eadward was, indeed, powerless 
 in his realm. He could not even hope, like his pred- 
 ecessors, to snatch a fragment of authority by pit- 
 ting one great noble against another. In Northum- 
 bria, Siward had but just won his earldom by a deed 
 of blood. By his marriage with the daughter of a 
 
 of the new armament used by Harold in his later wars with the 
 Welsh, it was clearly with this picked body of troops, and not 
 with the fyrd of the neighboring shires, that he won his victories 
 in south Wales ; and they formed the real strength of his army 
 both at Stamford Bridge and at Senlac. Of the hoard again we 
 catch a glimpse in the legend of Hugolin, which shows that the 
 Danegeld. if still an unpopular tax, was yet rigidly levied, and 
 formed the mainspring of the royal finance : and in the troubles 
 of Emma we see the first instance of that vital importance to the 
 crown of the possession of the hoard or treasure, as well as of the 
 command of the body of huscarls, whose pay was drawn f'-om^t. 
 The administrative machinery-, too. was not only maintained but 
 developed in the more organized form which the Royal <-hapel 
 assumed under Godwine and Harold, an incidental proof of which 
 is civen in the adoption of the Norman practice of authenticating 
 all'documents issued in the king's name by the royal seal ; a step 
 which created the chancellor, as the hoard had already created the 
 treasurer, and as the levy of Danegeld, and the necessity of giv- 
 ing formal acquittance of the sums levied under it to the sheriffs, 
 must already, in however inchoate a way. have originated the sys- 
 tem of the Exchequer. With the consolidation of the royal admin- 
 istration no doubt there went on. also, a corresponding development 
 of the royal justice, in the shape of appeals to the king himself from 
 subordinate jurisdictions; and with the growing pressure of public 
 business we find that the great office which had been instituted by 
 Cnut in his appointment of a secundarius. was continued under 
 the Confessor in the rule of Godwine and Harold, the predecessors 
 of the Norman justiciar. At the time of the Norman Conquest, 
 therefore the administrative system which has sometimes been 
 called Norman was already growing up at the English court, and 
 the true work of the Conqueror and his successors lay in its exten- 
 sion and development. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 477 
 
 former Northumbrian earl, Ealdred, he had, in 1038, chap.x. 
 become master of Deira or Yorkshire, but Bernicia The 
 had passed to Ealdred's brother, Eadwulf. Three l^^i^l 
 years later, however, Eadwulf was cut down at the ,«,";,„ 
 very court of Harthacnut, by Siward, who thus, in -^ 
 1041, became invested with the whole Northumbrian 
 earldom from Humber to Tweed. Tlie new earl, 
 with his giant stature, his Danish blood, the personal 
 vigor which earned him the surname of Digera, or 
 the Strong, was a fitting representative of the dis- 
 trict over which he ruled. His stern, roueh hand- 
 ling kept the wild Northumbrians in awe ; but 
 dreaded as his ruthlessness might be, it brought 
 little peace or order to the land.' Northumbria, in- 
 deed, stood apart from the rest of Britain. The old 
 anarchy had deepened with the settlement of the 
 Danes. The roads were haunted with robbers, so 
 that men could hardly travel with safety even in 
 companies of thirty at a time ; its distance from the 
 south made the attendance of its thcgns at the Wit- 
 enagemots scant and uncertain ; and the visits of 
 the king, which in Eadgar's day were few, seem to 
 have ceased altogether under the Confessor. It was 
 the home of savage feuds, of strife handed on from 
 father to son, even in the house of its earls. Mar- 
 riage sat as lightly on them as bloodshedding;' and 
 
 1 (I 
 
 " Licet dux Siwardus ex feritate judicii valde timeretur tamen 
 tanta gentis illius crudelitas et Dei incultus habebatur ut vix trigin- 
 ta vel viginti in uno comitatu possent ire quin aut interficerentur 
 aut depraedarentur ab insidiantiam latronum multitudine." — Vit. 
 Edw. (Luard), p. 421. 
 
 * Earl Uhtred, who held Northumbria under ^thelred and Cnut, 
 married the daughter of Bishop Ealdhun of Durham, and with her 
 got a share of the bishop's lands. He sent her back, however, to 
 her father, and returned her lands with her ; and took in her stead 
 
 1 'I 
 
 
 'IS 
 
 !j| 
 
478 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 n 
 
 " 
 
 i 
 
 It 
 
 a. 
 
 cHAP.x. the rude violence of their life was unchecked even 
 
 The by religion. Churches gave no sanctuary against 
 
 Q^^nl deeds of blood, and si nce the conquest of the north 
 
 1035^53 aTidTburgher's daughter, whose father gave her to him on the sim- 
 — * pie terms that he should kill his enemy Thurbrand. But, as he 
 either could not or would not kill Thurbrand, the burgher's daugh- 
 ter, in time, ceased to be his wife, and he wedded ^thelred's daugh- 
 ter ^Ifgifu.— Sim. Durh., De Obsess. Dunelm. (Twysden), p. 80. 
 And with this loose morality went savage bloodshedding, and feuds 
 of vendetta handed on from father to son. If Uhtred could not kill 
 Thurbrand, Thurbrand owed him no thanks for it. When Uhtred 
 submitted to Cnut, and came to do homage "at a place called Wi- 
 heal " (Freeman, Norm. Conq. i. 376), "a curtain was drawn aside," 
 and behind it stood Thurbrand with armed men, who forthwith cut 
 down Uhtred and forty of his companions. The feud slumbered till 
 Ealdred, Uhtred's son by the bishop's daughter, got his father's earl- 
 dom. Then, whether by law or by murder, Thurbrand was slain. 
 His son Carl took up the feud, and he and Earl Ealdred went about 
 seeking each other's lives. Friends strove to make peace between 
 them ; they were reconciled ; they became even sworn brothers (ex- 
 changing blood ?) ; they vowed to go on pilgrimage to Rome togeth- 
 er; and when driven back by stress of weather, Carl invited Ealdred 
 to feast at his house and hunt in his woods. There in the woodland 
 he slew him, and a stone cross on the spot recalled the crime for 
 centuries after.— Sim. Durh., De Obsess. Dunelm. (Twysden), p. 81. 
 The murder of his brother Eadwulf, who succeeded him in Berni- 
 cia, began the fortunes of Siward. But Siward had married Eal- 
 dred's daughter, and if he himself slew Ealdred's brother, the blood- 
 feud with Thurbrand's house for Ealdred's death fell none the less 
 to his son. Some years after the Norman conquest, as Carl's sons 
 were feasting " in the house of their elder brother at Seterington in 
 Yorkshire," and unarmed, a body of Earl Waltheof's young thegns 
 fell suddenly upon them. "The whole family— all the sons and 
 grandsons of Carl — were cut off, save one son, Sumorled, who 
 chanced not to be present, and another, Cnut, whose character had 
 won him such general love that the murderers could not bring 
 themselves to slay him."— Freeman, Norm. Conq. iv. 525 ; Sim. Durh., 
 Gest. Reg. a. 1073 ; and, more largely, De Obsess. Dunelm. (Twys- 
 den), pp. 81, 82. The young thegns came back with spoil—" deletis 
 fiiiis'et nepotibus Carli reversi sunt multa in variis speciebus spolia 
 reportantes" (Sim. Durh., De Obsess. Dunelm., Twysden, p. 82), 
 while Waltheof " avi sui interfectionem gravissima clade vindica- 
 vit" (Ibid. p. 81). 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 479 
 
 1035^1053. 
 
 by the Danes not a single monastery of any historic chap.x. 
 importance survived in the land once thronged by The 
 religious houses. Northumbria, indeed, wild and g^^I 
 uncivilized as it was, gave Siward work enough to 
 do in simply holding it down, and as yet prevented 
 any real danger to the power of Godwine from the 
 northern earl. 
 
 Leofric of Mercia, on the other hand, had held ^^"A^'^. ^/ 
 his earldom since the days of Cnut, and claimed to 
 be descended from royal English blood. At the 
 death of Cnut his influence, as we have seen, had 
 been strong enough to match the power of Godwine, 
 and to bring about the division of England between 
 Harald and Harthacnut ; and his importance must 
 have increased with the submission of all England to 
 Harald in 1037. To the end of his life he remained 
 among the foremost powers of the land, and took 
 rank as one of the three great earls. In mere extent, 
 however, Mercia was now but a shadow of its former 
 self. Even in the days of Cnut the Hwiccas of 
 Worcestershire formed a separate government ; un- 
 der Harthacnut the breaking-up of Mercia was yet 
 more complete. The Magesaetas of Hereford were 
 gathered into a distinct earldom on the west, while 
 the eastern provinces of Mercia had been shorn off 
 to form a new earldom of the Middle-English of 
 Leicester, with probably Nottinghamshire and Lin- 
 colnshire. Some of these districts returned in later 
 days to the house of Leofric, and even at this time 
 they may have still owned his supremacy, but his di- 
 rect rule seems to have been confined to Cheshire, 
 Staffordshire, Shropshire, and the border of north 
 Wales. 
 
 yt\ 
 
 
 ■ r 
 
478 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 8l 
 
 cHAP.x. the rude violence of their life was unchecked even 
 
 The by religion. Churches gave no sanctuary against 
 
 Q^^nt deeds of blood, and since the con quest of the north 
 
 1035 To53 a '■'^^ burgher's daughter, whose father gave her to him on the sim- 
 
 ■ pie terms that he should kill his enemy Thurbrand. But, as he 
 
 either could not or would not kill Thurbrand, the burgher's daugh- 
 ter, in time, ceased to be his wife, and he wedded ^thelred's daugh- 
 ter ^Ifgifu.— Sim. Durh., De Obsess. Dunelm. (Twysden), p. 80. 
 And with this loose morality went savage bloodshedding, and feuds 
 of vendetta handed on from father to son. If Uhtred could not kill 
 Thurbrand, Thurbrand owed him no thanks for it. When Uhtred 
 submitted to Cnut, and came to do homage "at a place called Wi- 
 heal" (Freeman, Norm. Conq. i. 376), "a curtain was drawn aside," 
 and behind it stood Thurbrand with armed men, who forthwith cut 
 down Uhtred and forty of his companions. The feud slumbered till 
 Ealdred, Uhtred's son by the bishop's daughter, got his father's earl- 
 dom. Then, whether by law or by murder, Thurbrand was slain. 
 His son Carl took up the feud, and he and Earl Ealdred went about 
 seeking each other's lives. Friends strove to make peace between 
 them ; they were reconciled ; they became even sworn brothers (ex- 
 changing blood ?) ; they vowed to go on pilgrimage to Rome togeth- 
 er; and when driven back by stress of weather, Carl invited Ealdred 
 to feast at his house and hunt in his woods. There in the woodland 
 he slew him, and a stone cross on the spot recalled the crime for 
 centuries after.— Sim. Durh., De Obsess. Dunelm. (Twysden). p. 81. 
 The murder of his brother Eadwulf, who succeeded him in Berni- 
 cia, began the fortunes of Siward. But Siward had married Eal- 
 dred's daughter, and if he himself slew Ealdred's brother, the blood- 
 feud with Thurbrand's house for Ealdred's death fell none the less 
 to his son. Some years after the Norman conquest, as Carl's sons 
 were feasting " in the house of their elder brother at Seterington in 
 Yorkshire," and unarmed, a body of Earl Waltheofs young thegns 
 fell suddenly upon them. "The whole family— all the sons and 
 grandsons of Carl — were cut off, save one son, Sumorled, who 
 chanced not to be present, and another, Cnut, whose character had 
 won him such general love that the murderers could not bring 
 themselves to slay him."— Freeman, Norm. Conq. iv. 525 ; Sim. Durh., 
 Gest. Reg. a. 1073 ; and, more largely, De Obsess. Dunelm. (Twys- 
 den), pp. 81, 82. The young thegns came back with spoil—" deletis 
 fiiiis et nepotibus Carli reversi sunt multa in variis speciebus spolia 
 reportantes" (Sim. Durh., De Obsess. Dunelm., Twysden, p. 82), 
 while Waltheof " avi sui interfectionem gravissima clade vindica- 
 vit" (Ibid. p. 81). 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 479 
 
 by the Danes not a single monastery of any historic chap.x. 
 importance survived in the land once thronged by The 
 religious houses. Northumbria, indeed, wild and aXine' 
 uncivilized as it was, gave Siward work enough to^og^Qg^ 
 do in simply holding it down, and as yet prevented — 
 any real danger to the power of Godwine from the 
 northern earl. 
 
 Leofric of Mercia, on the other hand, had held ^^^A^^". ^v" 
 his earldom since the days of Cnut, and claimed to 
 be descended from royal English blood. At the 
 death of Cnut his influence, as we have seen, had 
 been strong enough to match the power of Godwine, 
 and to bring about the division of England between 
 Harald and Harthacnut ; and his importance must 
 have increased with the submission of all Endand to 
 Harald in 1037. To the end of his life he remained 
 among the foremost powers of the land, and took 
 rank as one of the three great earls. In mere extent, 
 however, Mercia was now but a shadow of its former 
 self. Even in the days of Cnut the Hwiccas of 
 Worcestershire formed a separate government ; un- 
 der Harthacnut the breaking-up of Mercia was yet 
 more complete. The Magesaetas of Hereford were 
 gathered into a distinct earldom on the west, while 
 the eastern provinces of Mercia had been shorn off 
 to form a new earldom of the Middle-Encflish of 
 Leicester, with probably Nottinghamshire and Lin- 
 colnshire. Some of these districts returned in later 
 days to the house of Leofric, and even at this time 
 they may have still owned his supremacy, but his di- 
 rect rule seems to have been confined to Cheshire, 
 Staffordshire, Shropshire, and the border of north 
 Wales. 
 
 rJ 
 
 'A 
 
 * J 
 
 Ml 
 .if 
 
 m 
 
480 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Godwine 
 
 of 
 Wessex. 
 
 ffi 
 
 CHAP. X. Not only did Godwine's experience of government, 
 Thi his wealth, his ability, lift him high above Siward or 
 oXine! Leofric, but the very earldom he held far outweighed 
 i03iTo53 t^^ earldoms of Mid-England or the north. Wes- 
 sex embraced almost all southern England, and 
 southern England was the wealthiest and most im- 
 portant part of the realm. The full effects, indeed, 
 of the separation of Wessex from the crown, and its 
 formation into an earldom, could hardly be felt in 
 Cnut's day, while all England was still but a part of 
 a larger empire ; but they were felt in the days of 
 the Confessor, when the hereditary king of the West- 
 Saxons found himself displaced from his own native 
 realm by Godwine and his house. Eadward was 
 the first descendant of /Elfred who was not lord of 
 Wessex. He had, indeed, no local hold on the land 
 at all; he was simply king; and it may possibly have 
 been owing to this that he found his home no long- 
 er at Winchester, but at Westminster. The fact, 
 indeed, that this creation of a West-Saxon earldom, 
 so obviously a mere expedient to meet the exigen- 
 cies of the Danish rule, w^as not at once reversed, 
 and the old connection of Wessex with the crown 
 restored on the accession of the Confessor, shows 
 how absolutely powerless that king was, from the 
 first, in the hands of Earl Godwine. Nor could Ead- 
 ward look to either of the rival earls for aid in dis- 
 puting with ihe all-powerful Godwine the mastery 
 of his kingdom. And yet, by a singular irony of 
 fate, it was just through this mastery of Godwine's 
 that England remained a kingdom at all. Had the 
 three earldoms been of equal weight, or their pos- 
 sessors men of the same temper, the energies of 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 481 
 
 Godwine, as of his fellow-earls, might have been chap.x. 
 spent in the building-up of a separate dominion. It m 
 was his superiority of power as well as his keener ^^^°/ 
 ambition that drew him from the mere establish- ^^3—^ 
 ment of a great fief to the larger ambition of ruling — 
 the land. 
 
 With such an aim the earl saw that his profit lay ^^'^ Mo- 
 not in weakening or annihilating the authority of the 
 crown, but in seizing that authority for his own pur- 
 poses, and in paving the way, by a dexterous use of 
 Eadward, for the succession of the house of Godwine 
 to the throne. Such a design can alone account 
 for the steady policy of annexation by which he at 
 once began to draw all England into his own hands 
 or those of his kindred. The importance of keeping 
 watch over Wales, and of preserving the means of 
 communication with it as Gruffydd built up a na- 
 tional sovereignty, may explain the establishment of 
 Godwine's eldest son, Swein, in the border-district of 
 Hereford. But a new earldom was created for him 
 by the addition to this district of two other Mercian 
 shires, the shires of Oxford and Gloucester; and 
 this earldom was again swelled by the detachment 
 of Berkshire and Somerset from Godwine's own 
 Wessex. The position of Oxford as commanding 
 the line of the Thames, and of Gloucester as com- 
 manding the lower Severn, gave Swein's earldom a 
 military as well as a political importance. But while 
 in Swein the house of Godwine pressed upon the 
 west, a grant of the East- Anglian earldom to the 
 second son, Harold, gave it the mastery of the east. 
 In the very heart of England, Godwine set his ne- 
 phew, Beorn, a brother of Swein Estrithson, as earl 
 
 31 
 
 ill 
 
482 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 1 
 
 CHAP. X. of the Middle-English about Leicester. The addi- 
 ^ tion to Beorn's earldom of Nottingham and the old 
 
 ^°.''*^ °* land of the Gyrwas and Lindiswaras made him mas- 
 — ter of the Trent, as Swem of the Severn and the 
 
 1035-1053. ^j^^^^g. ^^^ ^^. jQ^^ the whole English coast from 
 
 Humber round to Severn mouth had passed into the 
 hands of the house of Godwine. 
 Extension ^^^^ ^y^s this all. Two ycars after the king's cor- 
 pr!!,lr, onation, Eadgyth, Godwine's daughter, became Ead- 
 ward's wife. We can hardly doubt the meaning of 
 this step. In setting Eadgyth beside the king, God- 
 wine aimed at meeting the secret hostility of the 
 court and detaching Eadward from the Norman 
 councillors, who, as he was conscious, were busy 
 working against him. The influence of Robert of 
 Jumieges, who had been appointed Bishop of London 
 a year before, was as certain as his ill-will, and the 
 memory of his brother's doom was stirred busily in 
 Eadward's mind by the strangers round him. But 
 so vast a stride towards the mastery of the realm as 
 Godwine was making would of itself awake Ead- 
 ward's suspicion, and hardly fail to rouse jealousy in 
 other minds besides the king's. The house of God- 
 wine had no hold on the north. In central England 
 Leofric could hardly look with satisfaction on the 
 advancing supremacy of his old rival. Godwine 
 might still, indeed, have defied the efforts of the Nor- 
 man courtiers, and the jealousies of his fellow-earls, 
 had he retained the confidence of the nation at 
 large. But the national trust which his good govern- 
 ment had won was at this moment shaken by the 
 deeds of one who stood next to him in his own house. 
 The first blow at Godwine's power came from 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 483 
 
 the lawless temper of his eldest son, Swein. In the 
 opening of 1046, a year after Eadgyth's marriage, 
 Swein carried off the Abbess of Leominster from her 
 nunnery, and sent her back great with child. Such 
 an act was too daring an outrage on the religious 
 feeling of the country to pass unheeded. Ere Christ- 
 mas came the young earl fled, outlawed, it would 
 seem, from his earldom to the court of Bruges ; in 
 the summer of 1047 he again left Baldwin's land, 
 perhaps to take part in the war in the Northern seas! 
 Godwine was carefully watching the changes which 
 went on in the North, for both the rival claimants 
 to the dominions of Harthacnut, Magnus and Swein, 
 alike laid claim to the English crown. But a year 
 before, Magnus had threatened England with inva- 
 sion, and a great fleet had been gathered at Sand- 
 wich to meet his expected attack. It had been 
 averted by successes of Swein Estrithson, which 
 drew the host of Magnus to Denmark instead of the 
 Channel ; but the Norwegian king was now again 
 victorious, and his triumph promised a renewal of 
 the danger to England. Swein had been driven 
 from all but a fragment of the Danish realm; the 
 union of Denmark and Norway seemed certain ; and 
 the forces of the two realms in the hands of Magnus 
 would in such a case have been thrown on English 
 shores. 
 
 It was no wonder, therefore, that Swein hastened 
 to his cousin's help; or that Godwine proposed in 
 the Witan of 1047 to send a squadron of fifty ships 
 to support his nephew's cause. But politic as the 
 plan was, it met with a resistance which shows how 
 greatly the earl's influence was shaken. The pro- 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 Godwine. 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 Difficulties 
 
 of 
 Godwine. 
 
 ■!n 
 
 {>3 
 
 ^ -I 
 t 'I 
 
 !'] 
 
 
 
 Opposition 
 
 to his 
 
 policy. 
 
484 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House (^ 
 
 1035 1053. 
 
 posal, it is said at Leofric's instigation, was rejected, 
 and Swein Estrithson was left to fight his battle 
 Godwin? alone. The result was the coming of that peril 
 which Godwine foresaw. A new and overwhelming 
 defeat drove Swein from his last hold in Denmark, 
 and broueht about the submission of the whole Dan- 
 ish kingdom to Magnus. Luckily for England, the 
 conqueror's death at once followed his victory, and 
 the two Northern lands again parted from one an- 
 other. Harald Hardrada became king in Norway; 
 Swein Estrithson was welcomed back by the Danes ; 
 and the strife which shielded England from Scandi- 
 navian attack broke out afresh on more equal terms. 
 The decision of the Witan was far from proving any 
 heedlessness of the safety of the realm ; had the at- 
 tack come which Godwine feared, an English fleet 
 was ready at this very time to meet it in the Chan- 
 nel. Their will was simply against intervention in 
 the North itself, against actual meddling In a distant 
 quarrel, and no doubt against spending English 
 blood in the support of a nephew of Godwine. 
 Enough, it may have been thought, had been done 
 for Godwine's house at home. England could hard- 
 ly be called on to spend blood and treasure in win- 
 nine a throne for his nephew abroad. But behind 
 this natural hesitation of wiser men stirred the bit- 
 ter enmity of the Norman group which Eadward 
 had gathered round him. Even at this moment 
 their opposition took a new vigor from the events 
 which were passing over sea. 
 
 Ever since his kinsman left Normandy for the 
 En^^lish shores, William had been slowly rising to 
 
 Williatn 
 
 and 
 Laitfranc. 
 
 his destined greatness. Troubles on the French 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 485 
 
 frontier, occasional outbreaks of a baron here and chap. x. 
 there, failed to shake the hold on the land which The 
 tightened with every day of the young duke's grasp. ^XLf 
 Round him the men who were to play their part inj^g— ^3 
 our history were already grouping themselves. Will- — ' 
 iam Fitz-Osbern was growing up as William's friend 
 and adviser. The duke's half-brother, Odo, was al- 
 ready Bishop of Bayeux. But chance had brought 
 a wiser counsellor to William's side than Odo%r 
 Fitz-Osbern. In the early years of his rule, Lan- 
 franc, a wandering scholar from Lombardy, had 
 opened a school at Avranches. Lanfranc was the 
 son of a citizen of Pavia, where he had won fame 
 for skill in the Roman law. Whether driven out by 
 some civil revolution, or drawn by love of teaching 
 to the west, Lanfranc made his way to Normandy; 
 and, troubled as was the time, the fame of his school 
 at Avranches soon spread throughout the land. A 
 religious conversion, however, interrupted his work. 
 Lanfranc quitted his scholars to seek the poorest 
 and lowliest monastery he could find in Normandy, 
 and came at last to a little valley edged in with 
 woods of ash and elm, through which a " bee," or 
 rivulet, ran down to the Risle, where Herlouin, a. 
 knight of Brionne, had found shelter from the world. 
 Herlouin was busy building an oven with his own 
 hands when the stranger greeted him with " God 
 save you." "Arc you a Lombard.?" asked the 
 knight-abbot, struck with the foreign look of the man. 
 '' 1 am," he replied : and praying to be made a monk, 
 Lanfranc fell down at the mouth of the oven and 
 kissed Herlouin's feet. The religious impulse was 
 a real one ; but in spite of the break from the world 
 
486 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 and its learning which Lanfranc sought in this re- 
 tirement at Bee, he was destined to be known as a 
 Gc^wine' great scholar and statesman rather than as a saint. 
 It was in vain that he dreamed of seeking a yet 
 sterner refus^e in some solitude. The abbot's will 
 chained him to the monastery, and Lanfranc's teach- 
 ing raised Bee in a few years into the most famous 
 school in Christendom. The zeal which drew schol- 
 ars and nobles alike to the little house of Herlouin 
 was, in fact, the first wave of an intellectual move- 
 ment which was now spreading from Italy to the 
 ruder countries of the West. The whole mental 
 activity of the time concentrated itself in the group 
 of scholars who gradually gathered round Lanfranc ; 
 the fabric of the canon law and of mediaeval scholas- 
 ticism, with the philosophic scepticism which first 
 awoke under its influence, all trace their origin to 
 Bee. But Lanfranc was to be more than a great 
 teacher. The eye of the young duke saw in the 
 Lombard one who was fitted to second his own ar- 
 dent genius; and in no long time the prior of Bee 
 stood high among his counsellors. 
 
 William was soon to need wise counsel. Young 
 as he was, the pressure of his heavy hand already 
 warned the strongest that they must fight or obey. 
 In the more settled land about the Seine order was 
 now fairly established ; and in the coming contest 
 it held firmly by the duke. But in the Bessin and 
 Cotentin, where the old heathen and Norse tradi- 
 tions had been strengthened by recent Danish set- 
 tlements, the passion for independence was strong. 
 The ofreatest lords of the Cotentin and the Bessin — 
 Neal of St. Sauveur, Randolf of Bayeux, Hamon of 
 
 Revolt in 
 
 Norman- 
 
 dy. 
 
 m 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 487 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 Thorigny, Grimbald of Plessis— waited but the signal chap, x. 
 to rise. And in 1047 the signal was given. Hith- m 
 erto his bastard birth had done William little hurt, l^^^^l 
 for of the descendants of Richard the Fearless or 
 Richard the Good who might have claimed his 
 duchy, some were churchmen, some had perished in 
 the troubles of his youth, one had been his guardian 
 and protector; while his cousin Guy, grandson of 
 Richard the Good by his daughter's marriage with 
 a Count of Burgundy, had been reared from child- 
 hood with William and gifted with broad lands at 
 Vernon and Brionne. But Guy saw in the temper 
 of the west a chance of winning the duchy from 
 the bastard, and its lords were quick at answerino- 
 his call. 
 
 So secret was the plot that William was hunting ^w-^^- 
 in the woods of the Cotentin when the revolt broke ^''""' 
 out, and only a hasty flight from Valognes to Falaise 
 saved him from capture. As he dashed through 
 the fords of Vire with Grimbald on his track the 
 Bessin and Cotentin were already on fire behind 
 him ; and their barons gathered at Bayeux swore on 
 the relics of the saints that they would smite Will- 
 iam wherever they might find him. They were 
 soon to find him on the battle-field. The men of 
 the more settled duchy beyond the Dive, the men of 
 Caux and Hiesmes, the burghers of Lisieux and 
 Rouen, of Evreux and Falaise, stood firmly by the 
 duke. But William had no mind to stand the 
 shock alone. Hardly twenty as he was, his cool 
 head already matched the hot ardor of his youth ; 
 and he rode across the border to throw himself at 
 the feet of the French king and beg for aid. The 
 
 a 'fl 
 
 < 21 
 
 I' 
 
488 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 William's 
 victory. 
 
 CHAP. X. old alliance between the house of Hrolf and the 
 
 The house of Hugh Capet, shaken as it had been of late, 
 
 Godwine. ^vas Still Strong enough to secure the help he 
 
 103^053 sought ; and King Henry himself headed a body of 
 
 — troops which stood beside William's Normans on the 
 
 field of Val-es-Dunes, to the southeastward of Caen. 
 
 The fight that followed was little more than a fierce 
 
 combat of horse surging backwards and forwards 
 
 over the slopes of the upland on which it was fought, 
 
 and ended in the rout of the rebel host. The mills 
 
 of the Orne were choked with the bodies of men 
 
 slain in its fords or drowned in its stream. 
 
 The victory at Val-es-Dunes was the turning- 
 point in William's career. It was not merely that 
 he had shown himself a born warrior, that horse and 
 man had gone down before his lance, that he had 
 faced and routed the bravest warriors of the Bessin ; 
 nor was it only that with this victory the struggle of 
 the wild Northman element in the duchy against civ- 
 ilization, against the French tongue, against union 
 with Western Christendom, was to cease. It was 
 that William had mastered Normandy. " Nor- 
 mans," said a Norman poet, " must be trodden down 
 and kept under foot, for he only that bridles them 
 may use them at his need ;" and the young duke 
 had bridled them to use them in a need which was 
 soon to come. The valor which had so suddenly 
 withstood him on the downs above Caen gave itself 
 from that hour into its master's hands, and, mere 
 youth of twenty as he was, William stood lord of 
 Normandy as no duke had stood its lord before ; lord 
 - of a Normandy whose restless vigor was spending 
 itself as yet in the winning of realms for adventurers 
 
 r 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 489 
 
 oyer sea, but was ready to spend itself now in win- chap. x. 
 ning realms for its duke nearer home. Far off as ihi 
 the conquest was, it was at Val-es-Dunes that Will- Godwine' 
 iam fought his first fight for the crown of Cerdic. "^ —^' 
 It was the men who had sworn to smite him, on the^^^— ^' 
 relics of Bayeux, who w^re to win for him England. 
 
 It was France, however, rather than Eno-land ^''^"'^ 
 which directly felt the change in William's attitude! "''^"^'''" 
 for in the year after Val-es-Dunes, William measured 
 swords with the greatest of the then French powers. 
 Girt in on every side by great feudatories, the 
 crowned descendants of Hugh Capet had been 
 saved from utter ruin by the firm support of the 
 dukes of Normandy and the counts of Anjou. It was 
 the Norman sword which had aided them to resist 
 Burgundian disloyalty, and it was the sword of Nor- 
 man and Angevin alike which saved them from the 
 ambitious supremacy of the house of Blois. But it 
 was just these two powers w^hose growth had now 
 changed them from supports of the French crown 
 into its most formidable dangers, and the policy of 
 the French kings, unable to meet either single- 
 handed, became more and more a policy of balance 
 between them. At this time Anjou was the more 
 pressing of the two foes. From a small province 
 on either side the lower course of the Mayenne, 
 with a few castles scattered over the lands of Blois 
 and Touraine to the south and to the east of it, it 
 had grown into the largest and most powerful state 
 of central France. Southern Touraine had been 
 gradually absorbed. Northern Touraine had been 
 won bit by bit. A victory of the Angevin count, 
 Geoffrey Martel, left Poitou at his mercy, and the 
 
 \n 
 
490 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.x. seizure of Maine brought his dominion to the Nor- 
 The man frontier. Geoffrey was soon at war with the 
 
 SSwine^ king, and it was to purchase William's aid against 
 
 1035T053 ^^^^ powerful vassal that King Henry had helped 
 — the duke to put down the revolt of the Cotentin. 
 
 War with Jhe barsrain was faithfully carried out, and the 
 victory of Val-es-Dunes was hardly won when the 
 young duke and his Normans joined Henry in an 
 attack on the Count of Anjou. A wooded hill- 
 country formed the southern border of the Norman 
 duchy, and from the hills of Vire and Mortagne the 
 rivers Mayenne and Sarthe flow down to the heart 
 of Geoffrey's country, to Le Mans and Angers. It 
 was on this border that war broke out in 1048, cen- 
 tring round Domfront and Alengon, towns which 
 command the head-waters of the two streams. But 
 the duke's success was as rapid and decisive as be- 
 fore. While Geoffrey marched to meet the French 
 army, William surprised Alen9on, avenged the insult 
 of its burghers, who had hung skins over its walls 
 on his approach, with shouts of " Hides for the tan- 
 ner," by ruthlessly hewing off hands and feet, and 
 returned as rapidly to secure the surrender of Dom- 
 front. The quick, sturdy blows put an end to the 
 war; Geoffrey Martel made peace with king and 
 duke, and the peace left the two fortresses he had 
 won in the hands of William, to serve as a base for 
 his future conquest of Maine. 
 Norman If Val-cs-Duncs had left William master of Nor- 
 
 Et^Lnd. mandy, the defeat of Count Geoffrey left him first 
 among the powers of France. But it was not 
 France only which was watching William's course. 
 His new strength told at once on English politics. 
 
 i 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 491 
 
 The victory of his cousin over the rebels who would chap.x. 
 have made him a puppet duke must have spurred ^ 
 Eadward to struggle against the earl who had made ^:^^^ 
 hmi a puppet king, and his little group of foreign — ' 
 counsellors would watch the triumphs that followed ^°^^"' 
 Val-es-Dunes as if every victory of William was a 
 blow at Godwine and his house. We shall soon 
 see that William himself was watching closely the 
 struggle between Godwine and the king. What 
 shape the young duke's dreams may have taken, 
 whether he had already conceived the design, which 
 was two years later disclosed, of following his cousin 
 Eadward on the English throne, we cannot tell. 
 But communications must have already passed be- 
 tween the Norman group around Eadward and the 
 court of Rouen ; and the nomination of an English 
 prelate from among the circle of Norman courtiers 
 showed the new confidence which Eadward was 
 drawing from his cousin's victories. In the year 
 of William s triumph over Geoffrey Martel, one of 
 the king's Norman chaplains, Ulf, was raised to the 
 see of Dorchester, a diocese which stretched from 
 the Humber to the Thames. As yet, however, 
 there was nothing in W^illiam's attitude to mark 
 hostility to the house of Godwine. But the next 
 step in the young duke's policy was to set their 
 attitude to each other in a clearer light. 
 
 Already the course of events was drawing Eng- F/amiers, 
 land into relations with the western world at once 
 closer and more extensive than any she had formed 
 since the days of ^thelstan. The first breath of 
 the later Conquest passes over us as English poli- 
 tics interweave themselves with the politics not of 
 
 
 m 
 
 i% 
 
492 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 cHAP.x. Scandinavia only, but of Normandy and France, of 
 Thi Flanders and Boulogne, of the Empire and the Pa- 
 
 SSJ^n? pacy. It was to this wider field that the contest 
 between Godwine and the Normans was to drift; 
 and to follow the thread of English politics at this 
 moment we have to turn to Flanders. Flanders 
 was now one of the leading states of Western 
 Christendom. The wild reach of forest and fen 
 which Ccesar had seen stretching along the Scheldt 
 and the Lower Rhine, a region veiled in bitter mist 
 and swept by the frost-winds of the Northern seas, 
 had been subdued by the Roman sword, and won 
 from the dying empire by men of kindred stock 
 with the English conquerors of Britain. A portion 
 of this wild land, the great triangle of territory be- 
 tween the Scheldt, the Channel, and the Somme, 
 which was known as Flanders, became a county in 
 the storm of the Danish inroads. Its counts won 
 their lordship by hard fighting against the North- 
 men. But the quick rise of Flanders to wealth and 
 greatness was due to the temper of the Flemings 
 themselves. At the time we have reached their 
 steady toil was already laying the foundation of that 
 industrial greatness which the land preserved 
 through the Middle Ages, and of that commercial 
 activity which was to make it ere a hundred years 
 had gone by the mart of the world. The industry 
 of the Flemings found from the first a shelter in 
 their counts. All the traditions of the country as- 
 cribed to its rulers a love of justice which lifted 
 them above the princes of their time. Story told 
 how Lyderic, the founder of their race, beheaded his 
 eldest son for taking a basket of apples from an old 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 493 
 
 1035-1063. 
 
 tance. 
 
 woman without payment. The very feuds of the chap.x. 
 land were bounded by strict rule. Baron might The 
 wage his petty war with baron ; but old usage and GoXint' 
 enacted law forbade the extension of the strife to 
 husbandman or trader. Hot as the quarrel might 
 be, too, fighting was its only outlet, for none might 
 harry or imprison within the count s domain. 
 
 It was in the peace and order which this strict ^^sjmpor- 
 rule secured that the Flemings toiled their way to 
 wealth. The counts understood and identified 
 themselves with their people's love of industry and 
 freedom, and Arnulf the Old, our Alfred s grandson 
 by the mother's side, became the yElfred of Flemish 
 history. The little boroughs of the land grew up, 
 for the most part, beneath the shelter of its vast ab- 
 beys; names such as those of St. Omer, St. Gher- 
 lain, St. Amand, St. Vedast, show that municipal life 
 was almost a creation of the Church. Even the 
 lordly Ghent of after-days was but a borough which 
 had clustered round the abbey of St. Bavon. But it 
 was to Arnulf that tradition ascribed the institution 
 of the great fairs which raised them into centres of 
 commercial life, as well as the introduction of the 
 weaving trade which made Flanders the earliest 
 manufacturing country of Western Christendom. 
 With equal sagacity the counts saw that the most 
 precious gift they could confer on this rising indus- 
 try was the gift of freedom. " Little charm," says 
 Baldwin of Mons, " is there in a town for men to 
 dwell therein save it be sheltered by the uttermost 
 liberty." The freedom of settlement, the security 
 of trade, the right of justice within their w^alls, the 
 liberty of bequest and succession, which the Flem- 
 
 Ui 
 
 Ml 
 
 I 
 
494 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 495 
 
 cHAP.x. ish boroughs were already acquiring, were soon to 
 
 The ripen into an almost complete self-government. 
 
 ^^^ne' The rapid prosperity of the country gave a corre- 
 
 10S6T053 spending importance to its rulers; and this impor- 
 
 — tance was heightened by the situation of Flanders as 
 
 a border -land between France and the Empire. 
 
 Feudatories of the emperor as of the king at Paris, 
 
 though for different portions of their dominion, the 
 
 counts soon learned to use their double allegiance 
 
 to win a practical independence of either suzerain. 
 
 The present ruler of Flanders, Baldwin of Lille, had 
 
 reached a yet higher position than his predecessors. 
 
 His wife was the sister of King Henry of France. 
 
 He was among the most powerful vassals of the 
 
 Empire. 
 Revival The Empire had risen at this moment to a height 
 Empire, unknown since the days of Charles the Great; a 
 height from which it was from that hour slowly to 
 fall. The wide dominion of Charles had been 
 broken up by the quarrels of his house, the incur- 
 sions of the Northmen, and the rise of a national 
 temper in the peoples whom he had bound into a 
 state. But the tradition of a single Christendom 
 with one temporal as with one spiritual head lived 
 on in the minds of men ; and in the German king 
 Otto the Great the tradition again became a living 
 fact. Conqueror of Italy, crowned at Rome as Em- 
 peror of the world, the claims of Otto to the suprem- 
 acy of Western Christendom found no acknowledg- 
 ment in Spain, in what we now call France, nor in 
 England ; in our own land, indeed, the assumption 
 of imperial titles by Eadgar and i^thelred looks 
 like a purposed answer to the imperial claims of 
 
 Otto and his successors. But even apart from its cjiap.x. 
 claims over realms which denied its sway, the Em- Thi 
 pire stood from the hour of this revival high both 0^1^^? 
 in strength and in extent above all other European ^og—^ 
 powers. Lords of Germany and of the greater part - 
 of Italy, of the subject realms of Bohemia, Moravia, 
 and Poland to the east, of the equally subject realms 
 of Lorraine and Burgundy to the west, wielding a 
 more doubtful supremacy over Denmark and Hun- 
 gary, the successors of Otto saw their rule owned 
 from the Eider to the Liris, from Bruges to Vienna, 
 from the Vistula to the Rhone. 
 
 It was this mighty domain which passed in 1039, The 
 three years before Eadward s accession to the Eng- m!^!^u. 
 lish throne, into the hands of the second of the 
 Franconian line, the Emperor Henry the Third. 
 None of its rulers had shown a nobler temper or a 
 greater capacity for action. In seven years Bohe- 
 mia was quieted, Hungary conquered, and public 
 peace established throughout Germany. But the 
 projects of Henry were wider than those of a merely 
 German king. He crossed the Alps to put himself 
 at the head of a movement for the reform of the 
 Church. A new religious enthusiasm was awak- 
 ening throughout Europe, an enthusiasm which 
 showed itself in the reform of monasticism, in a 
 passion for pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and in 
 the foundation of religious houses. We have seen 
 how energetically this movement was working in 
 Normandy ; it was the coldness, if not the antairo- 
 nism, that the house of Godwine showed to it which 
 was the special weakness of their policy in England. 
 Godwine himself founded no religious house; he 
 
 m 
 
 -si 
 
 r^i 
 
 i-;i 
 
 
496 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 497 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 
 House of 
 Qodwine. 
 
 1035-1053 
 
 The 
 Empire 
 and the 
 Piipacy. 
 
 was charged by his enemies with plundering many. 
 His son Swein outraged the religious sentiment of 
 the day by his abduction of an abbess. But if it 
 was repulsed by the house of Godwine, the revival 
 found friends elsewhere. Leofric of Mercia was re- 
 nowned for his piety and his bounty to religious 
 houses. Eadward himself was saintly in his devo- 
 tion. In England, however, as abroad, the first 
 vigor of the revival spent itself on the crying scan- 
 dal of the day, the feudalization of the Church by 
 grants or purchase of its highest offices as fiefs of 
 lord or king, and by their transmission, like lay es- 
 tates, from father to son. 
 
 It was against this abuse that Henry specially 
 directed his action. In the theory of the Empire 
 a spiritual head was as needful for Christendom as 
 a secular head ; emperor and pope were alike God's 
 vicegerents in his government of the world. But 
 the Papacy was now on the verge of a more com- 
 plete feudalization than the meaner prelacies of the 
 Western Church. Three claimants now disputed 
 the chair of St. Peter ; of these, two had been raised 
 to it by the Roman barons, one by bribery of the 
 Roman people. Their deposition, the elevation of 
 a German pope, edicts against the purchase of ec- 
 clesiastical offices, showed Henry's zeal in the puri- 
 fication of the Church. It was shown still more 
 o-randly when the bishop whom he had called to the 
 Papacy as Leo IX. renounced, at a v/arning from the 
 deacon Hildebrand, the papal ornaments to which 
 he had no title but the nomination of the emperor, 
 and only resumed them after a formal election by 
 the clergy of Rome. Henry owned the justness of 
 
 the principle, and Leo became his coadjutor in the chap.x. 
 settlement of Christendom. From the reforms of Th^ 
 Henry the Third dates that revival of the Papacy Sne' 
 which was soon to deal a fatal blow at the Em- ~" 
 pire itself. Hildebrand, the future Gregory the Sev-^^^^^^ 
 enth, was in Leo's train as he returned over the 
 Alps, and continued to mould the policy of the Pa- 
 pacy in accordance with his own high conception of 
 the commission of Christ's Church on earth. But 
 for the moment the ecclesiastical reforms of the 
 emperor were interrupted by the troubles of the 
 Empire itself. Henry's greatness stirred the jeal- 
 ousy of his feudatories; and though his wonderful 
 activity held the bulk of his realm in peace he was 
 met in Lower Lorraine, the Low Countries of later 
 history, by a rebellion under its duke. 
 
 In this rising Duke Godfrey was backed by two ^^orman. 
 powerful neighbors, the Count of Holland and the FUindL 
 Count of Flanders. It was probably in the spring 
 of 1049, at the moment when Baldwin of Lille ai> 
 nounced by daring outrages his defiance of the em- 
 peror, that a demand for his daughter's hand reached 
 him from the court of Rouen. In itself the demand 
 was natural enough. William had been pressed by 
 his baronage to take a wife, and kinship alone 
 might have drawn .the duke to take her from the 
 house of Flanders. It was no long time since Bald- 
 win the Bearded, the present Count Baldwin's 
 father, had married in his old age a daughter of 
 Richard the Good, a cousin of William as of the 
 English Eadward, and her presence at the court of 
 Bruges would aid in the promotion of further alli- 
 ances. But we can hardly doubt that political in- 
 
 32 
 
 •if 
 
498 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.x. terest had more weight with WilHam than the 
 Th^ thought of kinship. A marriage with Matilda of 
 oXlnl Flanders would strengthen his hold on France, 
 i036To53 ^vhose growing jealousy formed one of his greatest 
 — difficulties. Matildas mother, Adela, was a sister 
 of King Henry; and the connection between the 
 courts of Paris and Bruges was of the closest kind. 
 Even in a war with France the friendship of Flan- 
 ders would cover the weakest side of the Norman 
 frontier. But it is likely enough that England al- 
 ready occupied as large a part in William's plans as 
 * France. We can hardly doubt from his visit but 
 two years later that dreams of an English crown 
 were already stirring within him. And in any proj- 
 ects upon England it was of the highest import to 
 secure the friendship of Flanders. 
 Eu^iarid It was the more important that Baldwin's friend- 
 Fiauirs. ship sccmcd already to have been won by the great 
 English house in which William must even now 
 have discerned the main obstacle to his success. In 
 seeking the alliance of the Count of Flanders, God- 
 wine was only following the traditional policy of the 
 English kings. A common dread of the Northmen 
 had long held the two countries in close political 
 connection ; and the marriage of a former Count 
 Baldwin with yElfthryth,' the daughter of Alfred, 
 was part of a system of alliances by which Eadward 
 the Elder and .^thelstan strove to bridle Normandy 
 in its earlier days. Even when that dread of the 
 Northmen died away, a friendly intercourse went 
 on between the two countries. It was at Count 
 Arnulf's court that Dunstan sought r efuge in his 
 
 * See p. 175- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 499 
 
 exile; and one of the archbishop's biographies is chap.x. 
 due to a Flemish scholar. Commerce, too, linked iTe 
 England with " Baldwin s land," as Flanders was ^^""' °^ 
 generally styled. Bruges formed the great mart '^~'' 
 for the countries of the Lower Rhine^; and the'''— "' 
 merchants of Bruges were seen commonly enoucrh 
 in the streets of London. Flemings, indeed, we^'re 
 among the strangers whose encouragement was laid 
 as a fault to Eadgar's charge. In the later days of 
 ^thelred the political relations between the two 
 countries became of a less friendly kind. It was 
 from a Flemish harbor that Cnut steered to Eng- 
 lish shores, and it was at Bruges that Emma and 
 Harthacnut planned their invasion of England. 
 But aid to Harthacnut and Emma was less "offen- 
 sive to Eadward than it would have been to Harald 
 Harefoot, and even the reception of some Danish 
 pirates in the Scheldt, with English booty on board, 
 was hardly of weight enough to prevent the renewal 
 of the old English friendship during the Confessor's 
 
 •4 
 
 V! 
 
 'n 
 
 reign. 
 
 am. 
 
 The friendship was at this time drawn closer by ne 
 the relations between Baldwin and the real ruler of {^"^ 
 England. A formal alliance by which Godwine and 
 the count were bound to each other was of old 
 standing; and it had been sedulously strengthened 
 on the earl's part by repeated gifts. The terms on 
 which the two houses stood had, indeed, been shown 
 only a year before by the reception which Swein 
 found at Baldwin's court. To break the connection 
 between the house of Godwine and the Flemish 
 court, at any rate to neutralize its force, was of the 
 first importance, therefore, for any success in after- 
 
 I 
 
500 
 
 THE CONgUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.x. attempts upon England. The march of a Flemish 
 The army on Rouen, the appearance of a Flemish squad- 
 
 oXine' ron off the Seine, would alike be fatal to any passage 
 
 1035T053 o^ t^^ Channel by a Norman force. The friendship 
 — of Baldwin, on the other hand, would complete the 
 schemes which William was already devising for se- 
 curing the whole range of the coast from Brittany 
 to the Scheldt. Count Ingelram of Ponthieu was 
 the husband of the duke's sister. Eustace of Bou- 
 logne was linked to him by his marriage with King 
 Eadward's sister, Godgifu or Goda, who had been 
 reared, like Eadward himself, at the Norman court. 
 With the hand of Matilda, therefore, the whole coast 
 of the Channel would be secured. The advantages 
 of the match, indeed, were to be far greater than any 
 which William could now have counted on; it was 
 the friendship of Flanders which, in the end, alone 
 made the Norman Conquest possible. But even 
 now it was too marked a step to escape the watch- 
 ful eye of such a statesman as Godwine; and we 
 shall hardly do justice to his ability if we fail to 
 trace his hand in the sudden and unlooked-for com- 
 bination by which the Norman scheme was, for a 
 w^hile, rendered impossible. 
 
 Council of While William w^as seeking Matilda's hand at 
 the court of Bruges, the new pope, Leo IX., and 
 the emperor, Henry, had together taken in hand 
 their work of reform. Only twice before had the 
 western world seen, never again was it destined to 
 see. Pope and Ccesar united in the common rule of 
 Christendom, united in the work of tem.poral peace 
 and of religious reformation. The aim of the coun- 
 cil which was summoned to meet them at Rheims 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 501 
 
 was to restore at once the tranquillity of the Empire chap.x. 
 and the^ discipline of the Church. The first was, iiTe 
 mdeed, in great part secured. Leo had already Sn'/ 
 launched his excommunication at the rebel princes,,^-,, 
 and though Baldwin of Flanders still remained je- - 
 fiant, the Lotharingian duke Godfrey laid down his 
 arms and submitted to penance for his sin To 
 bnng spiritual peace to the Church needed longer 
 toil. But England now seemed disposed to join'^in 
 the task with pope and emperor. Bishop Duduc 
 01 Wells, with two abbots, appeared among the 
 crowd of German and Burgundian bishops who 
 answered Leo's summons to Rheims. The envoy 
 was skilfully chosen. Duduc was himself a Ger- 
 man, a Saxon or Lotharingian in blood, fitted, there- 
 fore, by his extraction to deal with a German pope 
 and a German emperor. His commission simply 
 bade him bring back word to the king what was 
 done for Christendom, but it is hard to watch the 
 acts of the council without suspecting that behind 
 this spiritual mission lay a political one. 
 
 The work of moral reform went hand in hTcXi^nspoiitkai 
 at Rheims with that of ecclesiastical reformation. '""''" 
 l^rinces as well as bishops found themselves sum- 
 moned to the bar of Christendom. But it is remark- 
 able that in the front rank of these offenders we find 
 the four rulers whom William's policy was drawin- 
 together along the Channel coast, and that in each 
 case the crime laid to their charge was the same. 
 Marriage contracted within the bounds of spiritual 
 relationship was counted by the Church as incest; 
 and so wide were these bounds, so numerous the 
 modes in which this relationship could be contract- 
 
502 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. ed, that few offences were more difficult to evade. 
 The Incest was the ground on which Eustace of Bou- 
 
 CkSIine. logne and Ingelram of Ponthieu were alike excom- 
 
 1035T053 rnunicated ; but we are not told whether their Nor- 
 — man marriages were the ground of the condemna- 
 tion. The projected marriage of Matilda was the 
 crime which brought both William and Baldwin 
 within the censure of the Church. Her mother, 
 Adela, had been betrothed to William's uncle, the 
 third Duke Richard of Normandy, before her mar- 
 riage with Baldwin ; and such a betrothal created a 
 spiritual affinity between the countess and the ducal 
 house which may have served as the ground for the 
 prohibition. But, whatever was the obstacle, the 
 marriaofe was counted incestuous, and William and 
 Baldwin were alike forbidden to proceed with it on 
 pain of excommunication. 
 
 Failure of How far thcsc acts of the council sprang from 
 
 William's --,,, . ..,, , ti 
 
 schemes. Duduc s promptmg it IS hard to say, but some light 
 is thrown on the part which England was playing 
 by the events which followed the close of the assem- 
 bly. Its prohibition of the marriage was, in any 
 case, a heavy blow to the Norman duke. But Will- 
 iam showed no sign of submitting to the prohibi- 
 tion. Strict Churchman as he was, we shall see 
 him clinging stubbornly to this project for years to 
 come, and marrying Matilda in the end in defiance 
 of the excommunication. Nor did the Count of 
 Flanders seem more likely to yield. In spite of 
 Leo's thunders and the withdrawal of Duke God- 
 frey, Baldwin remained in arms. The emperor was 
 forced to march against him ; but Flanders required 
 a fleet as well as an army for its reduction, and Henry 
 
 503 
 
 called on England for naval aid. No request could charx. 
 have jarred more roughly against the traditional Sli 
 English relations with the Flemish counts, nor with fcS^^f 
 the previous policy of Godwine himself; but the aid 1035^053 
 which Henry needed was at once granted, and the — 
 emperor no sooner marched on Baldwin's frontier 
 than English ships gathered under the king himself 
 at Sandwich for a cruise off the coast of Flanders. 
 Attacked by two such powers at once even Bald- 
 win's heart failed him ; and the count bowed with- 
 out a struggle to the imperial demands. We can 
 hardly doubt, from the part which Henry had taken 
 in the council at Rheims, that among these was that 
 of submission to the decree which prohibited Matil- 
 da's marriage with William. It is, at any rate, cer- 
 tain that so long as Henry lived Baldwin withheld 
 his daughter's hand from the Norman duke. 
 
 Whether this decisive aid of England had been Codt 
 stipulated as the price of the council's intervention "S 
 between the duke and the Flemish count it is im- """" 
 possible now to tell. But the result of both served 
 Godwine's purpose too well to allow of a belief that 
 he was strange to the real import of the policy he 
 directed. At the close of 1049 the Flemish match 
 seemed to be at an end. Baldwin, however, was no 
 sooner severed from William, than Godwine hastened 
 to renew the friendly relations which his policy had 
 for the moment interrupted. His aim was precisely 
 that of the Norman duke. Like William, the earl 
 resolved to bind Flanders to his interests by a mar- 
 riage tie. But where the duke failed Godwine sue- 
 ceeded. How Baldwin was won, whether the match 
 with Godwine's house was a condition of the with- 
 
 iviue s 
 'a nee 
 
 Flanders. 
 
504 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 505 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 HoQse of 
 Gk)dwine. 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 Outlawry 
 of Sweht. 
 
 drawal of the English fleet, we do not know, but the 
 reconciliation was a rapid one. In little more than 
 a year after the close of the war with Baldwin, God- 
 wine s third son, Tostig, was wedded to Judith, the 
 sister or daughter of the Count of Flanders. 
 
 No triumph could have been more complete than 
 this diplomatic triumph of Godwine on foreign 
 ground. He was now at the height of his power; 
 the King of England was his son-in-law, Swein, the 
 King of Denmark, was his nephew^ and the Count 
 of Flanders was closely linked to his house. But in 
 the very moment of his success new difficulties met 
 him at home. While Eadward still lay at Sand- 
 wich the exiled Swein returned to seek pardon and 
 restoration to the lands he had lost. Harold and 
 Beorn, to whom these lands had been granted, for a 
 time withstood his demand ; but at a subsequent 
 conference at Pevensey with Godwine and his 
 cousin, Beorn was brought to consent, and he rode 
 with Swein to serve as his mediator with the king. 
 Again, however, the brutal nature of God wine's eld- 
 est son broke out in crime. Beorn was treacher- 
 ously seized, carried on shipboard, and murdered. 
 The outrao^e roused the wrath of all. Swein was 
 formally branded as " nithing," as utterly worthless, 
 and was forsaken by the bulk of his own followers. 
 The men of Hastings chased the two ships which 
 still clung to him, captured them, and slew their 
 crews. But Swein escaped to Baldwin's land, where 
 the war which Flanders was waging with England 
 and the emperor at that moment secured him a 
 refuge. He was soon to return. As the winter 
 passed, and peace between Flanders and England 
 
 was again restored. Bishop Ealdrcd of Worcester, chap.x. 
 who had been raised to his see two years before in ihi 
 the very height of Godwine's power, appeared at the aXin? 
 court of Bruges. Ealdred was an adroit negotiator, ,,,,— ., 
 
 11 -111, ^ 1035-1063. 
 
 and he may possibly have been commissioned to — 
 bring about that new union of the count and earl 
 which found its issue soon after in Tostig's mar- 
 riage. He served, at any rate, another purpose of 
 Godwine's. Early in 1050 he brought back Swein 
 with him to England, and made his peace with the 
 king. The murderer's outlawry was reversed, and 
 he was restored to his old rule over the shires of the 
 west. 
 
 Such a restoration of such a criminal was an out- Codwifte 
 rage to the general sense of justice, which could ^itZ^ 
 hardly fail to weaken the cause of Godwine. But 
 the earl's power remained unshaken; and ere the 
 year ended, the death of Archbishop Eadsige seemed 
 about to raise it to a yet higher point. The vacancy 
 of an English see, as of an English abbey, was at 
 this time commonly filled by the direct nomination 
 of the king in full Witenagemot ; it was the king 
 who "gave" the bishopric by formal writ and seal, 
 \yho placed the bishop's staff in his hand, who some- 
 times personally enthroned him in his bishop's seat. 
 But in some cases the royal nomination was pre- 
 ceded by an election on the part of the clergy or 
 monks, with a petition to the king for its confirma- 
 tion. On the death of Eadsige the latter course 
 was followed. The Canterbury monks chose /Elfric, 
 a kinsman of Godwine, for the vacant see ; and God- 
 wine supported, with his whole power, their prayer 
 for his acceptance by Eadward. The choice of 
 
5o6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAr.x. ^ifric was the last step in the steady process by 
 The which the earl was concentratino: all power in the 
 
 House of,,-,., ^ ^ 
 
 Godwine. hands ot his house. Already master of the State, 
 1035T053. the primacy of his kinsman made him master of the 
 Church. The efforts of Eadward to provide a check 
 on his influence by the elevation of Norman bishops 
 broke idly against the overwhelming supremacy of 
 an archbishop of Godwine's blood. Nor was this 
 all. The constitutional position of the primate was 
 even more important than his ecclesiastical position. 
 He alone could lawfully set the crown on the head 
 of an elected king. He alone had the right of re- 
 ceiving from the people their assent to the king s 
 rule, of receiving from the sovereign his oath to 
 govern rightly. The choice of ^Ifric pointed 
 plainly to Godwine's designs on the crown. 
 
 If even a shadow of kingship were to remain to 
 him, Eadward was forced to resist. He can hardly 
 have needed the whispers of his Norman courtiers 
 to disclose the significance of ^Ifric's election, or 
 the influence of Robert of Jumieges to estrange him, 
 as Godwine's friends murmured that Robert did es- 
 trange him, from the earl. But once resolved on re- 
 sistance, the king acted with the violence of a weak 
 man driven to stand at bay. The choice which he 
 made was yet more anti-national than Godwine's 
 own. If the primacy with its spiritual and political 
 powers w^as no p9st for Godwine's kinsman, it was 
 still less a post for a Norman stranger. But it was 
 Robert of Jumieges whom the king named as arch- 
 bishop in the Lenten Witenagemot of 105 1. The 
 new primate soon showed that his elevation was but 
 the first blow in a strife which was from this mo- 
 
 Rohert of 
 Jumiiges. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 507 
 
 ment assured. Spearhafoc, a partisan of Godwine, 
 had been raised to the see of London as a means 
 of counterbalancing the appointment to the primacy. 
 Robert, however, hastened to Rome for his pallium, 
 and obtained from Pope Leo, probably on the usu- 
 al plea of simony, a condemnation of Spearhafoc's 
 choice. On the ground of this prohibition he re- 
 fused on his return to consecrate the bishop, although 
 he " came to him with the king's writ and seal." 
 Spearhafoc, unhallowed as he was, defiantly took pos- 
 session of his bishopric. 
 
 As August wore away the quarrel grew more bit- 
 ter. Godwine complained of the primate's intrigues 
 against him ; Robert complained of the earl's tres- 
 pass on lands belonging to his see. A fresh cause 
 of irritation was doubtless added by a visit of Eus- 
 tace of Boulogne to the court at Gloucester. His 
 coming was, natural enough : he was wedded to the 
 king's sister, and both he and his wife were endowed 
 with wide estates in England. But it possibly had 
 another end. The marriage of Tostig and Judith 
 had just proclaimed to the world Godwine's triumph 
 in Flanders ; and Eustace, a near neighbor of Count 
 Baldwin, a friend and ally of the Norman duke, was 
 affected above all by this new turn in Flemish poli- 
 tics. But w^hether his visit was a result of this 
 match or no, the sympathies of Count Eustace can 
 hardly fail to have given fresh weight to the press- 
 ure which Robert was bringing to bear on the king 
 against Godwine. 
 
 That the Count of Boulogne was looked upon 
 with hostility by Godwine's party we see from the 
 precaution which Eustace took of arming his men 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 Godwine. 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 The 
 
 Count of 
 
 Boulogne. 
 
 Outbreak 
 of strife. 
 
5o8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 509 
 
 cHAi\ X. as he approached the earl's town of Dover on his re- 
 The turn at the opening of September. His fears of a 
 
 oodwine. Conflict were soon realized. One of his soldiers, 
 1035T053. while roughly seeking lodgings, wounded a burgher 
 who refused them ; the townsmen attacked the count ; 
 and after the fall of some twenty men on either side 
 Eustace was driven from Dover, and fled, almost 
 alone, to Eadward. The king summoned Godwine 
 in wrath from Tostig s marriage feast, and bade him, 
 as Earl of Wesse^c, avenge the wrong done to his 
 brother-in-law. With his usual skill, Godwine seized 
 on the opportunity which the demand gave him. A 
 contest was plainly at hand between Eadward and 
 the earl ; but the fight at Dover enabled him at once 
 to take ground not as an enemy of the king, but as 
 an enemy of the foreigners who surrounded the 
 king. He refused to attack his own people on a 
 stranger's behalf; and with his sons, Swein and 
 Harold, summoned the men of their three earldoms 
 to follow him in arms. Fighting, in fact, at once 
 broke out between Swein's men and the men of 
 Earl Ralf in Herefordshire. For the moment the 
 bold stroke promised to be successful. Eadward 
 lay defenceless in the midst of Swein's earldom. 
 The followers of the three earls immediately gath- 
 ered at their call, a few miles off Gloucester, in a 
 force so " great and countless " as to show what care- 
 ful preparation the house of Godwine had made be- 
 forehand for the blow. From his camp on the Cots- 
 wolds the earl demanded the surrender into his hands 
 of Eustace and the Normans in Ralf s castle. But 
 quick as had been Godwine's stroke, others were as 
 quick as he. The earls of Mercia and Northumber- 
 
 land were doubtless on their way to the usual au- chap. x. 
 tumnal meeting of the Witan ; but on the summons The 
 of the panic-struck king they called up the whole SSUtn? 
 strength of their earldoms, and hurried with the^oa^ogg 
 smaller force about them to Gloucester. — 
 
 The approach of Leofric and Siward, with the men ^'"J;":'' / 
 whom Ralf brought up from Herefordshire, changed pians. 
 the whole face of affairs. The surrender of Count 
 Eustace was at once refused, and as the Mercians 
 and Northumbrians gathered round Eadward they 
 clamored to be led against Godwine and his sons. 
 Dexterous as the earl's policy had been, it had utter- 
 ly broken down. His aim had been to stand before 
 England as the foe of strangers and not of the king. 
 But the sudden rescue wrought by Siward and Leo- 
 fric forced him, " loath " as he was, to stand boldly 
 out in arms against Eadward himself ; and it marks 
 the power which the monarchy had now gained over 
 the national sentiment, in great measure from God- 
 wine's own policy and action, that the moment this 
 attitude was fairly taken the earl's strength fell from 
 him. But with the sentiment of loyalty was rising 
 also the consciousness of national unity. The day 
 had passed when Mercian or Northumbrian could 
 shed West-Saxon blood as the blood of strangers. 
 The wiser folk on both sides deemed it " unraed," or 
 wisdom-lacking, to join battle, " seeing that there was 
 most that noblest was in England in the two hosts." 
 
 Not less striking than the force of either senti-^'-^^^'ir^^'- 
 ment was the new consciousness of national law. The 
 great dispute was left to the judgment of the Wite- 
 nagemot which was summoned on the twenty-first of 
 September, so fast had events marched, at London. 
 
lO 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP.X. The two hosts were parted by the river; Godwine 
 The and his sons lay at Southwark ; Eadward and the 
 Godwine. Mercian and Northumbrian earls encamped on the 
 103^053 northern shore. The Witan no sooner met than 
 they gave an earnest of their coming judgment by 
 the outlawry of Swein. The reversal of Godwine s 
 worst deed showed w^hat had most shaken his powder 
 over Englishmen ; but Godwine still clung to his 
 son. Outlaw as he now was, he kept Swein beside 
 him. The earl trusted to the political skill which 
 had rescued him from so many dangers, and Bishop 
 Stigand of Winchester, one of his stoutest partisans, 
 negotiated busily with the king. But while Stigand 
 crossed and recrossed the river, Godwine's host 
 melted away ; and a final summons to appear before 
 the Witan drove him from Southwark. A sentence 
 of outlawry on the part of the Witan and the host 
 followed him in his flight over sea. 
 Its results. Ti^g triumph of the king and of the primate was 
 complete. Godwine with three of his sons — Swein, 
 Tostig, and Gyrth — made their way to Baldwin's 
 court. Two others, Harold and Leofwine, struck 
 westward to Bristol and sailed thence to Dublin, 
 where a native king, Dermot, w^as now lord alike of 
 Irish and Danes. It is plain that the policy of the 
 house of Godwine, closely linked as it was with the 
 Northmen through Gytha and her kindred, had se- 
 cured a hold on these western seas by an alliance 
 with the Danish Ostmen, as it secured a hold on the 
 eastern channel through its alliance with Baldwin. 
 The orders given to Bishop Ealdred of Worcester, 
 to seize Harold as he fled, mark the importance 
 which the new government attached to this danger 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 511 
 
 in the West; but his pursuers "might not or would chap.x. 
 not" overtake him. The cautious phrase of the The 
 chronicler shows that, if Swein's inlawing and God- Sne' 
 wine's daring stroke for supremacy in the realm had^Qj^I^ogg 
 brought about a national resistance, there was no — 
 bitter hostility against his house. The earls flight, 
 indeed, seems to have been unexpected ; it is likely 
 that many in the host at Westminster meant simply 
 to back the king in his appeal against Godwine's 
 last demands ; and the sudden disappearance of the 
 great minister who had so long stood at the head 
 of English affairs struck a panic into men's hearts. 
 Murmurs passed from lip to lip that the land was 
 lost now the land's father was gone. We see the 
 power of this sentiment in the moderation of the 
 acts which followed Eadward's triumph. Godwine's 
 daughter — indeed, the king's wife — Eadgyth, was 
 put away and sent to a monastery. The earldom of 
 Swein was broken up, and while part of it fell to 
 the king's nephews Ralf, a part of it, along with the 
 western portion of Wessex, was placed under the 
 rule of another kinsman of Eadward's, Odda. The 
 East-Anglian earldom of Harold w^as given to Leo- 
 fric's son, ^Ifgar. Spearhafoc was driven from the 
 see he claimed, and one of the king's Norman chap- 
 lains, William, was raised to the bishopric of London. 
 But we hear of no further reactionary measures; nor 
 is there any sign that, powerful as he now was, the 
 Norman primate used his power to make England 
 Norman. Neither Siward nor Leofric, indeed, were 
 men to suffer their success to be turned to merely 
 Norman uses; and his conduct in this hour of inde- 
 pendence shows that Eadward had till now favored 
 
512 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Honse of 
 Qodwine. 
 
 CHAP. X. the Norman group around him simply as a counter- 
 The poise to the oppression of Godwine. 
 
 But in one breast the fall of the house of Godwine 
 
 1035T053 ^^^^^ have raised hopes which, bafifled as they were 
 
 , — to be acjain and aQ:ain, were never thenceforth to 
 
 visits die. In the triumph of the earl's policy in Flanders, 
 
 tisau . ^Yjjij^j^ q£ Normandy had suffered the great defeat 
 
 of his life. The marriage he had striven to bring 
 about was denied him, while the marriage with 
 Tostig bound Baldwin more firmly than ever to 
 Godwine's house. But the fall of the earl opened 
 chances of success in the aims which, we can hardly 
 doubt, were now growing clearer before him. In 
 the following Easter-tide, 1051, "came Earl William 
 from beyond sea with great following of Frenchmen ; 
 and the king welcomed him and so many of his fel- 
 lows as seemed him good, and let him go again." 
 There is something startling in the simple w^ords 
 which record the first landing of William on Eng- 
 lish shores. Of the import of his coming we are 
 told nothing by the English chronicler. But the 
 Norman knights of the duke's train brought back 
 tales to their own land of a fresh promise made to 
 William by his royal kinsman that he would be- 
 queath him his crown ; and, true it is, the tale deep- 
 ened the conviction of every Norman that England 
 was soon to be his own.* 
 
 But Godwine was watching the turn of English 
 
 * Note the growth of the Norman conv^ention from its beginning 
 (i) with Eadward's accession and the rumored promise of succes- 
 sion ; (2) its progress with Primate Robert's visit to Rouen and 
 promise ; (3) and with William's visit to Eadward and promise. 
 The very number of the promises throws grave doubt on the truth 
 of any, but it shows the growing belief in the Norman pretensions. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 513 
 
 feeling with other eyes than those of William. News chap. x. 
 of the popular panic at his flight must soon have Thi 
 reached him over sea; nor can we doubt that the SS'^ne' 
 great treasure which he carried to Flanders was lav-^og^^^ 
 ished to support the sympathy felt for him in his ex- — 
 ile, and to spur Baldwin to the efforts which we find fiaHs of 
 the count making to induce Eadward to receive him ^''^'"''"' 
 again. But for months all was in vain. Winter 
 and spring wore away, and still the king was stub- 
 born in his refusal of pardon. At last Godwine 
 girded himself to win his return by force. His first 
 step was to free himself from the miserable son who 
 had cost him so much. Brutal as Swein was, there 
 is something pitiful in the tenacious affection with 
 which Godwine had clung to him in spite of his 
 crimes ; but the earl saw at last that whatever wel- 
 come England might have for himself, it had no wel- 
 come for Swein. And his departure on a pilgrim- 
 age, in which he found his grave, removed the one 
 great obstacle to Godwine's reconciliation with his 
 country. Already friends were stealing over sea to 
 Bruges, " happy to be exiles in his exile," ' while 
 messages came from other friends who remained 
 but called for his return, and pledged themselves to 
 live and die with him.' Through the spring of 
 1052, Godwine was busy equipping a fleet in the 
 Vser, while Harold gathered ships at Dublin, and 
 
 ' Vita Edw. (ed. Luard), p. 404. 
 
 ' "And during the time that he was here in the land, he enticed 
 to him all the men of Kent, and all the butsecarls from Hastings 
 and everywhere there by the sea-coast, and all the cast end. and Sus- 
 sex, and Surrey, and much else in addition thereto. Then all de- 
 clared that they would live and die with him."— Eng. Chron. (Peter- 
 borough), a. 1052. 
 
5H 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 515 
 
 cHAP.x. when midsummer came all was ready. Eadward 
 iTe was still resolute against the earl ; his own prayers 
 Sne' and the embassies both of Baldwin and the French 
 ,^,— „ king, whose interposition again throws light on the 
 1035-1053. ^^.^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ Godwine's political connections, alike 
 
 failed to move him ; and a fleet and land force was 
 gathered at Sandwich to meet his coming. 
 /^cfnrno/ ^ jhc cai'l had already started, but his first attempt 
 (;.^w. ^^^^^ .^ ^^^^^ i2i\\ure, for he was driven back to 
 
 Bruges by a storm, and for a month all seemed at 
 an e'lid. But the failure had given a false security 
 to Eadward. At the beginning of September the 
 king's fleet withdrew to London to refit, and at the 
 moment when the coast lay open, Eadward learned 
 that Harold had left Dublin to join his father. The 
 young earl turned into the Bristol Channel to make 
 a des^cent on Porlock, and while the brutal ravages 
 of his Danish shipmen woke the king's dread of an 
 attack from the West, Harold's own ships rounded 
 the Land's-End and entered the Channel. Godwine 
 and his son met off the Isle of Wight, sailed east- 
 ward along the coast, and entered the Thames. The 
 country rose as they advanced. Vessels put off 
 from every little port they touched, manned by sea- 
 men who vowed to live and die with Godwine ; and 
 when the earl's fleet moored before London it far 
 outnumbered the fifty vessels of the king. Ead- 
 ward, however, was hardly less active and resolute 
 than his foes, and a large force lay marshalled along 
 the northern bank of the Thames. But Godwine 
 was too consummate a statesman to derive success 
 from mere force of arms. He stilled the wild out- 
 cry for battle which burst from his men, as the king 
 
 I 
 
 delayed to give answer to the prayer of the earl for chap.x. 
 restoration to land and goods. Bloodshed would Tt^ 
 only part him irretrievably from the men with whom ^^nJ, 
 he fought; it would part him yet more irrctriev- 103^053 
 ably from the king. He anticipated the constitu- — 
 tional distinctions of later times in representing his 
 enterprise as simply directed against evil counsellors. 
 He protested his loyalty to the sovereign who had 
 humbled and outlawed him, and who had outraged 
 his honor in driving his daughter from his bed. 
 " He would rather die," he said, " than suffer aught 
 to be done against his lord the king." 
 
 He knew, indeed, that a combat was needless. //'^ 
 London was on his side. Negotiations had been '^'^^ '"^"^'''"' 
 going on long before his coming with its burghers ; 
 and now that his fleet appeared before it the Lon- 
 doners declared for the earl. The blow was decisive. 
 Eadward's own soldiers swore that they would not 
 fight with men of their own kin, that they would 
 not have the land given over to " outlandish men," 
 to perish through the strife of its own children. But 
 Eadward's counsellors had not waited for this mutiny 
 of the host. The Norman nobles at once rode off 
 westward to Earl Ralf's country. The Norman 
 primate, with the Norman bishop of Dorchester, 
 mounted and rode through London to the sea, their 
 train cutting their way with difficulty through a 
 crowd of young burghers, who would have held or 
 slain them. Deserted and alone in the great Wit- 
 enagemot which met on the morrow, the king was 
 forced to accept Godwine's purgation from the 
 charges brought against him, and to restore him 
 and his house to all they had lost. His sons re- 
 
5i6 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 God wine. 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 Cliaiif^e in 
 his 
 
 position. 
 
 gained their earldoms; his daughter was brought 
 back to the king's house. " And there outlawed 
 they all Frenchmen that aforetime made unlaw, 
 deemed ill-doom, and red unrede in the land." 
 
 When the hosts which had gathered on either 
 side the Thames streamed back to their homes, the 
 triumph of Godwine seemed complete. The king 
 had been forced to give him the kiss of peace. His 
 Norman rivals were in flight over sea. His old 
 possessions were restored. The influence which 
 had rested before on his own supreme ability, on 
 long experience and possession of authority, on the 
 gradual accumulation of lands and honors, on the 
 annexation of province after province by his house, 
 rested now on the basis of a national acceptance, of 
 a recall and a restoration which the solemn decision 
 of the Witenagemot approved as national acts. But 
 the earl's keen eye could hardly fail to see that the 
 revolution of 105 1 had given a mighty shock to his 
 power ; even his restoration, triumphant as it was, 
 failed to give back to his house its old supremacy. 
 If Eadward had been beaten in his effort to ruin 
 Godwine, he had shown what strength remained to 
 the crown. If the two rival earls preferred God- 
 wine to a Norman rule, they were far from purpos- 
 ing to sink back into their old inferiority. The set- 
 tlement which followed the earl's return throws 
 light on the long negotiations which Bishop Sti- 
 gand conducted with the Witan before the vote of 
 Godwine's outlawry was recalled, and leaves little 
 doubt that the fresh arrangement was one of mutual 
 concession. 
 
 The dignity of the crown was jealously preserved. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. -j^ 
 
 In the very hour of his triumph Godwine strove to 
 soften as far as he might Eadward's humiliation. 
 At the first sight of the king he flung down his arms 
 and threw himself at Eadward's feet praying for the 
 king's peace. It was only when Eadward yielded 
 to his prayer and the prayer of the Witan that the 
 earl took back his arms again from the king's hand 
 and accompanied him into the palace. Even the 
 change of the king's advisers remained a partial 
 one. If Eadward was forced to abandon his Nor- 
 man archbishop and the Norman advisers of God- 
 wine's exile, a Norman court was still left to him. 
 He remained surrounded by Norman stallers and 
 chaplains, his writs were drawn by a Norman chan- 
 cellor. Though the two kinsmen of the king had 
 played a foremost part in the earl's overthrowtthey 
 were left uninjured. French as he was, Ralf re- 
 tained his earldom of the Mageseetas. Odda, if he 
 lost the earldom built up for him out of the western 
 shires of Wessex, seems to have been compensated 
 by the creation of an earldom of the Hwiccas out of 
 the shires of Gloucester and Worcester. 
 
 The same signs of compromise appeared in the 
 new relations of Godwine with the rival earls. The 
 house of Leofric had profited most by his fall. 
 Whatever had been the steps of its growth, the 
 Mercian earldom which had once been reduced to 
 little more than three shires— Staffordshire, Cheshire, 
 and Shropshire— now reached again eastward over 
 Lincoln and stretched westward to Oxford and the 
 Thames ; and as if to build up again the old realm 
 of Mid-Britain, Leofric's son /Elfgar had received at 
 Eadward's hand Harold's earldom of East Anglia. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 Godwine. 
 
 1036-1063. 
 
 Godwine 
 and 
 
 Eadxvard. 
 
 Godwine 
 
 and the 
 
 Earls, 
 
5i8 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.x. Siward, master of Northumbria from the Tweed to 
 ^ the Trent, for Nottinghamshire now passed into the 
 ?<^4ine' Northumbrian earldom, was rewarded for his share 
 103^053 in Godwine's overthrow by a part of the counties 
 — *of Northampton and Huntingdon, a gift which 
 served the poHtical purpose of providing a barrier 
 between the possessions of Leofric and his son. 
 Such a division of England raised Leofric and Si- 
 ward to a new equality with Godwine ; but his sub- 
 mission to it was probably a part of the terms of his 
 recall. Wessex returned to Godwine as of old; 
 East Anglia was also restored; but Leofric and 
 Siward retained the possessions they had won. 
 Godwine \^ the Settlement of Church matters there was 
 aVrcL a like spirit of compromise. Spearhafoc, the claim- 
 ant whom Godwine had backed in his occupation of 
 the see of London, disappeared ; and the Norman 
 bishop, William, returned, as soon as the storm was 
 over, to his see. We hear nothing of ^Ifric, the 
 kinsman whom the earl had striven to raise to the 
 primacy; but the question of the appointment to 
 the see of Canterbury was too important a one for 
 Godwine to yield. In the tumult which broke out 
 when Eadward was forced to receive the earl back 
 again, Archbishop Robert of Canterbury fled from 
 London and crossed the Channel. His life, indeed, 
 was in danger ; his knights had been forced to cut 
 their way out of London ; and a formal outlawry in 
 the Witenagemot, on the ground that he and his 
 Frenchmen had been foremost in making strife be- 
 tween Godwine and the king, followed him over sea. 
 But Godwine was far from resting content with 
 Robert's flight. The elevation of the Norman to 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 519 
 
 the primacy had been the crowning defeat of that chap.x. 
 policy by which he was concentrating all power in ih^ 
 State or Church in the hands of his house. And gXL°/ 
 now that his power had returned, he fell back on his.^^TT^,' 
 Older plan. 1 here had been recent instances of the — 
 deprivation of bishops by a sentence of the Witan : 
 and though we have no record of such a step, we 
 may gather that Robert was himself deprived of his 
 see. It was given to Bishop Stigand of Winches- 
 ter, whose action in the late contest marked him as 
 an ardent partisan of the house of Godwine. Rob- 
 ert at once hastened to Rome to appeal against the 
 intrusion of Stigand into his see. It was plain that 
 the strife between the rival primates must widen 
 into a strife between England and the Papacy. No 
 canonical power could be alleged for Robert's re- 
 moval : and to churchmen generally the elevation of 
 Stigand could seem nothing but a defiance of all 
 ecclesiastical law. In Normandy sympathy for the 
 exiled archbishop was naturally even keener. The 
 memory of the slaughter of Normans by English- 
 men at the seizure of Alfred was quickened by 
 tales of the slaughter of Normans on Godwine's re- 
 turn. The driving-out of the Norman prelates, the 
 outlawry of the Norman courtiers, w^ere taken as out- 
 rages to the Norman name, and the elevation of Sti- 
 gand remained as the most galling sign of God- 
 wine's triumph. 
 
 This triumph, however, was the last which God- chamctfr 
 wine was to win. His long administration was fast oodliue. 
 drawing to its close, and the sickness which was 
 soon to end his life seems to have fallen on him im- 
 mediately after his restoration. But alike in his 
 
520 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. overthrow arud his success he had shown the quah- 
 Th^ ties which had so long placed him at the head of 
 Q^^nl the State. It is in the transitional moments of a 
 inQlTn.^ nation's history that it needs the cool prudence, the 
 — sensitive selfishness, the quick perception ot what is 
 possible, which distinguished the adroit politician 
 whom the death of Cnut had left supreme in Eng- 
 land. Living in a time of transition, he was himself 
 a fit representative of his time ; his birth disputed, 
 his connections Danish, his policy English, a skilled 
 warrior, but statesman rather than warrior, and ad- 
 ministrator rather than conqueror. Beginning as a 
 royal favorite, he died the '' land-father " of the Eng- 
 lish people ; from the court dependant he passed in- 
 sensibly into the patient statesman ; on the one side 
 he appeared a grasping noble, on the other a wise 
 ruler. The first great lay statesman of English his- 
 tory, he owed his elevation neither to hereditary 
 rank nor to ecclesiastical position, but to sheer 
 ability ; the first minister who overawed the crown, 
 his pliability, his good temper, his quick insight, 
 his caution, and his patience showed that he pos- 
 sessed the qualities of the adroit courtier. Shrewd, 
 eloquent, an active administrator, Godwine united 
 vigilance, industrv, and caution with a singular dex- 
 terity in the management of men. In the range 
 of politics, indeed, he was unfettered by scruples. 
 His deadness to the religious sentiment of his day 
 was shown by the way in which he held aloof from 
 the ecclesiastical and monastic revival of the time, 
 and by his support of Stigand, unworthy as he was, 
 from political motives. His indifference to the 
 moral judgments of the men about him found ex- 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 521 
 
 pression in whatever share he may have had in the cuAr.x. 
 murder of y^lfred, and in his steady adherence to The 
 the son whose crimes had openly outraged public ocSJJLe! 
 feeling. His far-reaching ambition and keen sel-^og^ogg 
 fishness were seen in the aggrandizement of his — 
 house, and in the vast wealth at his command, as 
 well as in his dexterous use of it. But in spite of 
 this absence of moral sympathy, his fertility of con- 
 ception, the range of his designs, the quietness of his 
 strokes, his dogged perseverance, and his coolness 
 and self-command in success, added to his long ad- 
 ministrative experience, left him without a rival in 
 the conduct of government. His policy both abroad 
 and at home marked the daring and originality of 
 his genius. In foreign affairs he was the first 
 among English statesmen whose diplomacy and in- 
 ternational policy had a European breadth, and con- 
 cerned itself alike with Scandinavia, the Empire, 
 the Papacy, France, Flanders, and the Irish Ostmen. 
 At home his government was one of peace, for war- 
 rior as he had been in his youth, he was absolutely 
 without military ambition, and sought only political 
 success. It was nevertheless in this field of home 
 politics that the transitional character of his genius 
 most truly asserted itself. Holding down feudalism, 
 yet himself aiming at a great feudal revolution, 
 building up in the council-chamber the power of the 
 crown, yet himself turning the king into a puppet, 
 he was the creator of a wholly new policy. He was 
 the first to develop in the people at large a common 
 interest in the English nation, an interest stronger 
 even than the instinct of allegiance to the house of 
 Cerdic; and the new "loyalty" which was thus his 
 
522 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.x. creation strengthened the authority of the crown, 
 even while it superseded the king. The true work 
 
 ^^nl of Godwine lay in the building-up of the Enghsh 
 
 in,r7n« people, the awakening of a new loathing of foreign- 
 
 ^ ers and of a new sense of kinship, and the gathering 
 
 of the nation into that brotherhood which looked to 
 
 him as the " land-father." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 523 
 
 {The following ?toles on the Growl /i of the Royal Administraliou 
 
 have been drawn upfront some fragmentary papers, very 
 
 rough and imperfect, and wholly uftrevi'sed.) 
 
 In the history of the royal administration three stages are dis- 
 tinctly marked, each of which indicates a fresh step in the progress 
 of the kingly rule. In the time of JEMvQd, the great officers of the 
 court were the four heads of the royal household— the hordere, the 
 staller, the dish-thegn, and the cup-thegn. Under yEthelred the 
 appointment of the high-reeve shows the first effort of the crown 
 to create a minister of state. Finally, in the reign of Cnut we may 
 trace the beginnings of that administrative body which was to be- 
 come so important under the Confessor, the clerks of the chapel, 
 or the " king's chaplains." 
 
 The four officers of the early West-Saxon court are at least as old 
 as Alfred, and, whether borrowed or not in their actual form from 
 the Frankish court, sprang naturally from the needs of the king's 
 household for its inner regulation and finance, for its movements 
 through the country, and for its commissariat. The hordere was 
 the officer of the court in its stationary aspect, as the staller or bon- 
 stable was of the court on progress ; while the hardly less important 
 functions of the commissariat of this moving army were shared be- 
 tween the steward and the butler. 
 
 But of the four 'officers one only retained under the later West- 
 Saxon monarchy any real power. The dish-thegn and cup-thegn 
 lost importance as the court became stationary and no longer main- 
 tained a vast body of royal followers. The staller retained only the 
 functions of leading in war as the feudal constable, which in turn 
 passed away with later changes in the military system. The hor- 
 dere alone held a position of growing importance. 
 
 The biir-thegn. camerarius cubicularius; the hra^gel-thegn, or 
 keeper of the wardrobe ; the dispensator, thesaurarius, hordere, are 
 all grouped by Kemble (Sax. in Eng. ii. 106) as names for the same 
 great officer. The first instances given by him are ^Ifric thesau- 
 rarius, under Alfred, yEthelsige camerarius, under Eadgar, and Le- 
 ofric hreegal-thegn, under ^thelred. No doubt the " hoard " con- 
 tained not only money and coin, but the costly ornaments and robes 
 ot the crown. Of ail the officers of the court he was far the most 
 important, (i) as head of the whole royal service; (2) as exercising 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The 
 House of 
 Godwine. 
 
 1035-1053. 
 
 Notei. 
 
524 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. control over the royal palace or household, wherever it might be, 
 and charged with care, " de honestate palatii sou specialiter orna- 
 
 The 
 
 House of "^^"to regali ; (3) as receiver of royal dues for the crown lands, and 
 Godwine. head of the royal gerefan ("we may presume that he had the gen- 
 eral management of the royal property, as well as the immediate 
 regulation of the household. In this capacity he may have been the 
 
 1035 1053. 
 
 Notes, recognized chief of the cyninges tungerefan, or king's bailiffs, on the 
 — several estates; for we find no traces of any districtual or missatic 
 authority to whom these officers could account" — Ibid.); (4) as 
 •* dispensator " of the crown; and (5) through this, and in his 
 charge " de donis annuis militum " as head of the household troops ; 
 and (6) of the budding diplomatic service, through his care, " de 
 donis diversarum legationum. — Hincmar 22, ap. Kemble, Sa.x. in Eng. 
 ii. 106. If under the changing conditions of the West-Saxon mon- 
 archy the importance of the hordere in some of these offices de- 
 clined, if his control over the household became less important, 
 and his headship of the royal troops passed into other hands, and 
 his charge of the royal demesnes practically ended with the com- 
 mutation into money-rents of the dues derived from them, he found 
 his importance as treasurer growing at ev^ry change in the system 
 of finance, and in the organization of the exchequer in its judicial 
 as well as fiscal development. 
 
 A second stage in the progress of kingly rule was marked by the 
 creation, under .^thelred, of the high-reeve, the first effort of the 
 crown to create a minister of state, a deputy of its executive and ju- 
 dicial power beside the hereditary ealdormen, etc. Fiercely opposed, 
 this institution became permanent under Cnut in the " vice-royalty " 
 of Godwine ; under the Confessor in that of Harold ; and from it, 
 under the Norman kings, sprang the justiciar. With the consoli- 
 dation of the royal administration there went on, no doubt, a corre- 
 sponding development of the royal justice in the shape of appeals 
 to the king himself from subordinate jurisdictions ; and the grow- 
 ing pressure of this may have been the cause, if not of the institu- 
 tion of the secundarius under Cnut, at any rate of the continuance 
 of this great officer under a king like the Confessor, who needed no 
 vicegerent through absence from his realm, as it was certainly the 
 cause of the change of his name, under the Norman kings, to that 
 of justiciar. It was thus the origin of the three great divisions of 
 the " king's court," with their staff of officers, while its executive 
 functions passed to the offspring of the third body of ministers, 
 whose origin dates from the foreign kings of England, the clerks of 
 the Royal Chapel. 
 
 The Royal Chapel marks the third stage in ministerial organiza- 
 tion. The high-reeve, indeed, early turned into a power which 
 overawed the crown ; and the rapid extension of the sphere of the 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 525 
 
 capellani may mark a side of the struggle for the independence chap x 
 ot the crown. The king's chaplains are first seen as a body under — 
 Cnut, but rapidly mount into power under the Confessor, when the „^^ ^ 
 "kings writ," issued through them, begins to be the efficient organ o^^nf 
 of the royal will throughout the realm. From their head, the chan- — 
 cellor, comes our equitable court of justice ; from the rest, our secre- 1085-lOM. 
 
 ^r>'ships of state, with the whole fabric of modern administration. 
 Ihe system had its origin in lands whose circumstances differed 
 from those of England. In Frankish and other Continental courts, 
 where the customary Teutonic law had to be worked side by side 
 with a Roman written law. the Roman clerk (apocrisiarius, referen- 
 darius, cancellarius) was needed to decide whether orders were ac- 
 cordant to law or not (Kemble, Sax. in Eng. ii. 1,4). or conflicted 
 with the written jurisprudence, and to affix or withhold the royal 
 signet accordingly. No such need, however, existed in England 
 and the presence of the royal chaplains, with their head, the chan^ 
 cellor, may be best accounted for by administrative reasons ; indeed 
 their institution coincides with the new class of royal writs which 
 came m from the early years of Cnut's reign, issued by the king's 
 personal authority without any confirmation by the Witan In the 
 first appearance of the chancery under Cnut, we see traces of a Lo- 
 tharingian organization, in the persons of foreign chaplains, whose 
 presence was probably due to their foreign training, and to the ex- 
 perience they may have brought of the imperial chancery. Eadsige 
 (Flor. Wore. Thorpe, i. 193. on his elevation to the archbishopric 
 under Harald). the later Archbishop of Canterbury, and Stigand the 
 priest of Assandun (Ibid. p. 199; he was chaplain to Harald) who 
 were among the chaplains, were indeed Englishmen. Wythmann 
 however, to whom Cnut, in his early days, gave the abbacy of Ram- 
 sey was "Teutonicus natione " (Hist. Rames., Gale, iii. 404). So 
 Uuduc ("De Lotharingia oriundus," Flor. Wore, Thorpe i -18 • 
 •' natione Saxo." Hunter, Eccl. Doc. p. 15) was at the close of Cnut's 
 reign, m 1033. Bishop of Wells, and in high favor with the king, 
 rhe manors of Banwell and Congresbury were " possessiones quas 
 hnereditario jure a rege ante episcopatum promeruerat" (Hunter, 
 tccl. Doc. p. 15) ; and he seems in some way to have held the ab- 
 bacy of Gloucester. He was probably, therefore, a "capeilanus" 
 Hermann, who was made Bishop of the Wilsstas in the first years 
 ot the Confessors reign, had probably been inherited by him from 
 his Danish predecessors, and may have belonged to this early group 
 ot foreign chaplains. To the same group would belong Leofric 
 Who (if Florence is right) must have been Reginbold's predecessor 
 (" Regis cancellario Leofrico Brytonico mox Cridiatunensis et Cor- 
 nubiensis datus est praesulatus." Flor. Wore. Thorpe, i. 199). Now 
 Lcofric was "apud Lotharingos altus et doctus" (Will. Malm' 
 
 Nctei. 
 
526 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. Gest. Pontif. p. 201, Hamilton). Cnut^s alliance with Conrad may 
 
 — have had some influence in his choice of Lotharingian clerks. This 
 HouM of alliance went on between Eadward and Henry ; the intrigues and 
 Oodwine. negotiations before the Council of Rheims may be connected with 
 
 — these Lotharingians entering the chapel. 
 
 1035-1053. Under the Confessor the Royal Chapel underwent marked changes 
 Notes, alike in its organization and in its character. From 1045 we find a 
 —^ chancellor at the head of the clerks holding the royal seal which 
 Eadward first brought into use in England ; while the uniform ten- 
 or of the writs, and the replacing of the old English writing in the 
 royal documents by the light French hand in use among foreign 
 clerks, alike point to some new arrangement of the secretarial work 
 and more exact organization of the chancery on foreign models. 
 From this moment, also, we meet with almost exclusively foreign 
 names, and these no longer names of Lotharingians, but of Nor- 
 mans. The group of Lotharingians who had served under Cnut 
 seems indeed to have been wholly broken up. Duduc had, even in 
 Cnut's time, been rewarded by the see of Wells ; Hermann was, in 
 1045, appointed by Eadward to the bishopric of the Wilsaetas; and 
 in the same year Leofric was made Bishop of Devonshire and 
 Cornwall. It is possible that the promotion of Hermann and 
 Leofric was designed to clear the way for the French chancery that 
 now took the place of the Lotharingian, the members of which 
 must have been so closely connected with Godwine's policy since 
 the days of Cnut ; and that this new organization of the Royal 
 Chapel, following so soon on the appointment of Robertof Jumieges 
 to the see of London (in 1044), marks an important step in Ead- 
 ward's opening struggle with the earl. 
 
 The earliest signatures given by Kemble (Sax. in Eng. ii. 115) 
 date from 1045, i. e., from the opening of the strife between the 
 king and Godwine — a significant date. They are those of Her- 
 mann capellanus (Flor. Wore. a. 1045), Wulfwig cancellarius (Cod. 
 Dip. 779), Reginboldus sigillarius (Cod. Dip. 810), Reginboldus 
 cancellarius (Cod. Dip. 813, 824, 825, 891), with a staff of the same 
 date: ^Elfgeat notarius (Cod. Dip. 825), Petrus capellanus (ib. 813, 
 825), Baldwinus capellanus (ib. 813), Osbernus capellanus (ib. 825), 
 Robertus capellanus (ib. 825). Then, in 1047, Florence gives Heca 
 as chaplain, afterwards Bishop of Selsey ; and in 1049 Florence 
 also notes Ulf as chaplain, who became Bishop of Dorchester in 
 105 1 ; Cynesige as chaplain, afterwards Archbishop of York; and 
 William (1051), Bishop of London (for these Kemble gives no signa- 
 tures). Two other names are from Florence : Godmann, chaplain 
 in 1053, and Gisa in 1060. It may be that this organization of the 
 chancery or chapel marks Eadward's first period ; his struggle 
 with Godwine, and the foreign names of the staff, would suggest 
 
 527 
 
 this idea. Godwine s triumph may have given a temporary blow chap x 
 to this new administrative scheme, for Kemble notes two chaplains — 
 Cynesige and William, as signing in 1051. but none after, save Gisa '^^ 
 m 1060 (Kemble, Sax. in Eng. ii. 116). House of 
 
 The charter in which Wulfwig figures as " regiae dignitatis cancel- ^°— ""'• 
 larius" (Cod. Dip. 779) is noted by Mr. Freeman as " doubtful " ^035-1053. 
 He afterwards succeeded Ulf as Bishop of Dorchester. The group ^^Z. 
 therefore, really begins with the Norman Reginbold. Reginbold — 
 "appears in Domesday (180^), by the description of ' Reinbaldus 
 Canceler,' as holding lands in Herefordshire T.R.E " After the 
 Conquest " he still held lands in Berkshire (56^, 60, 63), Gloucester- 
 shire (166^), and Wiltshire (68^), if he is, as he doubtless is, the same 
 as • Reinbaldus de Cirencestre ' and • Renbaldus presbyter ' He 
 was Dean of Cirencester (Ellis, i. 398). and besides his lay fees he 
 held several churches in Wiltshire (Dom. 65^)."_Freeman, Norm. 
 Conq. 11. 357, 358. The permanence of the new organization is 
 shown by his remaining with his fellows after the restoration of 
 1052. Thus he signs the Waltham charter as " regis Cancellarius " 
 with Peter and Baldwin as king's chaplains (Cod. Dip 813) Of 
 the notary ^Ifgeat I find no other notice. Peter and Baldwin as 
 we see, remained in the chancery with Reginbold to the end of the 
 reign, when Baldwin became Abbot of S. Edmundsbury (Freeman 
 Norm. Conq. ii. 586. " He had been a monk of S. Denis, a cer- 
 tain presumption, though not amounting to proof, of his French 
 origin "). Before his abbacy of S. Eadmund's he had been prior of 
 Earl Odda's church at Deerhurst. (See charter in Monast. iv. 665 
 On Abbot Leofstan's illness, King Eadward " Baldwinum, S. Di- 
 onysii monachum, ejus artis pcritum, dirigendum curavit "—Will 
 Malm., Gest. Pontif.. Hamilton, p. 156). Osbern's name indicates 
 his Norman blood, but I know no more of him. Robert is of 
 course the Abbot of Jumieges, and probably the real mover in 
 the whole matter. Promotion, indeed, to sees did not necessarily 
 vacate the ministerial post, for Robert begins to sign as Bishop of 
 London in 1046 (Cod. Dip. 784), but this see would leave him free 
 to assist in the chancery. Ulf, too, must have been added to it soon 
 after 1045, for in 1049, when named to Dorchester, he is described as 
 the king's "preoste" (Eng.Chron.. Ab. I049).and "regis capellanus" 
 (Flor. Wore, Thorpe, i. 203). William, too, who is named "chap- 
 lain of the king" (Flor. Wore. Thorpe, i. 207). on his promotion 
 to London, in 1051, must have been introduced into the chancery 
 after 1045, perhaps taking Robert's place on his rise to the primacy. 
 Gisa alone among these later chaplains was a Lotharingian • he 
 was appointed Bishop of Wells in 1060. His solitary figure cannot 
 have materially changed the French aspect of the chancery through- 
 out Eadward's reign. The fact that Walter, the Lotharingian who 
 
528 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X. at the same time became Bishop of Hereford, was Eadgyth's chap- 
 — Iain, may show that clerks were again being brought from this 
 HonM of quarter, or simply be a part of the Lotharingian traditions of God- 
 Oodviae. wine's house, as shown by Adelhard and Harold. 
 
 lOaTToSS ^^'^' ^'"'"''^ '"'* pointed out to me another foreign chaplain of 
 
 ■ Eadward's of whom we find mention elsewhere. '• Helinandus, vir 
 
 Notes, admodum pauperis domus et obscure progenitus, literatura per- 
 tenuis et persona satis exilis, cum per notitiam Gualteri comitis 
 Fontisarensis, de cujus comitatu gerebat originem, ad gratiam Ead- 
 vardi Anglorum Regis pertigisset (uxor enim sua cum praidicto 
 comite sibi necessitudinem nescio quam crearat), capellanus ejus 
 fuit, et quia Francicam elegantiam norat, Anglicus ille ad Fran- 
 corum Regem Henricum eum saepius destinabat' (Guibertus de 
 Novigento " De Vita sua." lib. iii. c. 2, Opera, ed. D'Achery, p. 496). 
 King Henry made him Bishop of Laon (ibid.) in 1052; he died in 
 1098 (Gallia Christiana, vol. ix.col. 524, 525). The second Bishop 
 of Laon after Helinandus had also been in the service of a king of 
 England, but this must have been Henry I. (Guibertus " De Vita 
 sua," lib. iii. c. 4, ed. D'Achery, p 299). - A. S. G.] 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 '053-1071. 
 
 In the revolution which rpstm-o^ r^A • 
 
 nnxvor „^fU- • »"»'-ll restOlCd Godwine to DifficuIUes 
 
 poue. not ng ,s more remarkable than the inac- u4 
 t.on of V,l han. the Norman. To the duke, we an 
 hardly doubt, the sudden success of God wine was a 
 bitter disappomtment. The overthrow of his hopes 
 was complete. Whatever promises Eadward m^a! 
 have made to hm,. he could hardly look for the'r 
 fulfilment save with the aid of the Normans at EaT 
 wards court, and the Norman court-party had been 
 broken up. The Norman archbishop was driven 
 over sea, and the duke was not less likely than Ws 
 people to resent ,^,e w.ong done to the primate 
 The Norman kmghts who found a refuge with the 
 Scot k.ng soon fell beneath the axes of Siwards 
 huscarls. How bitter a sense of disappointmen 
 lingered m Norman hearts we know from the fire 
 which the memory of these events kindled when 
 a few years later, William called Normandy to 
 avenge them. Nor was the temper of the duke 
 5uch as to brook easily disappointment. But wroth 
 withVT'^. be. It was impossible to attack England 
 \N.th Flanders at her back. The overthrow of Will- 
 iam s schemes for a Flemish marriage by Godwine's 
 dexterous negotiations with pope and emperor still 
 
 34 
 
530 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. X.. tied the duke's hands. From the moment of the 
 iTe council, whether Baldwin called on William to ful- 
 
 S,^Z:i. fil his pledge in vain or no, the courts of Bruges 
 — and of Rouen steered apart agam. Baldwni tell 
 
 1053-1071. ^^^^ ^^ ^.^ ^j^ alliance with the house of Godwme. 
 
 The marriage of Judith with Tostig announced his 
 change of policy, and promised to bind the earl and 
 the count inseparably together. The fall of God- 
 wine only brought out into clearer light the friend- 
 ship of Flanders. It was in Flanders that the earl 
 found refuge in his exile. It was from Bruges that 
 his intrigues with his English supporters were car- 
 ried on. His fleet was gathered in the Scheldt, and 
 Flemish seamen were mingled with his own. Will- 
 iam, with his own duchy still ill in hand and France 
 watching jealously across his southern border, knew 
 well that the estrangement of Baldwin barred any 
 hope of attack over sea. Nor was this estrange- 
 ment the least weighty of the dangers which threat- 
 ened William at home, for the hostility of such a 
 neighbor was sure to stir into life the smouldering 
 discontent of the Norman baronage. 
 ms We see the duke's consciousness of this danger 
 marriage. ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^.j^j^j^ j^^ ventured with a view of 
 
 dispelling it. While Robert of Jumieges was still 
 pleading at the papal court, William, by an act as 
 daring as Godwine's, placed himself in opposition to 
 the Papacy and the moral sense of Christendom. 
 If he now claimed again the hand of Matilda, it was 
 with a full foresight of the difficulties in which such 
 a marriage was to plunge him. The prohibition of 
 Pope Leo was the most formidable of the obstacles 
 in his way. But in 1053 Pope Leo was a prisoner 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 531 
 
 in he hands of the Normans, who were founding a ch.p.x.. 
 state in southern Italy; and William seized the op- ^ 
 portunity to wed Baldwin's daughter. But if Loo "«»""' 
 was a prisoner, the Church was free, and the duke '"-"■ 
 at once found himself face to face with the relimou^" -""• 
 censure of the world about him. Rome laid the 
 duchy under interdict. The archbishop of Rouen 
 h.s uncle Malger, threatened William with excom' 
 munication. His own counsellor, the prior of Bee 
 openly opposed the marriage. Lanfranc was now 
 he foremost scholar of Western Christendom, and 
 h.s disapproval was weightier than even the thun- 
 ders of the Papacy. It stung William to the quick. 
 In a wild burst of wrath he bade his men burn a 
 manor-house of Bee to the ground and drive out 
 Lanfranc from Norman land. In his haste to see 
 his orders carried out the duke overtook the Italian 
 Hobbling on a lame horse towards the frontier He 
 angrily bade him hasten, and Lanfranc replied by a 
 cool promise to go faster out of his land if he would 
 give him a better steed. " You are the first crimi- 
 nal that ever asked gifts from his judge," retorted 
 U ilham ; but a burst of laughter told that his wrath 
 had passed away, and duke and prior drew quietly 
 together again. Wise or unwise, Lanfranc saw that 
 It was too late to withstand the Flemish match; and 
 \ illiam knew well that no persuasion in Christen- 
 dom could do so much to win over the Papacy to 
 torgiveness as that of the Prior of Bee. Lanfranc 
 made his way to Rome and sought for a dispensa- 
 tion. But six years of tedious negotiation passed 
 away and William remained unpardoned, while the 
 censures of the Church woke into fresh life every 
 
532 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cHAP.xr. element of hostility within and without his land. 
 
 T^ The old cry of bastardy was heard once more. The 
 
 c^nquesl old claims of rival branches of the ducal house woke 
 
 ,n«"Tn,i acrain to life. Revolts of his kinsmen, William of 
 
 — Eu and William of Arques, revealed the existence 
 
 of a widespread plot among the Norman nobles; 
 
 and these were hardly trodden out before France it- 
 
 self drew the sword. 
 Victory of King Hcury was still bent on the policy of bal- 
 Mortcmer. ^^^^ ^^^.^^ ^^^^ ^^^ feudatory at bay by help of 
 
 another. A few years back, when Geoffrey Martel 
 threatened his crown, he had relieved himself of the 
 pressure of the Angevin by alliance with the Nor- 
 man duke. He now resolved to break the power of 
 Normandy by an alliance with the Angevin. After 
 fruitless aid to the Norman rebels the king himself 
 took the field. One French army marched from 
 Beauvais on Normandy to the right of the Seine ; 
 another under Henry himself advanced from Man- 
 tes on the duchy to the left of the river. The aid 
 which came to the invader from Chartres and Aqui- 
 taine, from the men of Rheims and Laon, as from 
 the burghers of Tours and Blois, shows how widely 
 the greatness of William had revived the old hatred 
 of the Normans. But the number of his assailants 
 only heightened William's triumph. To meet the 
 double attack the Norman forces were parted in 
 two divisions, William himself leading the southern 
 army, which defended the country between the 
 Seine and the Oise, while four of the barons headed 
 a body which guarded the land between the Seine 
 and the Bresle. It was the last which first en- 
 countered the invaders. The French army under 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 533 
 
 Henry's brother Odo, and Count Guy of Ponthieu, cH.P.xr. 
 which penetrated mto the country about Aumale, STa 
 Had taken up its quarters in the little town of Mor o^°'"^^ 
 tome, when it was surprised by the Nonnan ons: t;^:: 
 The town was set on fire, the French were slain as ° -""• 
 hey hurned from its streets, and tlie whole army 
 forced back m utter rout across the border At 
 night the news reached William as he lay with his 
 host fronting Henry on the Seine. The cool craft 
 and grmi humor which underlay his dauntless cour- 
 age showed itself in the use he made of the victory. 
 Kalf of Toesny was sent to climb a tree in the 
 neighborhood of the king's camp, and at dawn the 
 Frenchmen heard him shouting the famous words 
 which still live in the verse of VVace, " Up French 
 men, up ; you sleep too long ; go bury your'brothers 
 that he dead at Mortcmer !" Panic spread with the 
 news through the invading army, and before the 
 sun was high its tents were in a blaze, and Henry 
 was hurrying in retreat towards Paris. He pur 
 chased the release of the French barons who lay in 
 \V ilham s prisons by a peace which was concluded 
 m 1055, and which left William free to deal with 
 Geoffrey of Anjou. The capture of Count Guy in 
 the battle of Mortemer had enabled William to ex- 
 act an acknowledgment of his lordship over Pon- 
 thieu as the price of liberation ; and a march from 
 IJomfront now won a like acknowledgment from 
 the lord of Mayenne. His submission carried Will- 
 'am still further in the process of aggrandizement ' 
 which was tearing the Maine country bit by bit 
 from the grasp of Anjou. 
 While William was thus fighting against odds in 
 
534 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE COxNQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. his own land he was in no case to hinder the tri- 
 The umph of Godwine or Godwine's house in lands over 
 cinques'!, sea. Godwine, indeed, was fated to reap little from 
 053T071 ^^^ victory he had won. Soon after his return he 
 — began to sicken, and in April, 1053, he suddenly fell 
 /EZL speechless at the kings board. With his death 
 Harold became Earl of the West Saxons. The 
 death of Godwine, indeed, strengthened the position 
 of his house. It at once changed its whole relation 
 to the king. Whatever stain of ^^Ifred's blood lay 
 on Godwine, none lay on his sons. Eadward had 
 no galling sense that, he owed them his crown, or 
 that he had failed in a struggle to break their power. 
 The earl's children had grown up in the king's court ; 
 they were his wife's kinsmen, and they seem to have 
 shared the awe of the king's saintliness which was 
 becoming general about them. From this time, 
 therefore, Eadward's antipathy died gradually away. 
 The wife whom he had discarded a year before won 
 his affection. Tostig became his almost inseparable 
 companion in chase or palace. Harold, if less cher- 
 ished than his brother, was still regarded with favor. 
 He took his father's place as the king's counsellor, 
 but he was careful to hide the fact of his supremacy 
 under demonstrations of loyal obedience to the king. 
 " He always faithfully obeyed his rightful lord in 
 word and deed," says the singer of Eadward's death- 
 song, " nor left unheeded what was needful to his 
 king." Over England, no doubt, the young earl's 
 name exercised at first less command than his fa- 
 ther's. But soon England saw with relief a ruler 
 who brought with him no dark memories of the 
 past, who had not stood by the invader's side at 
 
 535 
 
 Assandun, whose first rise had not sprung from the cH.r.xr. 
 favor of a foreign king, the sense of whose greatness tTs 
 was not dashed by suspicions of an cethelincr's mur- /"'"^"^ 
 der or by tolerance of Swein's crimes "" —"'* 
 
 Nor was Harold to prove himself wholly unworthy ''-'''• 
 othe singular fortune which gave king and people a^iL-. 
 alike peacefully into his hands. Born about 1021 
 m the opening of Cnut's reign, he was now in the 
 prime of life and vigor, a tall, comely man, robust of 
 frame, courteous and conciliatory, in temper a typi- 
 cal Englishman, indifferent to abuse, gifted with a 
 cool self-comniand. Morally he rose in some points 
 above his father's level ; he was gentler in mood 
 more tolerant of opposition, more prone to forcrive • 
 he had far greater sympathy with English rehVion 
 and English culture. He had inherited from God- 
 wine an equal capacity for council and for war- he 
 showed himself, in the years that followed, an ac'tive 
 soldier and a skilful administrator. But in political 
 ability he fell greatly below his father. Of the far- 
 reaching statesmanship which had been Godwine's 
 characteristic, of his capacity for wide combinations, 
 ot his foresight, his resource, the quickness with 
 which he understood the need of change, and the 
 moment for changing, Harold had little or none 
 But he was loyal to the policy of his house, and his 
 patient, steady temper was as fitted as that of his 
 ather for gradually winning back the power which 
 the revolution of 105 1 had shaken. As yet no 
 dreams of any higher ambition seem to have visited 
 the mind of Harold ; his first political act, indeed 
 was to co-operate with Eadward in providing for the 
 succession to the crown. All hope that the king 
 
 '11 
 
 fj4 
 
536 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAI'. XI. 
 
 The 
 Norman 
 
 Conquest. 
 
 1053-1071 
 
 HaroUVs 
 
 policy in 
 
 Mercia. 
 
 would beget children by Eadgyth had now passed 
 away ; and, whether they were true or false, whispers 
 from over sea of a promise to William of Normandy 
 would spur the West-Saxon earl to a settlement of 
 the question. The king's nearest kinsman was liv- 
 ing in a far-off land. Two infant children of Ead- 
 mund Ironside had found a refuge from Cnut, nearly 
 forty years back, in Hungary; and one of them, the 
 king's nephew, Eadward, was still living there with 
 his son, Eadgar, and his daughters, Margaret and 
 Christina. Eadward resolved to call the aetheling 
 home and own him for his heir; and, in 1054, Bishop 
 Ealdred was sent on this errand to the imperial 
 
 court. 
 
 Huno-ary, however, was now at war with the Em- 
 pire, and after waiting a year at Cologne, Ealdred 
 was forced to return and leave the plan to be carried 
 out in more peaceful times. Conciliatory, however, 
 as was his demeanor towards the king, Harold clung 
 steadily to his father's policy of gathering England 
 and its earldoms into the hands of his house. But 
 we trace the caution and subtlety of his temper in 
 the arrangements which followed on Godwine's re- 
 turn and death. The great Northumbrian earldom 
 remained to Siward ; the great West-Saxon earldom 
 was taken by Harold himself. The policy of God- 
 wine, as we have seen, had been to break up the 
 Mercian earldom, till the province of Leofric was 
 reduced to little more than Cheshire, Shropshire, 
 and Staffordshire. But the death of Beorn, the 
 exile of Swein, and the revolution of 105 1 had done 
 much to build up again the central earldom. Mid- 
 Britain and Lincolnshire seem now to have become 
 
 537 
 
 attachecl to Leofric, and Mercia may have already c„..p. x,. 
 
 HTroW 'T^^'fl^ '-^g'-^i" ^^ f^-- as Oxford, while m 
 Harold s old earldom of East Anglia had gone to /""" 
 Leo ncs son, ^Ifgar. But the an^'nexation ''of Not° jr 
 tinghamshu-e to Northumbria deprived Mercia of -"' 
 Its hold on the Trent, and ran a block of strange 
 territory into the heart of Leofric's earldom ; the 
 grant of Huntmgdonshire and Northamptonshire to 
 Siward barred all contact between the possessions 
 of Leofnc and his son; while Mercia was cut off 
 from the Severn and the Welsh by the retention of 
 Kalt m his earldom of the Mages^tas, or Hereford- 
 shire, and the assignment, as seems likely, of the 
 Hwiccas of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire to 
 Udda, in compensation for his loss of western Wes 
 sex. By these adroit arrangements the assent not 
 only of Siward and the king's kinsmen was secured 
 to Harold s elevation, but even the Mercian house 
 was won over, while its real power of action re- 
 mained dexterously fettered. 
 
 In the course of the following year, however, the ^/"^/« 
 death of the Earl of Northumbria set Harold more ^'"^''r" 
 free to carry forward his father's plan of absorbing 
 all England within the rule of his house. NeveT 
 had Snvard's name been so great as in his later 
 years. His energetic action had done much to dis- 
 place Godwine ; and if he consented to the earl's re- 
 turn It was doubtless not without a price. At any 
 rate the year 1053 brought his continuous rule south- 
 ward as far as the Trent in Nottinghamshire, and 
 planted h.m in Mid-Britain as Eari of Northampton 
 and Huntingdon, making his power such as might 
 well balance that of the house of Godwine An- 
 
 
 
 ■J\ 
 
 n fa 
 
 J; 
 
 I • m 
 
 ,. i; 
 
538 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. other part of the price may possibly have been the 
 Si assent of Godwine and Harold to a declaration of 
 c^rqueM war on the Scot kingdom, to which Siward was 
 sToTi urged alike by ambition and by family ties. Under 
 ^°^— ' the rule of Duncan the Scot kingdom had sunk low. 
 The Orkney jarls had become masters of the West- 
 ern Isles, of Caithness, and of the whole western 
 coast to Galloway. The Mormaer, or under-king, of 
 Moray was practically independent in the north. 
 The weakness of Duncan himself was fatally shown 
 by the failure of the earlier attack which he had 
 made on Northumbria, in spite of his close connec- 
 tion by marriage with its earls. In 1040, a year be- 
 fore the extension of Siward's power beyond the 
 limits of Deira, Duncan made a fruitless raid as far 
 as Durham ; the burghers beat him back from the 
 walls, and the Scots owed their safety to their horses, 
 while Scottish heads hung round the battlements of 
 the city. Immediately after this defeat, Duncan was 
 slain by his subjects, and Macbeth, the Mormaer of 
 Moray, to whose charge the crime was laid, mounted 
 the Scottish throne, while Duncan's two sons sought 
 refuge with the Northumbrian earl. Though the 
 rise "of Macbeth seems to have marked a political 
 revolution, the troubles of England, and it may be 
 the jealousy of Godwine, had till now stood in the 
 way of Siward s action. But as the boys grew to 
 manhood the ties of kinship told on Siward,' while 
 the political advantages to which such a kinship 
 
 ' Duncan must have been closely connected with the Northum- 
 brian earls ; for he was the father of these two boys by a wife whom 
 Fordun (iv. 44) calls " consanguinea Siwardi comitis." As this mar- 
 riage was before 1040, the kinship must have come about through 
 Siward's wife, Earl Ealdred's daughter. 
 
 539 
 
 might be turned may have influenced Eadward and chap.xi. 
 Harold. — 
 
 A r . The 
 
 A new cause for action had now made itself feh ^°'"^^^° 
 The flight of a body of Normans to the Scottish '^"'• 
 court on Godwine's return from exile forced on the '"-""■ 
 struggle The power of Macbeth had been doubled ?^t/ 
 by his close alliance with the Orkney jarls, and his 
 reception of the Normans threatened danger to the 
 English realm. It was "by the king's order" that 
 Siward marched over the border to f^ght Macbeth 
 The danger was soon dispelled. In 1054 a North- 
 umbrian fleet appeared off the Scottish coast, and 
 a Northumbrian army met Macbeth and his Orkney 
 allies in a desperate battle. The English victory 
 was complete; the Normans were cut to pieces, and 
 Macbeth fled to his Norse allies, to perish after four 
 years of unceasing struggle with Duncan's son, Mai- 
 colm whom Siward placed on the Scottish throne 
 But the English loss was heavy. Many of the hus- 
 carls, both of Siward and of the king, lay on the 
 held. There, too, fell his son, Osbeorn, and his sis- 
 ter s son, Siward. " Were his wounds in front or 
 behind him .?" Siward was said to have asked at the 
 news of Osbeorn's fall, and when assured that all 
 were in front, to have said he wished no other end 
 either for Osbeorn or himself. But while Macbeth 
 escaped, Siward was forced to fall back to prepare a 
 fresh attack. His end, however, was near. Early 
 m the next year, 1055, he died at York.' Legend 
 told how, as sickness grew on him in the year after 
 his victory, the earl called for his arms and stood 
 JlJir^es sed to meet t he call of death. "It was 
 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 1055. 
 
 '' i-i 
 
540 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ?5 I 
 
 Tosti^ in 
 
 Northiim 
 
 bria. 
 
 CHAP. XI. shame," he said, " for warrior to die like a cow ! 
 
 Si At Galmanho, in a suburb of York, he had reared 
 c^nqueB^l. a minster to St. Olaf,' and there he lay buried. The 
 1053T071 church grew into the great abbey of St. Mary, but a 
 — " parish church beside it still preserves Olafs name.^ 
 The death of Siward, and the old age of Leofric, 
 who was now drawing to the grave, removed the 
 check which their power had laid alike on Godwine 
 and his son since the eari's return. The moment 
 was come for undoing all that the revolution of 105 1 
 had done; and Harold took up again his father's 
 policy of gathering England, province by province, 
 into the hands of his house. Siward had left but a 
 boy, Waltheof, too young to bridle the rough men 
 of the north ; and passing over this child, Harold, 
 in 1055, set his brother Tostig as eari over the 
 Northumbrians. The step was a weighty one, not 
 only in its relation to the house of Godwine, but as 
 carrying forward the gradual consolidation of Eng- 
 land itself. How steadily the royal authority had 
 made its way during Eadward's reign was now 
 shown by the accomplishment of what Eadgar and 
 Dunstan had been unable to attempt, the bringing 
 of Northumbria itself frankly into the general system 
 of the realm. Till now Northumbria had held jeal- 
 ously to a partial independence. Siward was a Dane, 
 and he was wedded to a wife who sprang from the 
 blood of the old Northumbrian rulers. Loyal as he 
 was to Eadward, his temper was too fierce to brook 
 interference from the south, nor did royal court or 
 council concern themselves with S iward's earidom. 
 
 ' Hen. Huntingdon (Hamilton), pp. 195, 196. 
 ' Eng. Chron. a. 1055. 
 
 541 
 
 Little of the justice and order which prevailed south chap. xi. 
 of the Humber had as yet made their wav to the iii 
 north of It It was only by cruelty and violence that cono^S 
 Siward held the country together. But, stern as'^Tn^' 
 Siward s temper was, he was of kin to the men he — 
 ruled. Tostig, dear as he was to Eadward, and 
 matched though he might be with the daughter of 
 the Flemish count, had nothing to link him with 
 the north. He was neither Dane nor Northum- 
 brian. He was a West Saxon who came solely in 
 right of his choice by the West-Saxon king and the 
 far-off W^itan in the south, and with him came the 
 English rule;' under the new eari, king's writs ran 
 to the north of Humber as they ran to the south of 
 It. Nor was Tostig's temper likely to win the love 
 of the Northumbrians. Stern, grave, reserved, he 
 carried a passionate love of justice into this chaos of 
 feuds and outrages. He forced peace upon the land 
 by taking of life and by maiming of limb.^ Only 
 
 ' The very character of the rising agains^Tostig. in later days, 
 shows that the Northumbrians now considered themselves fully sub- 
 jects of the English realm, and bound to appeal for justice to the 
 English kmg; while the failure of Harald Hardrada to attract their 
 support, even against Harold, shows, at least, how much the old 
 sense of northern isolation had been weakened. 
 
 "" Tostig's order was bought by a merciless justice, "patriam pur- 
 gando tahum cruciatu vel nece. et nulli quantumlibct ;/^^///parcendo 
 qui m hoc deprehensus esset crimine."-Vita Edw. (Luard), p 422 
 There was nothing wonderful in Northumbria in his having Gamel* 
 son of Orm, and Ulf. son of Dolfin, cut down in 1064. - Eboraci in 
 camera sua sub pacis fc£dere per insidias."— Flor. Wore. (Thorpe) i 
 223^ What marked it was the rank of the sufferers. Orm Camel's 
 lather, had married a daughter of Earl Ealdrcd and a sister of Si- 
 t?t^ ^r^^ ' ^"^.^'^^"gh Gamel was not her son, he was thus of kin 
 to the house of Siward. Englishmen and Danes alike joined in the 
 bitter hostility awakened by Tostig's rule. In the leaders of the 
 rising ot 1065. we see. among other great nobles. Gamel-bearn who 
 
 i-ha 
 
 
542 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. over his northern border did he carry out the pol- 
 The icy of his predecessor. Malcolm, still hard-pressed 
 
 Korman ^ 
 
 Conquest, added to vast estates in Yorkshire a holding in Staffordshire ; Dun- 
 1053-1071 Stan, the son of .^thelnoth, whose lands may have lain about Pom- 
 — fret ; and Glonieorn, the son of Heardolf. With them, also, was 
 young Waltheof, Siward's son, and his kinsman, Oswulf, Eadwulf of 
 Bernicia's son, whom the revolution of 1065 was to set for a while 
 in his father's Bernician earldom ; Copsige, too, who for a time had 
 been Tostig's deputy in the north, and was under William to seek 
 to become Bernician earl, and to fall by Oswulfs sword ; and Siward 
 and Ealdred, descendants of Earl Uhtred by his third wife. yElfgifu. 
 Also Moerleswegen, the shire-reeve, to whom Harold gave the north 
 in hand after the battle of Stamford Bridge, the wealthiest of Eng- 
 lish proprietors, with great domains in the southwest as far as Corn- 
 wall ; Archill " potentissimus Northanhymbrorum " (Ord. Vit., Du- 
 chesne, p. 511 C), whose vast estates stretched from Yorkshire to 
 Warwick (Ellis, Domesday, ii. 41) ; and Gospatric, the later Earl of 
 Northumbria, who through his mother, Ealdgyth, traced his descent 
 to Earl Uhtred and his wife, JEUgiiu, the daughter of King ^Ethel- 
 
 red. 
 
 The incidents of the yet later struggle with William the Conquer- 
 or throw light on the wild life of the earlier Northumbria. Of the 
 last hero of the north, Earl Waltheof, songs told how head after 
 head of the Frenchmen was shorn off by his sword-stroke as they 
 sallied forth from the gate of York ; told of his tall figure and mighty 
 strength and sinewy arms and bull-like chest. — Will. Malm., Gest. 
 Reg. (Hardy), i. 427. The Saga of the Scandinavians made him burn 
 one hundred Frenchmen in a wood after the fight, and give their 
 corpses to the wolves of Northumberland. — Saga of Harald Hardra- 
 da (Laing). Sea Kings of Norway, iii. 95. Oswulf, when Copsige dis- 
 possesses him, " in fame et egestate sylvis latitans et montibus, tan- 
 dem collectis quos eadem necessitas compulerat sociis." — Sim. Durh., 
 Gest. Reg. a. 1072. Churches gave no sanctuary: Copsige takes 
 refuge in one, but " incendio ecclesiae compellitur usque ad ostium 
 procedere, ubi in ipso ostio manibus Osulfi detruncatur." — Ibid. 
 Then a robber kills Oswulf: "cum in obvii sibi latronis lanceam 
 prseceps irruerat, illico confossus interiit.'' — Ibid. So in the rising of 
 1068, "seditiosi silvas, paludes, aestuaria et urbes aliquot in munimen- 
 tis habent." — Ord. Vit. (Duchesne), 511 B. "Plures in tabernaculis 
 morabantur ; in domibus, ne mollescerent, requiescere dedignaban- 
 tur, unde quidam eorum a Normannis silvatici cognominabantur." 
 — Ibid. C. When Robert of Comines takes refuge in the bishop's 
 house at Durham, "domum cum inhabitantibus concremaverunt." 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 by Macbeth and the Orkney men, was thrown on 
 he friendship of Northumbria; and Tost.V, as his 
 "sworn brother," gave him substantial heb in the 
 mamtenance of his throne. 
 
 The death of Siward, the elevation of Tosticr 
 could hard y fail to rouse to a new effort the on'e 
 house which remained to vie with the house of God- 
 wine Girt in by Godwine's sons to north and to 
 south, isolated m Mid-Britain, Leofric was too old 
 and sickly to renew single-handed and without help 
 from the king the struggle of 1051. But his son 
 
 .Jm^Th •. ^."?'*'' ''"' ""'' P'-'-^ctically maste; 
 
 of Mid-Bntain, and in this emergency seems to have 
 sough aid from his Welsh neighbors in the west. 
 His a hance with Gruffydd of north Wales marks 
 the establishment of new political relations between 
 Engand and the Welsh princes. No league of 
 Englishmen with Welshmen with a view of influ 
 encing English politics had been seen since Penda's 
 eague with Cadwallon. The co-operation of the 
 Welshmen with the Danes had been simply a co- 
 operation of two foes against England itself. But 
 fi-om the time of ^Ifgar to the time of Earl Simon 
 of Montfort, the Welsh play a part in English his- 
 tory as allies of English combatants. The danger 
 was the greater that Gruffydd had just become mis- 
 ter, through the death of a rival, of the whole of our 
 modern Wales; and we can hardly doubt that it 
 »;as^n gs of a negotiatio n between earl and prince 
 
 -Sim Durh., Gest, Reg. a. 1069. In the wild countrv- bcvc^iidThe 
 
 found ■ " "'"^ '^"^'^'^""^ """"y- ^^ 'hey fled^to Holy I 'e 
 h ^ oV^[ hfr H ^'"<^-f ^■''-''" - ■•-" of 'h^ devil." who r'obbtd' 
 p h,? T J '^- ^''""'^ ^ "'<=''• ^'"'■den was. Priests whether 
 
 a hundred or ten, were among the slain at Fulford. 
 
 CHAP. Xt. 
 
 The 
 
 Norman 
 
 Conquest. 
 
 1063-1071 
 
 of East 
 Anglia, 
 
 rl- 
 
 ■-^j_ 
 
544 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The 
 
 Norman 
 
 Conquest. 
 
 1053-1071. 
 
 J\nver of 
 Harold. 
 
 Death 
 
 of the 
 
 atheling. 
 
 that drove Harold to a sudden stroke, in the banish- 
 ment of ^Ifgar by the Witan in the spring of 1055. 
 
 i^lfgar avenged his outlawry by drawing a Dan- 
 ish force from Ireland and joining Gruffydd in a 
 raid on Herefordshire. The rout of Earl Ralf s 
 forces called Harold to the field ; but his cool sense 
 preferred peace to a useless victory; and at the 
 close of the year i^lfgar was suffered to return, 
 baffled, to his earldom and to look on at the further 
 advancement of the house of Godwine. The terms 
 of his restoration were seen on Leofric's death in 
 1057. y^lfgar was allowed to take his father's earl- 
 dom, but it was an earldom shorn of many of its 
 older provinces. The earl was girt in on almost 
 every side by the possessions of the rival house. 
 Tostig and Harold lay, as before, to the north and 
 the south of him. His own earldom of East Anglia 
 was given to Harold's brother Gyrth. The whole 
 line of the Thames was grasped by the two younger 
 sons of Godwine. Gyrth, with his outlying earldom 
 of Oxfordshire^ held its upper waters. Leofwine 
 possessed the shires about its lower course, Essex, 
 Middlesex, Hertford, possibly Buckingham to the 
 north of it, Kent and Surrey to the south. The 
 earldoms of Northamptonshire and Nottingham- 
 shire, held by Tostig as they had been held by Si- 
 ward, pressed ^Ifgar still closer to the east ; w^hile 
 on his western border Harold himself, on the deaths 
 of Odda and of Ralf, took possession of the earldom 
 of the IVIagesaetas and the course of the Severn as a 
 check on the junction of y^lfgar and the Welsh. 
 
 The aim which Godwine had set before him was 
 all but reached. Only a few shires in the heart of 
 
 545 
 
 )1a.^T ^"'T^ '^' S^'^^P ^^ his house. CH.P.X. 
 
 And at the moment of this great accession of power x"^ 
 fate flung m Harold's wav the crown itself tZ ^°^"^ 
 cetheling Eadward at last^came from H^Lv t "™ 
 receive the pledge of his cousin's throne, but1.ei.d^°^^"' 
 hardly landed when he died at London. '^ Rueful 
 was It and harmful to all this folk," sang an English 
 -nger, " that he so soon ended his life^hen he to 
 England came, for mishap to this wretched people " 
 How great a mishap his death was no singer could 
 know At first it seemed to transmit tlfe succes- 
 sion to his son Eadgar ; and young as the boy was. 
 he might find in Harold a guardian stronge^r and 
 mightier than the elder Eadgar had found in Dun- 
 
 V ""'/I'^^f'^ ^^ ^thelwine. But the blow had 
 wakened bolder and less noble thoughts in Harold's 
 breast; and from the aetheling's death, in ios7 we 
 may date the upgrowth of that ambition which was 
 to wreck England in its fall. 
 
 Harold, throughout his career, had found himself The... 
 vithfevv of God wine's difficulties to face; neither the ''-^'^^"'^'^ 
 kings Ill-will nor the opposition of the court, nor 
 
 ^vvein The jealousy of new and advancing ^reat- 
 ness which dogged the father's steps hampered the 
 son s progress but little. The court was with him 
 Ihe land grew accustomed to the power of his' 
 
 iv^r* T. 7 f / ^'^^' 'h" ^"^"^^^^ of every 
 Id tl. ^^^,^^^;^^f Si ward, the old age of Leofric 
 
 berlanH TI' 1 ^'" '"J^' ^'^' ^^'''''^ ^"^ ^^^rthum- 
 
 thr tv nn ""'' f '^"^'^^^'^ ^^^^^'^"^^ ^^'^-kness 
 
 hre V power more and more into his hands, and as 
 
 the kings end drew near the death of his destined 
 
 35 
 
 C:-! 
 
 
 ml 
 
 
 I 
 h 7 
 
 s^l 
 
54^ 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. successor bequeathed, as it seemed, the crown to a 
 Th^ boy whose age left him naturally under the earl's 
 c^n^wt guardianship. Had Harold been content with 
 — power the death of Eadward would have left him as 
 1063-1071. ^^^pj^^^jy master of England as before. But his 
 air of cool reserve and self-command masked an am- 
 bition of that meaner sort which craves not only 
 power, but the show of power. Harold longed not 
 to be the ruler of England only, but to be its king. 
 During the last years of Eadward's life he was plan- 
 ning a constitutional revolution of the gravest kind 
 —the setting aside a great national tradition, in the 
 transfer of the crown from the house of Cerdic to a 
 house which had sprung only a few years before 
 from utter obscurity. Daring and unscrupulous as 
 such a project was, the power which Godwine had 
 bequeathed to his son made it possible, had Harold 
 held the threads of Godwine's policy with a hand 
 Hke Godwine's. But the lower ability of the man 
 was seen in the way in which advantage after ad- 
 vantage was thrown away. At home the union of 
 the house of Godwine itself was broken.^ His for- 
 eign relations snapped one by one. Flanders was 
 lost. The Papacy was lost. Norway was left to 
 prepare an attack unhindered by Swedish interven- 
 tion. Across the Channel his advance was watched 
 by one even more able and ambitious than himself.' 
 
 » In Tostig's visit to Nicolas in 1061, and in the remonstrances of 
 
 the queen alluded to at the king's death (" Frequentius declamasse 
 
 turn in frequentibus monitis ipsum regem et reginam -Vit 
 
 Edw., Luard, p. 432). we may see traces of discord in the house ot 
 
 ""« Thav^ formed the close of this chapter by taking some pages 
 from the History of the English People, i. in ^/ seg.-{A. S. G.) 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 547 
 
 and 
 England. 
 
 \\ ilhams hopes of the English crown are said to chakx.. 
 have been revived by a storm which threw Harold, ^ 
 while cruising in the Channel, on the coast of Pon- /"""'' 
 thieu. Its count sold him to the duke; and as the -"■" 
 price of return to England William forced him to"'**""'" 
 swear on the relics of saints to support his claim to 
 Its throne. But, true or no, the oath told little on 
 Harold's course. As the childless king drew to his 
 grave one obstacle after another was cleared from 
 the earl's path. His brother Tostig had become his 
 most dangerous rival ; but a revolt of the Northum- 
 brians drove Tostig to Flanders, and the earl was 
 able to win over the Mercian house of Leofric to his 
 cause by owning Morkere, the brother of the Mer- 
 cian earl, Eadwine, as his brother's successor. His 
 aim was, in fact, attained without a struggle. In the 
 opening of 1066 the nobles and bishops who "gathered 
 round the death-bed of the Confessor passed quietly 
 from it to the election and coronation of Harold. 
 But at Rouen the news was welcomed with a burst 
 of furious passion, and the Duke of Normandy at 
 once prepared to enforce his claim by arms. Will- 
 lam did not claim the crown. He claimed simply 
 the right, which he afterwards used when his sword 
 had won it, of presenting himself for election by the 
 nation, and he believed himself entitled so to pre- 
 sent himself by the direct commendation of the 
 Confessor. The actual election of Harold, which 
 stood in his way, hurried as it was, he did not recoo-- 
 nize as valid. But with this constitutional claim 
 was inextricably mingled resentment at the private 
 wrong which Harold had done him, and a resolve 
 to exact vengeance on the man whom he regarded 
 
 j;'i 
 
 i^il 
 
 
 f I 
 
 '•1 
 
 y 
 
548 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The 
 Norman 
 Conquest. 
 
 1053-1071. 
 
 Bridge. 
 
 as untrue to his oath. The difficulties in the way 
 of his enterprise were indeed enormous. He could 
 reckon on no support within England itself. At 
 home he had to extort the consent of his own re- 
 luctant baronage; to gather a motley host from 
 every quarter of France and to keep it together for 
 months ; to create a fleet, to cut down the very trees, 
 to build, to launch, to man the vessels ; and to find 
 time amidst all this for the common business of gov- 
 ernment, for negotiations with Denmark and the 
 Empire, with France, Brittany, and Anjou, with 
 Flanders and with Rome, which had been estranged 
 from England by Archbishop Stigand's acceptance 
 of his pallium from one who was not owned as a 
 canonical pope. 
 SLrmford But his Hval's difficulties were hardly less than 
 his own. Harold was threatened with invasion not 
 only by William, but by his brother Tostig, who had 
 taken refuge in Norway and secured the aid of its 
 king, Harald Hardrada. The fleet and army he had 
 gathered lay watching for months along the coast. 
 His one standing force was his body of huscarls, 
 but their numbers only enabled them to act as the 
 nucleus of an army. On the other hand, the land- 
 fyrd, or general levy of fighting-men, was a body 
 easy to raise for any single encounter, but hard to 
 keep together. To assemble such a force was to 
 bring labor to a standstill. The men gathered under 
 the king's standard were the farmers and ploughmen 
 of their fields. The ships were the fishing-vessels 
 of the coast. In September the task of holding 
 them together became impossible ; but their disper- 
 sion had hardly taken place when the two clouds, 
 
 v3 
 
 549 
 
 which had so long been ^atherino- h„r.;f .f 
 iinnn f]n« ,-^oi a i ^^'-^^^""g, ourst at oncc chap. xi. 
 
 upon the realm. A change of wind released the land- iTo 
 ocked armament of Wilh-am ; but before chaniin. f^^ 
 the wmd vvh,ch prisoned the duke brought the'host' -"• 
 
 YorlS'r? t, "^.^^'^"-^-^^ to the coast" '"-- 
 Yorkshire The king hastened with his household 
 troops to the north, and repulsed the Norwegians in 
 a decLsive overthrow at Stamford Bridge, but eThe 
 could hurry back to London the Norman ho't had 
 
 SHsd fT'r' ,''''"'''"' ^^-^^^ ^-'l anchored on 
 he 28th of September off Pevensey, was ravaging 
 
 the coast to bnng his rival to an engagement ^nl 
 
 merciless ravages succeeded in drawing Harold from 
 
 London to the south ; but the king wifely refused t" 
 
 attack with the troops he had hastily summoned to 
 
 olved to give it on ground he had himself chosen, 
 and advancing near enough td the coast to check 
 \\ ilham s ravages, he intrenched himself on a hill 
 known afterwards as that of Senlac, a low spur of 
 
 covered London and drove William to concentrate 
 h.s forces. With a host subsisting by pillage to 
 concentrate is to starve; and no alternative waf le^ 
 to the duke but a decisive victory or ruin 
 On the fourteenth of October William led his men 
 
 ?i..r" f ?u^ u''^ '''Sher ground that leads from 
 Hastings to the battle-field which Harold had chosen 
 From the mound of Telham the Normans saw the 
 host of the English gathered thickly behind a rough 
 trench and a stockade on the height of Senlac 
 Marshy ground covered their right ; on the left, the 
 most exposed part of the position, the huscarl or 
 
 iV' 
 
 1 1 
 
 A* 4 
 
 
 Baltic of 
 //astin^s. 
 
550 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 551 
 
 CHAP. XI. bodyguard of Harold, men in full armor and wield- 
 T^ ing huge axes, were grouped round the Golden 
 (Snquesl Dragon of Wessex and the standard of the king. 
 lOssTon ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ground was covered by thick masses 
 ^ ^— "of half-armed rustics who had flocked at Harold's 
 summons to the fight with the stranger. It was 
 against the centre of this formidable position that 
 William arrayed his Norman knighthood, while the 
 mercenary forces he had gathered in France and 
 Brittany were ordered to attack its flanks. A general 
 charge of the Norman foot opened the battle ; in 
 front rode the minstrel, Taillefer, tossing his sword 
 in the air and catching it again while he chanted the 
 song of Roland. He was the first of the host who 
 struck a blow, and he was the first to fall. The 
 charge broke vainly on the stout stockade behind 
 which the English warriors plied axe and javelin 
 with fierce cries of '* Out, out," and the repulse of the 
 Norman footmen was followed by a repulse of the 
 Norman horse. Again and again the duke rallied 
 and led them to the fatal stockade. All the fury 
 of fight that glowed in his Norseman's blood, all the 
 headlong valor that spurred him over the slopes of 
 Val-es-Dunes, mingled that day with the coolness 
 of head, the dogged perseverance, the inexhaustible 
 faculty of resource, which shone at Mortemer and 
 Varaville. His Breton troops, entangled in the 
 marshy ground on his left, broke in disorder, and as 
 panic spread through the army a cry arose that the 
 duke was slain. William tore off his helmet; "I 
 live," he shouted, " and by God s help I will conquer 
 yet." Maddened by a fresh repulse, the duke spurred 
 right at the standard ; unhorsed, his terrible mace 
 
 struck down Gyrth, the king's brother; again dis- chap.xi. 
 mounted, a blow from his hand hurled to the ground ihi 
 an unmannerly rider who would not lend him his con'^ueS 
 steed. Amidst the roar and tumult of the battle ''~**^ 
 he turned the flight he had arrested into the means''*'^''''' 
 of victory. Broken as the stockade was by his des- 
 perate onset, the shield-wall of the warriors behind 
 it still held the Normans at bay, till William by a 
 feint of flight drew a part of the English force from 
 their post of vantage. Turning on his disorderly 
 pursuers, the duke cut them to pieces, broke through 
 the abandoned line, and made himself master of the 
 central ground. Meanwhile the French and Bre- 
 tons made good their ascent on cither flank. At 
 three the hill seemed won, at six the fight still raged 
 around the standard, where Harold s huscarls stood 
 stubbornly at bay on a spot marked afterwards by 
 the high altar of Battle Abbey. An order from the 
 duke at last brought his archers to the front. Their 
 arrow-flight told heavily on the dense masses crowd- 
 ed around the king, and as the sun went down a 
 shaft pierced Harold's right eye. He fell between 
 the royal ensigns, and the battle closed with a des- 
 perate melee over his corpse. 
 
 Night covered the flight of the English army: c^r^naf/on 
 but William was quick to reap the advantage of his mmam. 
 victory. Securing Romney and Dover, he marched 
 by Canterbury upon London. Faction and intrigue 
 were doing his work for him as he advanced ; for 
 Harold's brothers had fallen with the king on the 
 field of Senlac, and there was none of the house of 
 Godwine to contest the crown. Of the old royal 
 line there remained but a single boy, Eadgar the 
 
 m 
 
 5 y 
 
 J,: 
 
 \ Si 
 
 ,1 'H 
 .1? J^l 
 
 
552 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. ^theling. He was chosen king ; but the choice 
 
 Th^ gave little strength to the national cause. The 
 
 anqnert widow of the Confessor surrendered Winchester to 
 
 — the duke. The bishops gathered at London inclined 
 
 — ' to submission. The citizens themselves faltered as 
 
 William, passing by their walls, gave Southwark to 
 the flames. The throne of the boy-king really rest- 
 ed for support on the earls of Mercia and Northum- 
 bria, Eadwine and Morkere ; and William, crossing 
 the Thames at Wallingford and marching into Hert- 
 fordshire, threatened to cut them off from their earl- 
 doms. The masterly movement forced the earls to 
 hurry home, and London gave way at once. Ead- 
 gar himself was at the head of the deputation who 
 came to offer the crown to the Norman duke. " They 
 bowed to him," says the English annalist, pathetically, 
 " for need." They bowed to the Norman as they 
 had bowed to the Dane, and William accepted the 
 crown in the spirit of Cnut. London, indeed, was 
 secured by the erection of a fortress which after- 
 wards grew into the Tower, but William desired to 
 reign not as a conqueror, but as a lawful king. At 
 Christmas he received the crown, at Westminster, 
 from the hands of Archbishop Ealdred amid shouts 
 of " Yea, yea," from his new English subjects. ^ Fines 
 from the greater landowners atoned for a resistance 
 which now counted as rebellion ; but with this ex- 
 ception every measure of the new sovereign showed 
 his desire of ruling as a successor of Eadward or 
 >Elfred. As yet, indeed, the greater part of Eng- 
 land remained quietly aloof from him, and he can 
 hardly be said to have been recognized as king by 
 Northumberland or the greater part of Mercia. But 
 
 553 
 
 to the east of a line which stretched from Norwich chap.x.. 
 to Dorsetshire his rule was unquestioned, and over ^. 
 this portion he ru ed as an English king. His sol- c^"r. 
 diers were kept in strict order. No change was,!^ 
 made in law or custom. The privileges of London " -"'' 
 were recognized by a royal writ which still remains, 
 the most venerable of its muniments, anioncr the 
 citys archives. Peace and order were restored. 
 Wilham even attempted, though in vain, to learn 
 the English tongue, that he might personally admin- 
 ister justice to the suitors in his court. The kine- 
 dom seemed so tranquil that only a few months 
 had passed after the battle of Senlac when, leaving 
 England in charge of his brother, Odo, Bishop of 
 Bayeux, and his ministor, William Fitz-Osbern the 
 king returned, in 1097, for a while to Normandy 
 1 he peace he left was soon, indeed, disturbed. Bish- 
 op Odo's tyranny torced the Kentishmen to seek 
 aid from Count Eustace of Boulogne ; while the 
 Welsh princes supportod a similar rising against 
 Norman oppression in the west. But, as yet the 
 bulk of the land held fairly to the new king. Dover 
 was saved from Eustace ; and the discontonted fled 
 over sea, to seek refuge in lands as far off as Con- 
 stantinople, where Englishmen from this time formed 
 great part of the bodyguard or Varangians of the 
 eastern emperors. William returned to take his 
 place again as an English king. It was with an 
 English force that he subdued a rising in the south- 
 H-est with Exeter at its head, and it was at the head 
 of an English army that he completed his work by 
 marching to the north. His march brought Ead- 
 wme and Morkere again to submission ; a fresh ris- 
 
 
554 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. ing ended in the occupation of York, and England 
 
 m as far as the Tees lay quietly at William's feet. 
 (SnqueM It was, in fact, only the national revolt of io6S that 
 1053T071 transformed the king into a conqueror. The signal 
 — " for the revolt came from Swein, King of Denmark, 
 Norman who had for two yfears past been preparing to dis- 
 couquest. p^^^ England with the Norman, but on the appear- 
 ance of his fleet in the H umber all northern, all 
 western and southwestern England, rose as one 
 man. Eadgar the i^theling, with a band of exiles 
 who had found refuge in Scotland, took the head of 
 the Northumbrian revolt; in the southwest the men 
 of Devon, Somerset, and Dorset gathered to the 
 sieges of Exeter and Montacute ; while a new Nor- 
 man castle at Shrewsbury alone bridled a rising in 
 the west. So ably had the revolt been planned that 
 even William was taken by surprise. The out- 
 break was heralded by a storm of York and the 
 slaughter of three thousand Normans who formed 
 its garrison. The news of its slaughter reached 
 William as he was hunting in the forest of Dean ; 
 and in a wild outburst of wrath he swore " by the 
 splendor of God " to avenge himself on the north. 
 But wrath went hand in hand wdth the coolest states- 
 manship. The centre of resistance lay in the Dan- 
 ish fleet, and, pushing rapidly to the Humber with a 
 handful of horsemen, William bought, at a heavy 
 price, its inactivity and withdrawal. Then, turning 
 westvvard with the troops that gathered round him, 
 he swept the Welsh border and relieved Shrews- 
 bury, while William Fitz-Osbern broke the rising 
 around Exeter. His success set the king free to 
 fulfil his oath of vengeance on the north. After 
 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 555 
 
 a long delay before the flooded waters of the Aire, chap.xi. 
 he entered York and ravaged the whole country as i^ 
 far as the Tees. Town and village were harried c^^^^t 
 and burned, their inhabitants were slain or driven,^,— ,, 
 over the Scottish border. The coast was especially - 
 wasted that no hold might remain for future land- 
 mgs of the Danes. Crops, cattle, the very imple- 
 ments of husbandry, were so mercilessly destroyed 
 that a famine which followed is said to have swept 
 off more than a hundred thousand victims. Half a 
 century later, indeed, the land still lay bare of cult- 
 ure and deserted of men for sixty miles northward 
 of York. The work of vengeance once over, Will- 
 iam led his army back from the Tees to York, and 
 thence to Chester and the west. Never had he 
 shown the grandeur of his character so memorably 
 as in this terrible march. The winter was hard, the 
 roads choked with snow-drifts or broken by torrents, 
 provisions failed ; and his army, storm-beaten and 
 forced to devour its horses for food, broke out into 
 mutiny at the order to cross the bleak moorlands 
 that part Yorkshire from the west. The merce- 
 naries from Anjou and Brittany demanded their re- 
 lease from service. William granted their prayer 
 with scorn. On foot, at the head of the troops which 
 still clung to him, he forced his way by paths inac- . 
 cessible to horses, often helping the men with his 
 own hands to clear the road, and as the army de- 
 scended upon Chester the resistance of the English 
 died away. 
 
 For two years William was able to busy himself fts 
 m castle-building and in measures for holding down '''"^^'"^''• 
 the conquered land. How effective these were was 
 
 
 1 
 ■ '•I 
 
 -' n 
 
 ., I 
 
• 
 
 m 
 
 W 
 
 -.5 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 \J sJ 
 
 CHAP. XI. seen when the last act of the conquest was reached, 
 i^ All hope of Danish aid was now gone, but English- 
 
 CneTt men still looked for help to Scotland, where Eadgar 
 rr^,, the ^theling had again found refuge, and where his 
 
 1063-1071. ^.^^^^ Margaret had become wife of King Malcolm. 
 It was probably some assurance of Malcolm's aid 
 which roused the Mercian earls, Eadwine and Mor- 
 kere, to a fresh rising in 1071. But the revolt was 
 at once foiled by the vigilance of the Conqueror. 
 Eadwine fell in an obscure skirmish, while Morkere 
 found shelter for a while in the fen country, where a 
 desperate band of patriots gathered round an out- 
 lawed leader, Hereward. Nowhere had William 
 found so stubborn a resistance : but a causeway two 
 miles long was at last driven across the marshes, 
 and the last hopes of English freedom died in the 
 surrender of Ely. It was as the unquestioned mas- 
 ter of England that William marched to the north, 
 crossed the Lowlands and the Forth, and saw Mal- 
 colm appear in his camp upon the Tay to swear 
 fealty at his feet. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 557 
 
 {Unfinished Notes on Archbishop Stigand.) 
 
 At the head of the English Church, in name at least, stood Stigand 
 of Canterbury. We have seen the political importance of his eleva- 
 tion and the disappointment of the hopes embodied in it • but he 
 represented m its highest form the prmciple of the house of God- 
 wme, whose chaplain and negotiator he had been, and illustrates 
 the conception of a High Churchman which that house entertained 
 His begmning had been strangely picturesque. On the site of his 
 great victory at Assandun, Cnut reared, in 1020. a minster of stone 
 a rare sight in that country of timber and brick, and set Stigand 
 there as its priest. Mr. Freeman and Mr. St. John assume this Sti- 
 gand to be •' no other than the famous archbishop. Stigand the 
 Priest signs charters of Cnut in 1033 and 1035, and one without 
 date, and one of Harthacnut in 1042 (Cod. Dip. iv. 46; vi 185 187- 
 IV. 65). He seems to be the only person of the name who signs '' 
 (Freeman, Norm. Conq. i. 424, note 4). He remained steadfast to the 
 cause of the Danish house. He was chaplain to Harald Harefoot 
 ( Flor. Wore, Thorpe, i. 193) as he had been to Cnut (Freeman, Norm 
 Conq. 1. 425), and afterwards the nearest friend and adviser of Cnut's 
 widow (Eng. Chron., Abingdon, 1043). Although it is said that in 
 1038 he was nominated to a bishopric, yet he was deposed before 
 consecration for lack of money to outbid his rivals for the office 
 (The story is only given by Flor. Wore, Thorpe, i. 193. He signs as 
 bishop in Cod. Dip. 787. For date, see Freeman, Norm. Conq. ii. 64 
 note.) At the accession of Eadward, however, and possibly as a 
 part of the price which the new king paid for his crown, he was 
 named and consecrated to the bishopric of Elmham in the Easter 
 Gemot of 1043. But, before the year was over, it would seem that 
 some suspicion of political intrigues, carried on by him through the 
 Lady Emma, had been awakened in men's minds. The seizure of 
 the lands and treasures of Emma into the king's hands, by decree 
 of the Gemot, was followed by the deposition of Stigand from his 
 seat, and the confiscation of his goods by the counsel of the same 
 Oemot. which, doubtless, held him guilty of a share in the crimes 
 of Emma (Eng. Chron., Abingdon. 1043). "That Stigand should 
 have supported the claims of Swegen is. in itself, not improbable 
 He had risen wholly through the favor of Cnut. his wife, and his 
 sons " (Freeman, Norm. Conq. ii. 65). In the following year, how- 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The 
 
 Korman 
 
 Conquest. 
 
 1053-1071. 
 
 Notes. 
 
558 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP XI. ever, Stigand had made his peace with Godwine and Eadward. and 
 
 — was again Bishop of Elmham (Flor. Wore. Thorpe, i. 199); and 
 «'^^® three years later, 1047. rose to the see of Winchester. His services 
 Conquest in securing Godwine's reconciliation made him primate m 1052, and 
 
 — from this time till after the Conquest he stood at the head of the 
 1053-1071. English. Church. He was not, however, satisfied with the wealth of 
 
 Notes Canterbury; as he had promoted his brother, ^thelmaer, to Elm- 
 
 — ham when he went to Winchester, so on going to Canterbury he 
 retained his rich see of W^inchester— " praeterea multas abbatias" 
 (Will. Malm., Gest. Pontif., Hamilton, p. 36). Of the -treasures of 
 gold and silver" which he was said to have carried ofT, even to his 
 prison (Angl. Sacr. i. 250), Winchester preserved a big silver cross, 
 with two images, which were found in his treasury. 
 
 But though Stigand might sit at Canterbury, none held him for 
 archbishop. To the Abingdon chronicler in 1053, a year after his 
 elevation, he was still " Stigand bishop," though he " held the bish- 
 opric at Canterbury." In the same year bishops Leofwine of Lich- 
 field and Wulfwig of Dorchester fared over sea for consecration 
 rather than ask for it from him (Eng. Chron., Abingdon, 1053). 
 Robert, deposed by the Witan, fled to tell his tale at Rome ; and Leo 
 IX. was not likely to hold the deposition a valid one, nor, seemingly, 
 did his successors, Victor II. and Stephen IX. For six years Sti- 
 gand remained an archbishop without a pallium, driven, as the 
 story of his enemies ran. to use the pallium of the Norman Robert, 
 whose place he had usurped. At last, in 1058, Stigand found means 
 to get his pallium from the anti-pope Benedict. Such a step, how- 
 ever, really increased his difficulties. It enabled him, indeed, for the 
 first and last time, to hallow bishops— ^thelric of Selsey and Si ward 
 of Rochester : but it soon made matters worse. Benedict was driv- 
 en from the Papal see in 1059; and his successors, Nicolas II. and 
 Alexander II., with the deacon Hildebrand behind them, were only 
 forced into a position of hostility, which was made the more irrec- 
 oncilable from the bitter strife in which the Papacy was then en- 
 gaged with the emperor. Nor was the answer given by England to 
 such a step on Stigand's part encouraging. So doubtful was his 
 position still held to be. that in May, 1060, a year after Benedict was 
 driven out. Harold himself had Waltham hallowed by Archbishop 
 Cynesige. The general drift of feeling, too, was shown in the jour- 
 ney of Walter, the Lotharingian bishop of Hereford, and Gisa of 
 Wells to Rome itself in April, 1061, for consecration from the very 
 pope, Nicolas, who had been defied by Stigand's act ; and by Ealdred. 
 the Archbishop of York, also seeking his pallium at Rome, in the 
 same year, accompanied by two sons of Godwine— Tostig and Gyrth. 
 In fact, the very house of Godwine found itself unable to withstand 
 the force of public feeling. The visit of Tostig and Gyrth to Pope 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 559 
 
 ^efSi:;^;h^r?^s: h^^^^ -^-to en.... 
 
 that sent L to RomTan^ S^!^^?. "n^m^am dire^it'ettNf - 
 colac^^Papa ordinatum . . . honorifice recWit.^-Hur^'^d. ot cS^^ 
 
 next"'4rdeal[t; ^uT f '^f ''^ ^"^^"^^^^ ^^^ '^ ^-"^w in the ^053-107^ 
 
 ter in cham^ ^ip-T,,,. ^"^ """" quartered at Worces- 
 ter in charge of Prior Wulfstan (Flor. Wore, Thorpe i 220^ 
 Their reception in the realm and in the Gemot ;t Worcester and 
 the r influence m raising Wulfstan to the see of Worcester IwMch 
 tt PaCv'and ''■%'^"f ^^e about Stigand, secured Eng inl^for 
 he Papacy and made the archbishop's position untenable Wulf 
 
 tZ" '°ur""T."' ''"'^'"^' ""y •^^"'^'^d, in September, ,c^2waTthe 
 most public and decisive repudiation of Stigand that had b;;n made 
 
 Wir?. ' u' ^ tempore ego WulsUnus ad Wigorniensem 
 sll eccT """ '""^ "'""'"^'"^ ^P''^°P"^' «='""am Dorobernen^ 
 sem ecclesiam cui omnes antecessores meos constat fuisse subiectos 
 S^^andus jampndem invaserat, metropolitanum ejusdem sedtv et 
 «fc/.expulerat, usumque palliiquod ei abstulit contemptraposto c^ 
 sedis auctontate temerare prssumpserat. i/n^, a Jo^,a^s7o«^ 
 
 aiione permansit. Per idem tempus jussa eorum Pontificum in 
 Anglicam terram delata sunt prohibentium ne quis elep scoolm 
 neverentiam exhibcret, aut ad eum ordinandus JZert'^oZcZ 
 
 ^tTbant^ au"idar'"'"'H'"''°'"^'"' "°""""' ^-nciam sacrlndi 
 Tu em A.;T ?K ° ^"^ """""^ coepiscopos accedebant. Ego 
 autem Alredum Eboracensis ecclesia; amistitem adii; professionem 
 tamen de canonica obedientiu usque ad pr^sentem diem acere d^ 
 stub. The "perjuriis et homicidiis inquinatus " in Order^'s rie 
 
 me?nZ b o'd^rn'^ ""''"''''"'" '''''■ ^''- Duchelne 5,6 B), mty" 
 mean the bloodshed, etc., at the Gemot of 1052 • but the " oori, rii. - 
 must go with the ■■ dolo " of Wulfstan. None wou d have h m He 
 d ed "o tZ"T "^"T"''"- H-o'd. in later days, choTe Eal- 
 
 b .de^he bed o?'the d '"I /"'^f '' '"'""'■ ='°°^ -■''' "-°'d 
 ^U Z -. " '^y'"S Eadwar J ; but it was only to hear him- 
 
 self denounced as Eadward predicted the coming woe^ "Cognosce 
 
 ■me violatam, hocque frequentius declamasse tum per legates et 
 
56o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The 
 
 Norman 
 
 Conqueit. 
 
 1053-1071 
 
 Notes. 
 
 epistolas suas Romanum Papam, turn in frequentibus monitis ipsum 
 regem et reginam : sed divitiis et mundana gloria irrecuperabilitcr 
 quidam diabolo allecti. vitaj adeo neglexerant disciplinam ut non 
 horrcrent jam tunc immincntcm incidere in Dei iram"' (Vita Edvv., 
 Luard. pp. 431, 432). "Cunctisque stupentibus et terrore agente 
 tacentibus, ipse archicpiscopus qui dcbuerat vel primus paverc, vel 
 verbum consilii dare, infatuato corde submurmurat in aurcm ducis. 
 senio confectum et morbo, quid diceret nescire " (Ibid. p. 431). The 
 "divitiis" above points to the ground which common rumor as- 
 signed for Stigand's obstinacy. 
 
 His presence with the earl at the king's bedside only shows that 
 Harold was still driven to cling to him, though he, with all England, 
 held him to possess no spiritual power. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 561 
 
 CHAP. xr. 
 
 *^ ''Z.^.t'"''i^''"" "" ""'''' '"'■'""' ^y 'V'-- Great in f/.r No?In 
 bATURDAY Review /„r August 22, ,868, the foll,m.i„.r ConquMt. 
 
 an,/. ,n the s, arcty of materials, furnish some — 
 
 commentary on the text. — A. S. G.) Notsi. 
 
 "^^^^"'f' ?^ Godwine in the very hour of his triumph be- ~ 
 quea hed the d.reet.on of English affairs to his son. Earl Harold 
 It ,s the special merit of Mr. Freeman's elaborate researches Tnto 
 
 actTt t"mr' 'h^'""'' ^'='«" '"^^ "'^■y -^-^ "ome to "s th: 
 fact that the man who m common narratives starts into rule for a 
 
 smgle year by h,s seizure of the Crown, had in reality been the 
 
 ruler of England for twelve years before. The coronation of Har! 
 
 old was, as he fa.rly puts it, the natural climax of the life of one 
 
 who at twenty-four years old -was invested with the rule of one "1 
 
 V rtual ru er of the kmgdom; who at last, twenty-one years from 
 h s firs elevat,on, received, alone among English kings, the crown 
 
 all this IS that Harold can no longer be judged from the sincle 
 
 tand-pomt of Senlac. The year of his great^lose is simply tl 
 
 last of an administration which extended over thirteen yearsf and 
 
 I olated7'"r' ''"°: °' *'''" ^-^---t^tion. -ther than o any 
 isolated events in it, that must really give us the measure of Harold 
 
 th! oh? '1° T' u " •""'' ^ remembered, unfettered by many of 
 
 estored h h I'' ""^T '" ''"'"^^- "^'"^ ^<=^°'""°" ^^ich had 
 
 restored his house had freed him from the internal rivalry of a 
 
 ttn'of T"-^ "" ""^ ?T\ ^'"= "<=''=''' "' ^'^^'''^'h «"d the eleva- 
 tion of a nominee of England to the Scottish throne removed all 
 
 fere^d th'"" '"' r"'' '^ ''"^ '<="^^ ^' ^ D^"-" reaction stiM lin- 
 Siward .'h T"") I ''" f "'°^"'^ ^y ""^ ''^«h of Osgod Clapa. 
 S ward and Leofric the two formidable counterpoises to the power 
 
 had carri^H'' ^T^^ ^"'K'^ '"" '''" ^^^'^ «' "'^ ™'^- Godwine 
 gathered .1 '" ^''''"' '^ '^°"'^"'^ P^^^ resentments, 
 
 Kr at mt ', ? f TT' ^""'"^ "^ ^^'"''^^ '"'"f<"^- The on^ 
 hid diTd wlh r "^ "'x,' "'^"'^ ''""<^<=" E"g'^"d ^"d his family 
 Dlaved t H T"- ^""'^ °' '^'^ J^^'°"^y ^hich Eadward dis- 
 d sohIh "'^f "'*' ^"P^<^"'=":y of his first minister seems to have 
 
 und touted ' '.''If '''°"'- ^°' '"'='^'= y'^'' he was the 
 
 vaf hri- /ri'""' °^ "'" "'^^"'- ^"'^ this political supremacy 
 ear h "^ ^'^^ P'^'°"'^' l"^'"''^^- • • • The character of the 
 
 earl, however, remains singularly obscure. The very nature of his 
 administration itself, during the greater part of it, is^dark and mvt 
 
 36 
 
,^2 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAP X. terious. The three last years of it, indeed, are memorable enough 
 CHAP^xi. _^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ campaign, the expulsion of Tos .g, the 
 
 J^' accession to the Crown ; but the ten that precede them defy even 
 
 Keman ■ j^^j ^f Mr. Freeman. . . . With the exception of his doubt- 
 
 Con^u..*. ;he mdu^try^o^^^^ ^^^^^^^ .^ .^ ^^^^^,^ ^,^^ ,,,„„g, ,he rule 
 
 1053-1071. , Harold England is without any foreign relations whatever ; lor 
 vIZn the embassy to the Imperial Court in 1054 had a simply domestic 
 ''-■ purpose, and the nomination of a few Lotharingian bishops does 
 not affect the really insular nature of his policy. Nor is this ab- 
 sence of outer relations compensated by any internal activity Mr. 
 Freeman marks, indeed, the predominance of ecclesiastical admin- 
 istration as the characteristic of this earlier period of Harold s rule . 
 but when we look closer into the mass of details, there is simply no 
 ecclesiastical administration whatever, no conspicuous synod, no 
 ereat Church reform-nothing, in a word, but the appointment of a 
 few prelates in the place of others, the attempted introduction of 
 the rule of Chrodegang. and, so far as Harold himself is concerned, 
 the foundation of a single religious house. ... In his civil adminis- 
 tration as in his foreign and ecclesiastical, it is difficult to grasp 
 any new or large conception in the mind of Harold such as those 
 which lift his Norman rival into greatness. Take him at his best, 
 there is little more than a sort of moral conservatism without a 
 trace of eenius or originality, or even any attempt at high states- 
 rnshVp.^ Take him af his worst, and we can hardly fail to see a 
 certain cunning and subtlety of temper that often coexists with 
 mediocrity of intellectual gifts. In the internal government of the 
 realm he simply follows out his father's policy, while avoiding h^ 
 fathers excesses. For one great political scandal he is solely re- 
 sDonsible It may not have been with a deliberate purpose of neu- 
 tralizing ihe great constitutional check on an English king that he 
 a lowed the highest dignity of the English Church to remain 
 throughout his rule in a state of suspension. But if we acquit him 
 of a purpose which would be a crime, it can only be on the plea of 
 an iAdifference to the true relations of the State which was even 
 worse than a crime. In all other respects his civil admmistration 
 during his first ten years of rule is the mere continuation of his 
 father's There is the same scheme of family aggrandizement 
 carriedout in even a less scrupulous way. To gain the paternal 
 earldom of Wessex, indeed, Harold had been compelled to resign 
 his own lordship of East Anglia to the rival power of Merc.a. Bu 
 two years after, when he was firm in his saddle and the death of 
 Siward had added the north to the domain of his family, Harold 
 dealt a sharp blow at the one house that held him in check. . . • 
 The e are but four accounts left of the banishment of Earl ^Ifgar 
 ^n'ols and of these three agree in declaring the earl guiltless or 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. 
 
 563 
 
 Notes. 
 
 nearly guiltless The fourth, which avers that he publicly confessed chap xr 
 his gu.lt. but that the confession escaped him unawaresfis 'that of - 
 the chronicler who ,s most distinctly a partisan of Harold's' ^ha 
 
 Harold was forced, indeed, to consent to his victim's restoration* n^*''"'". 
 but when Leofric's death threw his father's earldom into hirhands' "^^i^"' 
 he wrested back East Anglia and girded Mercia round with the 1^53 1071. 
 chain of the possessions of his house. It is impossible, in the ^" 
 absence of facts, to explain the change of policy th^ followed. It 
 may have been that the house of Leofric, confined now to a few 
 central counties of the realm, was no longer dangerous as a foe. and 
 might be useful as a friend. It may have been that Harold was 
 jealous of the power of Tostig and of his influence with the king. 
 All that we know ,s that Harold suddenly reversed his whole pre- 
 vious policy, and in spite or in consequence of his brother's feud 
 uith the sons of ^Ifgar, intermarried with their house. The mar- 
 riage was quickly followed by the rising of Northumbria against 
 Its earl, and the rising was clearly prompted by Mercian instigation, 
 but was the instigation simply Mercian ? Harold was now the fast 
 friend of Eadwine and Morkere ; the expulsion of Tostig removed 
 the only possible rival to his hopes of the Crown ; the division of 
 ^orthumbrla into two earldoms, so evidently stipulated as the 
 price of Morkere's accession, told only to Harold's profit It is cer- 
 tain that when the two brothers stood face to face the charije was 
 openly made that the revolt had been owing to the machinations 
 ot Harold. It is certain that the charge was so vehemently urged 
 and received so much credence, that Harold thought it needful to 
 purge himself legally by oath. Anyhow, in spite of the violent 
 opposition of the king, the royal minister yielded every point to 
 the insurgents, and his brother fled over sea. It is. we repeat im- 
 possible, from sheer dearth of information, to disentangle the threads 
 of this complicated web of intrigue and revolution, or to pronounce 
 With any certainty on the character of Harold's course in the mat- 
 ter If Harold was simply using England as a vast chess-board, 
 and moving friends and foes in an unscrupulous play for power he 
 was amply punished. The revenge of Tostig proved the ruin of 
 Harold. The victory of Stamford Bridge was the prelude of the 
 defeat of Senlac. . . . Even hero-worship can hardly err in its praises 
 of that final struggle, and the critic who rates Harold lowest may 
 own that there are supreme moments when even the commonplace 
 gather grandeur ere they pass away. But the character of the man 
 and of his rule is to be gathered, not from the hour of heroic strug- 
 gle, but from the years that preceded it. A policy of mere national 
 stagnation within and without sprang from the natural temper, the 
 poverty of purpose, the narrowness of conception, of a mind which 
 it is impossible to call great." 
 
 *-i 
 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbo of Fleury writes the life of St 
 
 Eadmund, 326. 
 Abingdon, ^thehvold made abbot of, 
 283 and note 2 ; school at, 283 • 
 Northumbrians visit Eadred at, 286,' 
 note ; Eadwig's benefactions to, 299,' 
 note 2; clerks from Glastonbury 
 accompany .^thehvold to, 329, note 
 2 ; dealings of its abbots with the 
 burghers of Oxford, 421 ; Chronicle 
 oC 355» f'ote I. 
 Aclea, battle of, 71, 76, 77. 
 Adela, sister of King Henrv of France, 
 marries Baldwin, Count of Flandersi 
 494.498; betrothed to Richard III! 
 of Normandy, 502. 
 Adelard of Ghent, his life of St. Dun- 
 
 stan, 269, note. 
 Administration, royal, 523 ; its devel- 
 opment under yEthelred, 411-414- 
 under Cnut, 475, note; under Ead- 
 ward, 475. 
 
 ^tic made High Reeve, 378 and note 
 4 ; slam by Leofsige, 379 and note i. 
 
 ^Ifgar, Ealdorman of Essex, father-in- 
 law of King Eadmund, 250. 
 
 /Elfgar, son of Leofric, made earl of 
 East Anglia, 511, 517; make^ ^j,}. 
 ance with GrufTydd of North Wales, 
 544 ; outlawed, 544 ; restored, C44 ,' 
 succeeds Leofric in Mercia, S44: 
 
 ^ fgar, son of ^Ifric, blinded, 363. 
 
 AlfgjfiU daughter of /Ethelgifu, mar- 
 ries Eadwig, 298 ; parted from him 
 i^y sentence of Archbishop Odo, 
 299 ; seized and carried out of the 
 
 J.T^'^^ 301, 302, note I. 
 
 ^Ifgifu. daughter of ^thelred II., 
 marries Earl Uhtred of Northum- 
 
 ,,VJL'^' 383, note. 
 
 ^tltheah, St., bishop of Winchester, 
 carries on the policy of .Elfric, 362, 
 note; negotiates a truce with Swein 
 and Olaf, 364 ; negotiates a treatv 
 
 between Olaf and ^Ethelred, 161; • 
 translated to Canterbury, 385, «J/^ 
 3 ; his injunctions for the observ- 
 ance of religious duties, 385 ; seized 
 L>y 1 hurkill as hostage for the Dane- 
 geld, 392 ; his martyrdom, 392 ; his 
 body translated to Canterbury, 41c. 
 /Elfheah, kinsman of Eadwig, 294; 
 made Ealdorman of Central Wcs- 
 sex, 303. 
 
 /Elfhelm, Ealdorman of the Northum- 
 brian Provinces, 357, note; made 
 earl of Deira, 358 ; slain, 382 and 
 note I ; Florence's legendary ac- 
 count of his murder, 382, note. 
 
 ^Ifhere, kinsman of Eadwig, becomes 
 one of his chief counsellors. 294 and 
 note 2 ; made Ealdorman of Mercia, 
 297 ; his rise traced in the charters,' 
 297, note 3 ; revolts against Eadwig,' 
 299; his influence with Eadgar,' 
 303 ; his independence of the crown,' 
 334 and note i ; his title of " Ilere- 
 ^oga," 334 ; heads the anti-monastic 
 P^'Jy* Zll ; supports the claim of 
 Eadward to the crown, 338 ; trans- 
 iates the body of Eadward from 
 Wareham to Shaftesbury, 342 ; his 
 death, 342. 
 
 ^Iflaed, daughter of .Elfgar, Ealdor- 
 man of Essex, marries his successor, 
 Byrhtnoth, 250. 
 
 Alfred, King of Wessex, his birth at 
 Wantage, 94 ; his visit to Rome in 
 early childhood, 94 ; authorities for 
 his life, 94, note 3 ; visits Rome and 
 Gaul with his father, 95 ; his early 
 love of letters, 95 ; becomes next 
 heir to the crown by the accession 
 of ^Ethelred, 96 ; becomes Seciinda- 
 nus, 82, ftote 1, 96 ; his marriage, 96 ; 
 his sickness, 96 ; marches with /Eth- 
 elred against the Danes at Notting- 
 ham, 97; leads the van at Ash- 
 down, 98; succeeds ^.thelred as 
 king, 99 ; first King of Wessex who 
 
 
 I 
 
566 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 was also King of the Mercians, 46 ; 
 defeated by the Danes at Wilton, 
 100; buys their withdrawal from 
 Wessex, 100; sends alms to Rome 
 and India, 100 and note 2 ; doubt- 
 ful story of his besieging the Danes 
 at London, 100, note 2 ; marches 
 upon Guthrum's camp near Ware- 
 ham, 104; makes a treaty with the 
 Danes, 104 ; besieges them m Exe- 
 ter, 104 ; falls back upon Somerset, 
 105 ; encamps at Athelney, 105 ; 
 musters the West -Saxon host at 
 Ecgberht's stone, 106; defeats the 
 Danes at Edington, 106 ; treaty of 
 Wedmore, 107 ; his work of resto- 
 ration, 125, 126; founds abbeys at 
 W inchester, Shaftesbury, and Athel- 
 ney, 127 ; his military reforms, 127- 
 129; his extension of the thegn- 
 service, 129, 130 ; his reorganization 
 of the fyrd, 130, 131 ; creates a na- 
 tional fleet, 131, 132 and note ^-y his 
 conception of public justice, 132, 
 I33» "^^^ - ' ^'^ difficulties in en- 
 forcing justice, 134, 135 ; becomes 
 King of Mercia, 137 ; sets up a mint 
 at Oxford, 138, 421 ; at Gloucester, 
 422; his laws, 25, 139 and note I, 
 324; drives the Danes from the 
 siege of Rochester, 142 ; liis slrug- 
 cle with Guthrum, 143 5 ^""s (second) 
 peace with Guthrum, 120; its true 
 
 date im; its terms, 144, HS ^"a 
 fz'Ll^b^comes master of London, 
 
 144 and note I ; restores and peo- 
 Dks it, 144 and note 1 ; renews its 
 Llls, 188,441; rise of nat.onal^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 timent under, 147 ; ^V" T }co- 
 work, 149-151 ; his chaplains, 150, 
 education^ of his children, 150 ancl 
 note 4, 181. 182 and note I ; of his 
 nobles, 150, fwte 4, 153 ; bis zeal for 
 learning, 150 and notes 3 and 4, 151 , 
 sends "for scholars from over sea, 
 151 ; learns Latin, 151 and note i ; 
 story of Asser's visit to, J5J:-I53 ; 
 his work in the creation of English 
 prose, 153. 154; his translations, 
 155, 156, 161 ; work in the English 
 Chronicle, 159 and ^/-/^ 3; j6o; Jts 
 
 nof^s; his love of strangers, 168 and 
 notes; his court, 172, 173 J ^is bud- 
 get, 173, 174; his foreign policy, 
 T75; his dealings with the North 
 Welsh, 175, 176; his alliance with 
 the Scot kingdom, 178; his death, 
 178; his character, 178-180; of- 
 ficers of the royal household in his 
 time, 523. 
 
 iElfred, son of .tthelred, his residence 
 at the Norman court, 454 ; prepares 
 to invade England with Robert the 
 Devil, 456 ; lands at Dover, 464 ; 
 seized at Guildford, 464; blinded, 
 464 ; dies at Ely, 464- . 
 
 Alfred, an English lugitive from Dei- 
 ra, settles in Westmoringaland,264. 
 
 iElfric, archbishop of Canterbury, his 
 
 death, 385, ^/t?/*? 3- , ,, , , 
 ;i-:ifric, archbishop of \ ork, charges 
 Godwine with the death of the aeth- 
 eling itlfred, 464. 466. 
 ^Elfric succeeds yEthelmaer as Ealdor- 
 nian of Central Wessex, 357, Jiote ; 
 negotiates a treaty with the Nor- 
 wegian Wikings, 360, note 1 ; joint 
 leader of the fyrd with Thored, 361 ; 
 joins the Norwegians, 361 ; returns, 
 and is reinstated, 366 ; becomes first 
 among the ealdormen on death of 
 ^thelweard, 378 ; heads the fyrd of 
 Wiltshire and Hampshire against 
 Swein, 380; his failure and its 
 causes, 381 and «c>/^ I. 
 iElfric, son of /Elfhere, succeeds his 
 father as Ealdorman of Mercia, 342, 
 357, tiote ; exiled, 357, 358; 
 iEltnc, scholar of Bishop /Ethelwold, 
 his grammar and homilies, 325 ; 
 writes an English version of the 
 
 ^Ifric, kinsman of Godwine, elected 
 archbishop of Canterbury, 505 ; po- 
 litical import of his election, 506 ; 
 set aside by Eadward, 506. 
 i yElfsige, Ealdorman, 298, note 2, 303, 
 
 f'ote I. „ . i- ■> „f 
 
 yElfstan, abbot of St. A"gustinc s a 
 Canterburv, his struggle with Christ 
 Church for the possession ot Sand- 
 wich, 429, '^^'^ ^ 
 
 effects, 160 and note 2 ; holds Hast- 
 ing at bav for a year, 164 ; his nego- 
 tiations with Hasting. 164; rising 
 of the Danelaw against him, 104 ; 
 defends Exeter, 165 ; cuts off the 
 
 yElfthryth, daughter of ^Elfred, her ed- 
 ucation, 150, note 3, 182 «^/j I ; mar- 
 ries Baldwin II. of P landers, 175, 
 
 /Emhry th, daughter of Ealdorman Ord- 
 car, 303, 307, "0^^ I' 308, f'otes ; wite 
 
 de ends t^xeicr, 1^5, ^"'-. "",- ^ „-r ^n^ -ion, note 1,3,0^, notes \^\\^ 
 XLu^.'^^ onS.^e.^'indl ir^r&^a of E.4 A^gHa. 303, 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 567 
 
 note 2 ; of Eadgar, 303, note i, 306, 
 330; mother of i4£the] red H., 306. 
 .■Elhven, wife of /Ethelstan the '* Half- 
 King," foster-mother of Eadgar, 
 274. 
 
 ^thelbald, second son of /Ethelwulf, 
 King of Kent, 80 ; succeeds his fa- 
 ther in Wessex, 80 ; his marriage 
 with Judith, 79. w/^-; his death, 96. 
 ^thelberht, third son of .^Ithtlwulf, 
 81 ; succeeds ^Ethelbald in Kent, 
 Si, note 2 ; in Wessex, 81 ; his 
 death, 81,96. 
 ^thelberht, king of Kent, gives Bish- 
 op Mellitus the site for St. Paul's 
 Church, 436; his laws, 20 and notes 
 I and 2. 
 .^ithelberht, schoolmaster at York, 41 ; 
 Alcuin educated under, 41 ; suc- 
 ceeds Ecgberht as archbishop of 
 York, 41 ; rebuilds the minster, 41. 
 ^thelflaed (daughter of yEIfied), wife 
 of ^thelred; Ealdorman of Mercia, 
 138, note 2 ; joint-ruler of Mercia 
 with ^thelred, 188; restores Ches- 
 ter, 186, 422; seizes the line of the 
 Watling Street, 190 ; fortifies Scnr- 
 gate and Bridgenorth, 190 ; Tam- 
 worth and Stafford, 192 ; Eddis- 
 bury and Warwick, 193 ; Cherbury, 
 Warbury, and Runcorn, 194 ; takes 
 Derby and Leicester, 198 ; receives 
 the submission of York, 198 and 
 note 3; her death, 198; its date, 
 183, note 3 : account of her cam- 
 paigns in the Chronicle, 183. 
 
 /Ethelflaed, niece of ^thelstan, a kins- 
 woman of Dunstan, 270, note i. 
 
 i^thelflaed, daughter of /Elfgar, mar- 
 ries Eadmund, 250. 
 
 i^thelflaed the White, first wife of 
 Eadgar, and mother of Eadward 
 the Martyr, 306. 
 
 .^thelgar, Bishop of Crediton, possi- 
 bly a kinsman of Dunstan, 270, 
 note I. 
 
 ^thelgifu influences Eadwig against 
 Dunstan, 294 ; causes Dunstan to be 
 outlawed, 296 ; marries her daugh- 
 ter to Eadwig, 298. 
 
 .^thelhelm, Ealdorman of Dorset, de- 
 feated and slain by the Wikincs. 
 
 72. 
 
 ^Ethelings, their original distinction 
 from the ceorls, 34 ; their relation 
 to the tribal king, 34; their altered 
 position on the extinction of the 
 smaller kingdoms, 34 ; displaced by 
 
 the thegns, 34 ; answer to the Scan- 
 dinavian juris, 55. 
 ^thelm. Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 said to be a kinsman of Dunstan, 
 and to have brought him to court, 
 270 and note i, 271, note i ; his 
 death, 271, ttote i. 
 /Ethelmaer, kinsman of Eadwig, 294. 
 .<*:thelmaer, Ealdorman of Hampshire, 
 
 357, note I ; his death, 357. 
 i^thelmasr succeeds ^ihelweard as 
 Ealdorman of Western Wessex, 
 394 ; submits to Swein, 394. 
 /Ethelmxr, brother of Stigand, suc- 
 ceeds him as Bishop of Elinham, 
 538. 
 /Ethelnoth, Ealdorman of Somerset, 
 
 106. 
 ^thelred, fourth son of ^thelwulf. 
 King of Wessex, 82 ; his accession 
 marks a new step in the consolida- 
 tion of Wessex, 82, note I ; marches 
 to aid Burhred against the Danes, 
 90; failure of their joint attack on 
 the Danes at Nottingham, 91 ; de- 
 feated by the Danes near Reading, 
 97; his victory at Ashdown, 98; 
 rnortally wounded at Merton, 99 ; 
 his death, 99 and note 3 ; his burial 
 at W^imborne, lOO- 
 i^thelred II., son of Eadgar and 
 ^ilfthryth, 307 ; his adherents, 337 ; 
 his coronation, 341 and note i ; 
 quarrels with Dunstan, 342, 343 ; 
 materials and authorities for his 
 reign, 355, //^/<f I ; his title of'Un- 
 raedig," 356 ; his character, 356 ; his 
 policy towards the ealdormanries, 
 358, 382 ; his outer difficulties, 358, 
 359 ; makes a treaty with the Nor- 
 wegian Wikings, 360 ; with Richard 
 of Normandy, 360, 361 and note ; 
 breach of treaty with the Norwe- 
 gians, 361 ; causes ^Ifgar to be 
 blinded, 363 ; gathers an army at 
 Andover, 364 ; makes a truce with 
 Swein and OJaf, 364 ; makes a treaty 
 with Olaf, 365 ; weakness of the 
 English defence under him, 366, 
 367; engages a fleet of Danish 
 mercenaries, 367 ; makes descents 
 on the Isle of Man and Cumber- 
 land, 368 ; on the Cotentin, 368; 
 his marriage with Emma of Nor- 
 mandy, 370, 377 ; its effects, 376, 
 377 ; number and order of the eal- 
 dormen under him, 377, 378; sends 
 Leofsige to buy off the pirates, 378; 
 
568 
 
 INDEX 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 makes ^Tlfic high reeve, 378 and 
 noU 4 ; policy of his employment 
 of hired Danes, 379 and ttoU 3 ; 
 massacre of St. Brice's day, 380; 
 makes Eadric high reeve, 383 ; 
 holds the Danes in check on the 
 south coast, 384 ; buys a truce with 
 them, 385 ; exacts an oath of alle- 
 giance from his subjects, 385 ; his 
 measures of defence, 385,386; gath- 
 ers a fleet at Sandwich, 386, 428, 
 note I; its failure, 390; buys the 
 withdrawal of the Danes, 392 ; hires 
 Thurkill, 392 ; defends London 
 against Swein, 394 ; sends his wife 
 and sons to Normandy, 395 ; his 
 flight and its consequences, 395 ; 
 his return, 396 ; dissensions in his 
 court, 397 ; withdraws to London, 
 398 ; dies there, 399 ; his financial 
 and administrative organization, 
 387-390 ; his fiscal revolution, 413 ; 
 growth of the administrative system 
 under him, 411-413 ; his creation 
 of the head thegn or high reeve, 
 412, 524 ; his regulations concerning 
 the trade of London, 445 ; coins o^ 
 struck at Bristol, 426, note i. 
 
 -tthelred, son of /Ethelwold Moll, ex- 
 pels Alchred from Northumbria,39 ; 
 driven into exile, 39 ; restored, 40 ; 
 slays Osred and the children of 
 Alfwold, 40 ; slain, 42. 
 
 iEthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia, 137, 
 138, 7iote 2 ; his titles, 138, tiote 2 ; 
 married to ^thelflaed, 138, note 2 ; 
 London intrusted to him by .Alfred, 
 144 ; holds the line of the Thames 
 against the Danes, 164 ; attacks the 
 \Vikings' camp in Essex, 165 ; his 
 victory at Buttington, 165 ; drives 
 the Danes from Chester, 166 ; re- 
 stores it, 1 86 and note 2 ; probably 
 rears the castle-mound at Oxford, 
 421 ; his gifts to Bishop Werfrith, 
 423 ; his death, 188. 
 
 .Ethelric, Bishop of Selsey, conse- 
 crated by Stigand, 558. 
 
 yEthelstan, son of Eadward the Elder, 
 his childhood, 168 ; his accession, 
 209 ; chosen king by the Mercians, 
 209, note 2 ; hallowed at Kingston, 
 209, fiote 2 ; personal appearance, 
 209 ; his character and that of his 
 reign, 210 ; authorities for his reign, 
 209, note 4 ; knighted in his child- 
 hood by /Elfred, 168, 210 ; first king 
 of West Saxons, Mercians, and 
 
 Northumbrians, 46 ; league of the 
 Danes, Scots, and Welsh against, 
 210 ; its submission, 211 and note 2 ; 
 reduces the North-Welsh chiefs to 
 subjection and tribute, 211 ; drives 
 the West Welsh from P.xeter, 211 ; 
 defeats the Cornwealas at BoUeit, 
 212 ; becomes King of Northumbria, 
 212; composition of his Witenage- 
 mots, 212, 213,//^/^ I ; their national 
 character, 213, twte i, 215 ; his for- 
 eign policy, 210, 239; his alliance 
 with the northern clergy, 213; his 
 favor to the Northmen, 214; his 
 character in the Northern sagas, 214; 
 his restoration of public order, 216 ; 
 petitioned by the Witan of Kent to 
 enforce justice, 29 ; regulation of 
 justice under him, 216, 217; scope 
 of his laws, 216, fiote 4, 225, note 2 ; 
 his law concerning property and 
 trade, 218 ; concerning slaves, 320 ; 
 his royal style, 231, 232, 257, note 
 3 ; Northumbria rises against him, 
 232 ; his foreign alliances, 240, 241 ; 
 marches into the north and sends a 
 fleet to harry the Scottish coast, 
 242 and note 4 ; receives a fresh 
 submission from Constantine, 242 ; 
 withdrawal of the Northern jarls 
 from his court, 243 and note 2 ; gen- 
 eral rising of the North against, 243 ; 
 his victory at Brunanburh, 244 ; 
 failure of his plans of national union, 
 246 ; razes the Danish fortress at 
 York, 432 ; his alliance with Nor- 
 way, 251 ; sets Eric Bloody-axe as 
 under -king in Northumbria, 252 ; 
 gives shelter to Lewis from over- 
 sea, 254 ; his negotiations with Hugh 
 of Paris and William Longsword, 
 254 ; his alliance with Lewis and 
 Arnulf against the Normans, 256 ; 
 sends a fleet to the coast of Bou- 
 logne, 257 ; his pilgrimage to Glas- 
 tonbury, 271, note 2 ; his death, 257 ; 
 its date, 257 and note; its effect on 
 Frankish politics, 261 ; popular bal- 
 lads of his life, preserved by William 
 of Malmesbury, 284, note 2. 
 
 iEthelstan, son of ^thelwulf, under- 
 king of Kent, 75 ; defeats the Wik- 
 ings at Sandwich, 75 ; his death, 79, 
 fiote 2, 80. 
 
 iEthelstan, Ealdorman of East Anglia, 
 249 ; native of Devon, 249, note 2 ; 
 his possible descent from iEthel- 
 red I., 249, ficte 2 ; nicknamed the 
 
 Half-King," 250 ; his wife ^ifwen 
 the foster-mother of Eadgar, 27! 
 I r.mar.us under Eadmund:2:;4 and 
 
 i^adred, 275 ; his friendship with 
 Dunstan, 274 ; withdraws to a mon 
 ^stery, 297 ; his ealdormanrv pTted 
 
 among h,s four sons. 297; date o 
 his ret.rernent, 297, note 3. 
 
 ^thelstan Ealdorman, distinguished 
 from ^thelstan of East AngHa .07 
 
 -^3;jonstherevoltasaii?Ea'J: 
 wig, 299, f/ote 2. 
 
 "iltllT''' ^^^P''-^'" to yElfied, ICO 
 ^;the Stan, j^^ Guthrum. ^ 
 
 ^he^^'croir"^-^^'^^'^^^^'^'--^ 
 Elder ^i" F'"'^ ^^d^^'^rd the 
 i^icler, 182; driven out of Wessex 
 becomes King of Northumbria Ts, 
 rouses the Dines of Ea "t Ai ^lia to 
 attack Wesspv t^i-, ■^':=»' -^"gna to 
 cleath,i83 ' ^^'^'"^^^^^'''^"cl 
 
 ^4'doTri8i^^^ 
 
 "^^thT'"^ °^, F-'^st Anglia, son of 
 ^thelwine. slam at Assrndun, 4or 
 
 WesTer'n1>"''^' Ealdorman oftL 
 Martvr Vr ''''"^'' ^y E'^dward the 
 of fh/ ' ?F' "''^' ' ' 'becomes first 
 
 wii e.^c'^ 7'" °." ^^^^'"^ of .Ethel- 
 *• '?^' 357, '!ote I, 364, ;,ote 2 ; ne^ro- 
 ^ates a treaty of subsidv with fhe 
 .Norwegian Wikings, .60 note 
 negotiates a truce l-it.'. Strand 
 or ^V V ^"'^ ^ treatv between 
 Olaf and .Ethelred, 365 This death" 
 
 ^of !ijr.l'^ ?\' '''''^^'^"' ^Jescendant 
 the ealdorman of that name, 49, ,^J^ 
 I ;^^character of his Chronicle%8;: 
 
 ^thelweard (friend of .^Ifric), ^2C 
 
 thrBi^i^;t6" ^""^''^ ^^ ^--^^^' 
 
 ^Ea'l''r r"'^"^'' Ealdorman of 
 tast Angha, 303, ,/^/,. j; upholds 
 the cause of the monks, 337'. su ! 
 ports the claim of .Ethelred' to the 
 
 of ?U ^'^^i'J''^' 341 ; becomes first 
 h' ,K ^'''^^^'■•"en on ^{Ifhere's 
 death, 357, „ote i ; his death, 357 I 
 and note i, ' J^/ I 
 
 ^i'jS'^'^^d' E)unstan's chief scholar 
 and assistant, 283 ; intends to go 
 abroad for study, but is prevented 
 byEadred,283.;/./.2; made Abbot 
 
 569 
 
 iearn the Benedictine rule at FTeurv 
 329 and note 2 ; made Bishop of 
 Wnchester, 330; his school Xre 
 thedia church and diocese, 1^0 • 
 
 a'tTofoLr^^^-^V'^^^-^-ntifu: 
 auon ot the \\ inchester Chronicle 
 
 326; adheres to Eadwig, 299. :^J; 
 
 ^thei,volcI,Ealdormanof East Anglia 
 oms the revolt against Eadu^ foo; 
 
 ^fffl rl.?""""' ^^'^^S^--'^ ^^"ghte 
 
 3^S^^.sr^'^^^^^^^-''' 
 
 E don I^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ter of Off '^9,'.™'''"''^^ a tiaugh. 
 J,Z? ?r^' ^9 ; his lieath, 39. "^ 
 
 Keiu 6fi' '"'; °^ Ecgberht,Tving of 
 
 in n esbcx, 70; his character, 70 
 
 71 ; defeats the Danes at Aclea ?i 
 
 76; defeated by the wfkings ^aJ 
 
 Charmouth, 72 ; his aliiance^with 
 
 he emperor, 76; conquers Angle 
 
 t^hes^% ' f PPoscd institution of 
 
 tithes, 77, „ote I ; his pilgrimage to 
 
 th:Taiy;6":<r"^'"^^^'^^ 
 
 Judith ;s^V^ ' '"' "'^'"'■'•''g^ ^'ith 
 
 Judith. 78, 79, note i ; revolt of 
 
 Wessex against, 80; decision of the 
 ^yltenagemot on the succession 80 
 
 hjs settlement of the succession 79; 
 
 kThJ' '"'""P '"''^ ^he Easer. 
 
 $'Zh"?i'S'^ 7^'>^ ^Vessex to 
 A'^thelbald 80; his death, 8r- his 
 
 tt^"^f;«f the crown set aside by 
 the Witan, 81, note 2. ^ 
 
 Athene, an East Saxon, charged with 
 
 support of Swein. 363,;,./, 5 
 
 of Ini"'"' ''' r'"°'"'"^"ce inihe laws 
 ot Ine, 21 and not" i 
 
 Aijsome.^probable origin of its found- 
 Alan,' Duke of Brittanv, expelled" by 
 „„i fTu^'^'Ssword, 241 ; takes ref- 
 uge at the court of /luhelstan, 241 • 
 ward of Eadward the Elder 241' 
 note I ; returns, 255. ^ ' 
 
 ^ w"'^ c' '^^"''^h dedicated to him in 
 Wood Street, its origin and history. 
 439 and note i. •'' 
 
 Pjc-land,"i78and w/^i. 
 Alchred succeeds .^ithelwold Moll as 
 King of Northumbria,39; driven out 
 
570 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 by i^thelred, takes refuge among ^ 
 the Picts, 39; claims descent from 
 Ida, 39, note 4. 
 
 Alclwyd captured by the Picts, 263. 
 
 Alcuin, his birth and education, 40, 
 41 ; goes to Rome with iliihelberht, 
 41 ; master of the school at York, 
 41 and note i ; fetches the pall for 
 Archbishop .lithelberht, 41 ; his 
 meeting with Charles the Great at 
 Parma, 41 ; his work among the 
 Franks, 41 ; his return to Northum- 
 bria, 42 ; intercedes with Charles 
 for the Northumbrians on the mur- 
 der of ^thelred, 42. 
 
 Aldate or Aldad, St., church at Oxford 
 dedicated to, 421. 
 
 Aldermanbiiry, its probable origin, 
 
 443- 
 Aid-gate, soke of, its rise in Eudgar's 
 
 day, 445 ; held by Queen Matilda, 
 
 446, note I. 
 Aldulf, bishop of Worcester, 327, note 
 
 I. 
 Alen9on, William at, 490. 
 Alexander II., Pope, sends legates to 
 
 England, 559. 
 Alfvvold, son of Oswulf, succeeds 
 
 yEthelred in Northumbria,39; slain, 
 
 39. 
 
 Allegiance, personal, growth of the 
 principle of, 200 ; its influence on 
 the English kingship, 201 ; oath of, 
 required by Eadward the Elder, 
 202, 203 ; by Eadmund, 203 ; by 
 iEthelred II., 385. 
 
 All- Hallows, church at Barking, 438, 
 note I, 446 ; at Oxford, 420. 
 
 Aire, baptism of Guthrum at, 120. 
 
 Ambleside, 265. 
 
 Andover, treaty made with Swein and 
 Olaf at, 365 ; treaty between /Ethel- 
 red and Olaf at, 365. 
 
 Anlaf, see Olaf. 
 
 Andreds weald, the, the Wi kings in, 
 163 ; its extent, 163, note 4. 
 
 Anglesea conquered by yEthehvulf 
 and Burhred, 77. 
 
 Anglia, East, descents of the Wikings 
 on, 74; Danes winter in, 87; con- 
 quered by Ivar (Inguar) and Hub- 
 ba, 87, note i. 91 ; divided by Guth- 
 rum, 118; Danish settlements in, 
 119; their character, 119; rises 
 against Eadward, 196 ; submits to 
 him, 197 ; the ( Danish ) army of, 
 swear allegiance to him, 202 ; it3 
 "folks," 227; retention of tribal 
 
 nomenclature in, 228, note i ; late 
 introduction of the shire - system 
 into, 228, note I ; ealdormanry of, 
 its creation, 249 and note i ; its ex- 
 tent, 250 and note i ; parted among 
 the four sons of /Ethel.stan, 297 ; re- 
 vival of monasticism in, 330; at- 
 tacked by Swein, 381 ; ruled by 
 Ulfcytel, 378, 381 ; its fyrd defeated 
 by Thurkill, 391 ; kings of, see Ead- 
 mund, Guthrum ; ealdormen of, see 
 yEthelstan, /Ethelweard, /Elhelwinc, 
 yEthelwold, Thurkill ; earls of, see 
 itlfgar, Gyrth, Harold. 
 " Anglo - Saxon," true meaning and 
 
 use of the phrase, 184, note 2. 
 " Angul-Saxons," King of the, usual 
 style of Eadward the Elder, 184 and 
 note I ; of /Ethelstan, 231. 
 Anjou, its rise, 489; counts of, see 
 
 Geoffrey. 
 Aquitaine, the Truce of God instituted 
 
 in, 471. 
 Archbishops of Canterbury, their posi- 
 tion, 68 ; supersede the West- Saxon 
 bishops as national advisers of the 
 crown, 305 ; their relation to the 
 crown altered by the new system 
 of administration, 412 ; see ^Ifheah, 
 i^ilfric, /Ethelm,Ceolnoth, Dunstan, 
 Eadsige, Odo, Plegmund, Robert, 
 Sigeric, Stigand, Theodore; arch- 
 bishops of York, their importance, 
 89 ; see ^Ifric, ^thelberht, Cyne- 
 sige, Ecgberht, Ealdred, Oswald, 
 Rodward, Wulfstan. 
 Archill revolts against Tostig, 542, 
 
 note. 
 Armagh, Wikings at, 64, 71. 
 Army, its reorganization under -Al- 
 fred, 130 ; under iEthelred and Ead- 
 ric, 38s. 386. 
 Arnulf, king of the East Franks, his 
 victory over the Wikings at the 
 
 Dyle, 163. 
 
 Arnulf, Count of Flanders, son of Bald- 
 win and /Elfthryth, 241 ; takes 
 MoTitreuil, 255 ; his attack on Pon- 
 thieu supported by ^thelstan, 255 ; 
 his war with William Longsword, 
 256; hs alliance with ^Ethelstan 
 and Lewis against the Normans, 256; 
 joins Hugh and William against 
 Lewis, 256 ; gives a refuge at Ghent 
 to Dunstan, 296 ; introduces the 
 weaving trade into Flanders, 493. 
 
 Ashdown, battle of, 98 ; Danish lead- 
 ers slain at, 93 and note i, 99. 
 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 wfth/'^°''^°^' ^^^"C charged 
 a d.urch at, 415, 537; Stigand pri^ 
 
 Asser authority of his work, 94. note 
 3; his visit to .iilfred. 15, ,„ 
 
 Athelney, ^Ifred encamp^ 'at 'xos ; 
 his jewel found at, il-,, .klfred 
 founds a monastery at 127 160 • 
 John the Old Saxoi/made aiLt of 
 '51, 170; a scholar of " Patran '' 
 race at, 169 and note 3 ; difficulty of 
 obtaining English monks for it 
 169,170 and z;^/^ ,. settlement of 
 strangers at, 170 and note 2 ; failure 
 ofthe scheme, 171. 
 
 anfp^!'. '.^'^r^^^^'^on of Eadmund 
 ana Eadric at, 400. 
 
 571 
 
 B 
 
 Baeda, ^ifred's translation of, ,56 
 157 and note 3, 160 and note i ^ ' 
 
 Badulf, last English bishop of Whit- 
 hern, 264, , tote i. ^ " 
 
 Baegsecg, King of Bernicia, joins Guth- 
 
 rum's attack on Wessex, 9, slain 
 at Ashdown, 93, .,,,,, ,9^. 93, slam 
 
 Eid::."2o;:''''' '^ ^''^^^^ ^^e 
 
 Baldwin Iron-arm, Count of Flanders 
 his marriage, 175 -^''ucrs, 
 
 Baldwin If., Count of Flanders, his 
 n^arriage with /Elfred's daughte 
 
 ^Lifhryth, 175.239. Snter, 
 
 Badwin(II[.)ofMons,49, 
 
 Baldwin (ly.) the Bearded, restored 
 to power by Robert the Devil. 45c 
 
 G00T497 "''' ^' '''''^''''^ 
 
 ter of K,ng Henry of France, 494, 
 
 ^Jh AV"'^?^ P'-oP^secl alliance 
 wth,497 498; Its policy, 499; his 
 alliance with Godwine, 4^ ; excom! 
 municated by Leo IX.^^i^lTZ 
 
 503 . renews his alliance with God- 
 ;^.'"e, 503 ; shelters Godwine and 
 his sons. 510; sends embassies to 
 Eadward in Godwine's behalf, 514. 
 Baldwin's land," name givai to 
 Flanders, 466, 499. ^ ^° 
 
 Baldwin, chaplain to Eadward the 
 Confessor. 526, 527; a monk of 
 St. Denis, 527; his skill in medi- 
 cine, 527; Prior of Deerhurst, 527 ; 
 
 ma^ie Abbot of St. Edmundsbury. 
 
 Ballads English, preserved bv Will 
 'amofMalmesbury,284,./22 
 
 gTa'":7J! "''^' ""^''^ ^— 
 
 Barking, church of All Hallows at. 
 
 438,«^/^i,446;Erkenwalddiesat 
 437 ; nuns ot, their struggle with the 
 Londoners for his remains, 437 ^ 
 
 B W' !"'"r °^' '^^ connection with 
 Biistol, 426, ;/^/^ 2. 
 
 Basileus. style of ^thelstan, 234. 
 
 Basing, the Danes checked it. 99. 
 
 Bath, Eadgar crowned at, 336 ; sub- 
 
 mission of Western Wessex to 
 
 Swein at, 394. '" 
 
 Battle Abbey .ite of Harold's stand- 
 
 ard marked by its high altar, 55, 
 Bayeux, capital ofthe Bessin. 2.7 at 
 tacked by the Bretons. 240 ; gaU,e. . 
 ingof the rebel Norman bi.tns at 
 487 ; Odo. Bishop of, see Odo. ' 
 Beaduheard. the king's reeve at Dor- 
 
 Chester, slain by the Wikings, 49. 
 Bec-Herlouin, its situation. 2?; • Lan 
 
 485; 486! ''' ' '^'"^ ^^ ''' -'-"^' 
 
 fo?t7fiiH 1. r""; '95. 203 ; taken and 
 
 bv tt ? ''''''".^^' '95 ; attacked 
 by^the Danes. 196; by Thurkill, 
 
 25o!;L.^"^■^"S''^" ^^'d-n.anry. 
 
 '^ t!;:1(^i^;;S - ^'-i^ ^e.ated 
 
 ^S^;"«fUlf his presence in Eng- 
 
 E eiis^is?'^" ^"'■' "^'^^ Middli 
 A^nglish. 481 ; extent of his earldom 
 
 ?e 't^ratK'co ''^'^'"'^ demands T; 
 restoration, 504 ; consents to act as 
 
 me^d.ator for Swein. 504; murdered! 
 Beowulf, song of, 50. 
 
 nf'fVhi'^'^"'''"'94; mean- 
 ing of the name, 94 and vote i • 
 character of the country, 94 /aids 
 
 oflastingsnpon. ,64;earli;s[de! 
 pendency of Wessex, 224 ; deUched 
 
 from Wessex and joi^^edwifh Here 
 ford. etc.. under Swein, 481 
 
 4 ' 
 
 I. ,« : 
 
572 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 
 Bernicia ravaged by Halfdene, loi ; 
 remains an English state, 176; its 
 alliance with i^ilfred, 177; rising of 
 its people against ytthelstan, 243 ; 
 Oswulf high reeve of, 281 ; united 
 with Deira under Oswulf, 281 ; un- 
 der Waltheof, 340 ; under Uhtred, 
 382; under Siward, 477; its inde- 
 pendence of the Danelaw, 451 ; its 
 northern part becomes bcotiish, 
 452 ; s^£ Northumbria. 
 
 Bessin, the, granted to Hrolf, 237; 
 wrested by the Normans from the 
 Bretons, 240 ; stronghold of heathen- 
 dom in Normandy, 372 ; Richard 
 the Fearless reared there, 372 ; its 
 revolt against William, 486. 
 
 Beverley, /Ethelstan's grants to, 213 
 and uoftf 3. 
 
 Bible, /Elfric's translation of, 326. 
 
 Billingsgate, 445. 
 
 Biorn, son of Harald Fairhair, 113; 
 called •' the merchant," 1 13, 430, /w/e 
 3 ; King of Westfold, 430, uoU 3 ; 
 slain by his brother Eric, 252. 
 
 Bishops, English, their national char- 
 acter, 68; their relation to the 
 crown and the ealdormen, 293, 
 333 ; growth of their political im- 
 portance, 333 ; appointed by the 
 crown, 333, 505 ; usually promoted 
 from the Royal Chapel, 413. 
 
 Bishopsgate, its site, 441. 
 
 Bishops-hill (York), churches of St. 
 Mary in, 434; remains of Roman 
 work in, 434. 
 
 " Bishop's shire," old name for a dio- 
 cese, 222. 
 
 Boethius, /Elfred's translation of, 156, 
 157, 161. 
 
 Bokings, their "ham" in the upper 
 valley of the Ouse (Buckingham), 
 194. 
 
 Bolleit, /Ethelstan defeats the Corn- 
 wealas at, 212. 
 
 "Boors," 316. 
 
 Bordeaux conquered by the Wikings, 
 
 74- 
 
 Boston, its rise and growth, 432. 
 
 Botulf, St., abbey of, the town of Bos- 
 ton grows up round it, 432 ; church 
 in London dedicated to him, 446. 
 
 Boulogne, Charles the Great at, 61 ; 
 muster of a Wiking fleet at, 163 ; 
 counts of, sef Eustace. 
 
 Brentford, Danes defeated at, 399. 
 
 Bretons, the, attack Normandy, 240 ; 
 repulsed, 241. 
 
 Brice's day, St., massacre of the Danes 
 on, 380. 
 
 Bridgenorth, Danes encamp at, 166; 
 fortified by /Ethelflaed, 190. 
 
 Bridges, their construction imposed as 
 a penance, 323. 
 
 Brionne, home of Herlouin, 485 ; 
 counts of, their descent from Gun- 
 nor, 374. 
 
 Bristol, its rise, 426; its mint, 426; its 
 condition under Eadward the Con- 
 fessor, 426 and jio/e 2 ; its feorm, 
 426, f/o^e 2 y its slave-trade with Ire- 
 land, 427 ; Harold and Leofwinc 
 sail to Dublin from, 510. 
 
 Britain, character of its population in 
 Ecgberht's day, 2 ; mixture of races 
 in, 3 ; character of the country, 4 ; 
 progress of cultivation in, 4, 5 ; in- 
 dustrial life, 6, 7 ; first appearance 
 of the Wikings in, 48, 49 ; impor- 
 tance of its conquest to the Wikings, 
 82 ; first appearance of the I3anes 
 in, 83, 86 ; concentration of the Wik- 
 ing forces on, 103. 
 
 Britons, see Cumbria, Strathclyde, 
 Welsh. 
 
 Brittany, claim of the Norman dukes 
 to supremacy over, 240 ; influence 
 of yEthelstan over, 241 ; he makes 
 its peace with Normandy, 255 ; sub- 
 dued by Robert the Devil, 455 ; 
 dukes of, see Alan. 
 
 Bruges, its trade, 499 ; Harthacnut's 
 invasion planned at, 499; Swein, 
 son of Godwine, takes refuge at, 
 483 ; Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester, 
 at, 505 ; Godwine at, 513. 
 
 Brunanburh, battle of, 243 ; authorities 
 for, 243 and tiote 3 ; its importance, 
 
 245- 
 Brytenwealda, style of Ethelstan, 231 
 
 and fiote 5. 
 
 Bryhtferth, Ealdorman, 303, note i. 
 
 Buckingham, southernmost of the Dan- 
 ish settlements in Mid-Britain, 194; 
 held by Jarl Thurcytel, 195 ; taken 
 and fortified by Eadward the Elder, 
 
 195- 
 Buckinghamshire, its origin, 228 ; 
 
 overr'un by Thurkill, 391 ; joined 
 
 with Essex, etc., under Leofwine, 
 
 544- 
 
 Bucklersbury, site of the port of Lon- 
 don, 438. 
 
 Budget, i^lfred's, 173, 174. 
 
 Bull How, 265. 
 
 Burhred, King of Mercia, conquers 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 tl"fc' '^ll "^^,7'" ^^'f'-ed's sis- 
 ter 96 ; death at Rome, loi. 
 
 Bunslaf, kmg of the Wenrk -, r^ . 
 
 liur-thegn, 523. ^"^8,352, w/,. i. 
 
 Butler, see Cup-thegn. 
 Butsecarls of Hastings, 5 r . rw*, , • of 
 Sandwich, 428 andS;.//i'.'^' °^ 
 ■nuttermere, 265 
 J^uttington, battle of, 165. 
 
 sJttirmi'rin""^'""''^^'^^"'^^ 
 Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex 10-^ 
 
 of%\fi ""^'v?" "'''^^^^ d^^i'^e; I 
 
 of ^Ifgar, Ealdorman of Essex and 
 succeeds his father-in-law. 250 'st"'^ ' 
 
 ports the cause of the minks %^7. 
 slam at Maldon, ^C4. ' ^^^ ' 
 
 ByrUjuot,, brother of Eadric. 390, 
 C 
 
 573 
 
 Caen council at, enacts the observance 
 
 of the lruceofGod,47i. 
 Caithness, Northmen in, 63, 10- 207 ■ 
 conquered by the Orkney Ta^l^ r/s' 
 CaIne,Witenagemot at, 33^/'"'' 5^^' 
 CambrKige, the Danes ar^ 102 : thev 
 submit to Eadward the Elder, 197^ 
 r f '.J^^^"^^» at, 442, uo/e 3. ' ^^' 
 Cambridgeshire represents South 
 
 g:;^X-'7^'^^7; forms part of the 
 ^ast Anglian ealdormany, 21:0 uo/^r 
 CanterDury, its wealth and^miStl ce' 
 74 ; raid of the Wikings on 7= 
 s"cura'rcrt'"'75'"^i"tat,'2?^: 
 secular clerks at, 331 ; sacked bJ 
 
 neah translated to, 41 c- chri^f ' 
 church at. Cnut's grant! t^o! 428 aid 
 ;-/^ 2 ; archbishops of. their p"i-' , 
 bishmfj ""l^^'-^^^'^^/'^e West-Skxon ' 
 bishops as national advisers of the 
 crown, 305 ; their relation to the 
 crown altered by the new system of 
 administration, 41^- see /Vin LVi 
 ^inic,^thelm.t:;j|n^,^;^^ ; 
 tads.ge Odo, Plegmund, Robert 
 Sigeric Stigand. Theodore. ' 
 
 Larham, battle of, 452 
 
 " r-l'rf "'1;°^ '^;^"'-'^.'and, 478. »o,e. 
 «-ari, Scandinavian form of "ceorl," 
 
 Carlisle destroyed by the Danes, 102 : 
 Its unbroken life. 264. ' 
 
 Carloman, King of the West Franks 
 
 ^f^^^^^utlnum at Saucourt, ,41 ! 
 nis death, 141. * ^ * 
 
 Cattle, the general medium of ex- 
 change m early ages, 218. 
 
 I ^TshVT'^^''''^''^ settlement of Dan- 
 I ish traders. 1 13 and „o/^ 2. 
 
 Ceadwalla, King of Wessex. his nil 
 
 cSr;'r'M'r'"^'^^^-^i^''6.^ 
 
 v-eicn>tli,j^^ Chelsea. 
 Cenwalch, King of Wessex, places the 
 royal seat at Winchester 22^ 
 
 h^Jv' ^'■^^'^^.'■^^P o( Cant'erbury, 
 his alliance with Ecgberht. 70. ^' 
 
 he Danf "'' '"^^ ^:'"S ''' -^^'••cia by 
 the Danes. loi, 1 16 and w/c i ^ 
 
 ^^Z\;,'l^, ^"g'i-^^ 55 ; displaced by 
 
 JrlLr^^'yV'^'^'^ gradually de^ 
 graded into the vellein. -141: ^ 
 
 Chancellor, office of, its oHgin, 476 
 
 Chancery, see Chapel. 
 
 Chapel, the royal, its institution, 4,3 . 
 Its origin and growth, 523, 524 • lati; 
 developments from. 525 ; its' com 
 position in Cnut's diy. L t oiZv 
 
 cT/rk';!:?^''''''"'^ 526; Norman 
 
 Chapmanslacle, 1 13, uote 2. 
 Chapmen, 322; Jaw of ^:ifre(I con- 
 , ^erning, 323 ; of I„e, 323, ZteT- 
 fiist mention of, 323. ;J,f 
 
 !'■ k'i ''T. ^^^''^' '^'« alliance with 
 ^^theIwulf,78;^:,f,edathiscoTi 
 I geii 10''' '^' ^onh^neu from An-' 
 
 ''^Hai.^.J.^^^^^^^-^^H-ingat 
 
 Charles the Great, his meeting with 
 Alcuin, 41 ; his wrath against the 
 Northumbrians allayed by Alcuin's 
 
 aSns?tr"v^\^ ''^ precautions 
 against the Northmen. 61. 
 
 Charles the Simple disputes the West- 
 
 ^rank.sh throne with Odo 2^/. 
 
 grants to the Northmen the terH.' 
 
 and the Epte.234; his alliance with 
 ■Jliolf against the dukes of Paris 
 
 Thl VTf '''''^ ^ daughter of Eadward 
 the Elder, 239 ; his crown claimed 
 against him by Rudolf of Burgundy 
 239 ; renews his alliance with the 
 Normans, 239 ; his death, 240. 
 
 Charmouth, battle of, ^2. 
 
 Cheap, East, its origin and growth. 
 
 440 and «^/. , ; ward of, the%ldes; 
 part of London, 438 ; its extent, 
 
574 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cheddar, Eadmund's hunting adven- 
 ture in, 274. 
 Chelsea (Celchyth), synod of, 321. 
 Cherbury fortified by /Elhelflaed, 194- 
 Chertsey, monks of, 437. 
 .Cheshire, salt-mines m, 7, note; its 
 
 origin as a shire, 226. 
 Chester occupied by Hastmg, 166; 
 besieged bv /Kihelred, 166; its im- 
 portance, 185 ; *' renewed " by /Eth- 
 elred and yKthelflxd, 186 and note 
 2, 423 ; church of St. Werburgh at, 
 186; its growth, \%6, note 3; its 
 trade, 423 ; provision for its secur- 
 ity, 424 ; its churches, 424 ; traces 
 of Danish settlement in, 425 ; its 
 lawmen, 425 ; its market, 425 ; 
 church of St. John without ihe 
 walls, 425 ; legend of Eadgar's tri- 
 umph at, 425, 310, uote 4 ; character 
 of its surrounding country, 425 ; sub- 
 mits to William, 555. 
 Chester-le-Street, Dunstan visits St. 
 
 Cuthbert's shrine at, 281. 
 Chesterford, battle of, 279. 
 Chichester, mint at, 219. ^ 
 
 Chippenham, Danes at, 104; Asser s 
 
 account of its situation, 224, note i. 
 Chronicle, the English, its origin, 157- 
 159 and notes ; its growth under Al- 
 fred, 159 and note 3, 160 ; its account 
 of the reign of Pladward the Elder, 
 181, note ; of the reign of /Ethelstan, 
 209, notew chronological difficulties 
 in, 183, note 3 ; poems in, 243, note 
 3 ; its character during the reigns 
 of Eadward and /Ethelstan, 284 ; its 
 praise of Eadgar, 305, note, 306; 
 Chronicle of Peterborough, 327, note 
 
 1 ; Abingdon, 355, note I ; Winches- 
 ter, 158, 159, 183, notez, 209 and note 
 
 2 ; Worcester, 183, note 3, 326, 327. 
 Chrism-loosing, \20, note i. ^ 
 Christ church, Canterbury, Cnut s 
 
 grants to, 428 and note 2. 
 Christianity, range of its influence, 8, 
 9 ; its strife with heathenism, 9, ii ; 
 it creates a new social class, 12, 13 ; 
 modifies township into parish, 13- 
 15 ; links England with Europe, 15- 
 19; its effect on early law, 19-21 ; 
 on jurisprudence, 21-23; on the 
 feud, 23-27 ; on heathen literature, 
 324 ; on education, 325 ; on slavery, 
 
 320. 
 Christina, daughter of the aetheling 
 
 Eadward, 536. 
 Church, the English, its industrial 
 
 work in Dorset, 6; its character 
 after the Danish wars, 12; its con- 
 dition in Northumbria, 40 ; its rela- 
 tions with the Mercian kings and 
 with Ecgberht, 68; its alliance with 
 the Monarchy, 69, 304 ; its efforts in 
 behalf of slaves, 320 ; Cnut's deal- 
 ings with, 415 ; its reform under the 
 Confessor, 495, 496. 
 
 Churches, three classes of, 13 ; become 
 the centres of village life, 14 ; their 
 date indicated by their dedications, 
 420, 421 and note i, 423, jtote, 437, 
 note 3, 447. 
 
 Churchyard, the tunnioot held in the, 
 
 14. 
 
 Clair-on-Epte, treatv of, 234. 
 
 Cledauc, King of the North Welsh, 
 becomes subject to Eadward the 
 Elder, 200, note i. 
 
 Clergy, the, new social class, 12 ; its 
 rights, 12; "regular" and "secu- 
 lar," 12, 331 ; decline of discipline 
 in the Danish wars, 332. 
 
 Cleveland, its settlement by the Danes, 
 
 III. 
 
 Clifford's Tower, at York, marks the 
 
 site of the Danish fortress, 432. 
 Cluny, monastic reform at, its influence 
 
 on England, 329. 
 Cnichten-gild at Aldgate, 446 ; its pos- 
 sible connection with the older frith- 
 gild and the later merchant - gild, 
 443 ; at Nottingham, 422. 
 Cnut, son of Swein, chosen king by 
 the Danes at Gainsborough, 396; 
 .-Ethelred marches against, 396; 
 mutilates English hostages, 402 ; 
 returns to Denmark, 396 ; ravages 
 the coast of Wessex, 397 ; joined 
 by Eadric, 398 ; receives the sub- 
 mission of Wessex and Northum- 
 bria, 398; lays siege to London, 
 399 ; meets Eadmund on the bor- 
 ders of Wiltshire, 399; renews the 
 siege of London, 400 ; forsaken by 
 Eadric, 400; causes Uhtred to be 
 slain, 400 ; gives his earldom to Eric, 
 400, 403 ; defeats Eadmund at As- 
 sandun, 400 ; makes a treaty with 
 Eadmund at Olney, 401 ; his age, 
 402 ; his temper, 402 ; his character 
 and that of his rule, 407-409 ; ^'s 
 dealings with the ealdormen, 403, 
 
 contrasted with the earlier Danish 
 conquerors, 406; makes England 
 his centre, 407 ; sets aside Danes 
 for Englishmen, 407 ; emplovs Eng- 
 lish soldiers and English pnests in 
 the north, 407 ; banishes Thurkill 
 and Erie, 407 ; sets Hakon as ruler 
 in Norway, 407; sets Ulfas ruler in 
 Denmark, 407, 408; elected and 
 crowned at London, 408 ; renews 
 Eadgar's laws, 408 ; dismisses his 
 Danish fleet and host, 408 ; his hus- 
 carls, 408, 414; visits Denmark, 
 408 ; date of his accession to its 
 throne, 408, fwte ; his laws, 409 ; 
 organization of England under him, 
 409 ; makes Eadwulf Earl of North- 
 umbria, 409 ; makes Wessex an earl- 
 dom under Godwine, 410 ; makes 
 Godwine his vice-gerent, 410 ; 
 
 575 
 
 411; murders a brother of Ead- 
 mund, and drives his children into 
 Hungary, 403 ; children of his first 
 marriage, 404 ; marries Emma, 404 ; 
 
 changes the caldormanries into 
 earldoms, 411 ; continues /Ethel- 
 red's administrative policy, 411,412; 
 his dealings with the Church, 415 • 
 his character in English tradition' 
 416; in the Sagas, 416; tradition 
 of his visit to Ely, 417 ; peace of his 
 reign, 417 ; his letter to his English 
 people, 418; his prohibition of the 
 slave - trade, 427 ; Norway revolts 
 against him, 448 ; leaves Harthacnut 
 ruler in Denmark, 448; goes to 
 Rome, 449 ; secures the safety of 
 the Alpine passes, 449 ; his meeting 
 with the Emperor Conrad, 449 ; re- 
 gains the land won from Denmark 
 by Otto ir.,449; betroths his daugh- 
 ter to Conrad's son, 449; drives 
 Olafout of Norway, 450 ; suppresses 
 a Welsh rising, 450 ; xMalcolm of 
 Scotland submits to him, 452 ; grants 
 Lothian to Malcolm, 453 ; his death, 
 458 ; break-up of his empire, 458 ; 
 extinction of his house, 459 ; i)er- 
 manence and stability of his admin- 
 istrative system, 475, note; his chap- 
 lains, 525. 
 
 Codes, early English, 20 and note i. 
 
 Coin, its early use in Kent, 218 ; grow- 
 ing use of, 218, 219, 316, tiote i. 
 
 Coinage the test of kingship, 138; 
 Eadgar's coinage, 335, 7tote 3. 
 
 Coins, Anglo-Saxon, found at Delgany 
 in Wickiow, 62, note 2 ; of Alfred, 
 138, note I ; of Eadgar, struck at 
 Dublin, 310; of /Ethelred IL and 
 Cnut, struck at Bristol, 426, ttote i. 
 
 Colchester taken by the English, 196; 
 
 rebuilt by Eadward the Elder, 197 • 
 Witenagemot at, 213, uote i, 2i<;! 
 note 2. -' 
 
 Coldingham burned bv the Danes, lor 
 Commendation, growth of, 201. 
 Conquest, the Danish, its significance, 
 50, 123; its causes, 344 and ttote] 
 authorities and materials for its his- 
 ^f ""X' 355. w^^^ I ; difference between 
 the earlier and the later, 404-406 ; 
 Its effect on English institutions! 
 410. ' 
 
 Conquest, the Norman, 554-556. 
 
 Constable, see Horse-thegn. 
 
 Constantine, King of Scots, his strug- 
 gle with Thorstein and Sigurd, 102 ; 
 cedes Caithness to them, 102 ; joins 
 the Northern league against Ead- 
 ward, 207; submits to Eadward 
 208 and jiote i ; to Ethelstan, 211, 
 242 and tiote ^', his alliance with 
 Olaf and the Ostmen, 242, 243 ; de- 
 feated at Brunanburh, 244; retires 
 to a monastery, 262. 
 
 Constantinople, English refugees at. 
 553- 
 
 Conrad, Emperor, his meeting with 
 Cnut at Rome, 449; its results, 
 449; betroths his son to Cnut's 
 daughter, 449. 
 
 Copsige, Tostig's deputy in Northum- 
 bria, 542, note: seeks the IJernician 
 earldom, 542, note; expels Oswulf, 
 542, note ; slain, 542. note. 
 
 Coiie, Eadward the Martvr slain at 
 340. 
 
 Cork founded bv the Wikings, 71. 
 
 Cornhill, soke of the bishops of Lon- 
 don, 444; church of St. Peter on. 
 444. 
 
 Cornwall, revolt of, against Ecgberht, 
 64; its final conquest, 211 ; early 
 divisions of, 221 ; harried by Wik- 
 ings, 366 ; bishop of, see Leofric. 
 
 Coronation, its meaning and impor- 
 tance, 295. 
 
 Cotentin, the, conquered by William 
 Longsword, 241 ; TEthelred IL re- 
 pulsed in a descent on, 368 ; strong- 
 hold of heathendom in Normandy, 
 372 ; revolts against William the 
 Conqueror, 487. 
 
 Council, royal, first traces of its judi- 
 cial authority, 133 ; its origin in the 
 royal chapel, 413. 
 Councils, Church, their canons against 
 "heathendom" and witchcraft, 10, 
 I r ; become merged in the Wite- 
 
 
 f : 
 
 Ml, 
 
" .J ! 
 
 576 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 nagemot, 333; see Caen, Chelsea, 
 Rheims. 
 Court, the king's, its character, 30 ; its 
 means of subsistence, 30 ; its prog- 
 resses, 31; its great officers, 173, 
 
 523. 
 Cranborne, manor of, 318, 319- 
 Crediton, bishops of, see /Ethelgar, 
 
 Leofric. 
 Crowland sacked by Danes. QI. 
 Crown, the, earliest known instance of 
 
 an attempt to bequeath, 81, note 2 ; 
 
 main basis of its power, 414 ; sources 
 
 of its revenue, 386, 387 and note 3 ; 
 
 see King, Monarchy. 
 Cuckamsiy (Cwichelmslowe), Danes 
 
 at, 384. 
 Cuerdale, coins of itlfred found at, 
 
 138, note I. • Q 
 
 Cumberland, its origin as a shire, 228, 
 note I, 266, note 2; /Ethel red 11. 1 
 makes a descent on, 367 ; danger to 
 England and Scotland from, 368 and ^ 
 
 note I. n 
 
 Cumbria ravaged by Halfdene, 102 j 
 and note 2 ; its extent in the time 
 of Eadmund, 263 ; its southern 
 part called Westmoringa-land, 263 ; | 
 character of country and people, \ 
 264; the name replaces that of 
 Stralh-Clvde, 266 ; harried by Ead- j 
 mund, 266 ; granted to Malcolm, | 
 King of Scots, 266 ; results of the 1 
 grant, 266, 451 ; ^'"S^ of, their op- 1 
 position to the West Saxons, 266 ; \ 
 see Oswine, Strath-Clyde. j 
 
 Cumbrians, their name transferred to I 
 the Britons of Strath-Clyde, 176; 
 join the Northern league against 
 ALthelstan, 243. 
 Cuthbert, St., wanderings of his relics 
 during the Danish invasions, 89, 
 
 102. 
 Cup-thcgn, or butler, his office, 523 ; 
 
 held bv /Alfred's grandfather, 173. 
 Cwichelmslowe, see Cuckamsiy. 
 Cvneheard's Song Book, 326. 
 Cvnesige, chaplain to Eadward the 
 
 Confessor, 526 ; Archbishop of 
 
 York, 526: consecrates Harolds 
 
 church at Waltham, 558. 
 
 D 
 
 " Dale " in place - names, mark of 
 
 northern settlement. III. 
 Dalriada, the Scots of, subject to the 
 
 Picts, 177 ; kings of, see Kenneth. 
 Danegeld, the king's demesne exempt 
 
 from, 387, note 3 ; the first national 
 land-tax, 389 and note i ; its nomi- 
 nal origin, 413 ; continued as a reg- 
 ular land-tax, 414 ; its amount m 
 C nut's first year, 447 ; resistance to 
 it at Worcester under Harlhacnut, 
 467 ; see Land-tax. 
 Danelaw, the, 109-I19 ; its relation to 
 the North, 120 ; its results on Eng- 
 lish history, 123; its weakness, 
 124 ; rises against itlfred, 164 ; con- 
 quered by Eadward and ^thelflasd, 
 194-199 ; effect of its conquest on 
 the character of the English king- 
 ship, 202 ; its bond of allegiance to 
 Eadward, 203 ; its alliance with the 
 Ostmen, 205 ; its peaceful submis- 
 sion to /Ethelstan, 212; historical 
 continuity of the districts in, 226 ; 
 shires in, 227 ; emigration from, 
 into Normandv, 237 ; rises against 
 ^.thelstan, 243 ; against Eadmund, 
 258 ; reduced to submission, 262 ; 
 its struggles with Eadred, 277-281 ; 
 its isolation under Eadgar, 31 1 ; 
 fusion of races in, 312, 313 and 
 notes: absence of religious houses 
 in, 328 ; joins Swein, 393. 
 Danes, their earlv settlements on the 
 isles of the Baltic, 51 ; effect ot their 
 attacks in arresting the consolida- 
 tion of the English peoples under 
 Ecgberht, 65 ; different uses of the 
 name, 6^, note i, 65, note ; their first 
 appearance in Ireland, 73, note i, 
 86 ; in Britain, 83, 346 ; their set- 
 tlements in Sweden, Zeeland, and 
 I northern Jutland, 83 and note Z\ 
 character of their warfare, 84, 85 ; 
 earliest authority for their settle- 
 ments. 83, note 3 ; iheir struggle 
 with the Norwegian settlers in Ire- 
 land, 73, note I, 86; winter in East 
 Anglia, 87 ; conquer Northumbria, 
 88 r destroy its abbeys, 88; set up 
 Ecgberht as under-king of Deira, 90 
 and note I ; winter at Nottingham, 
 90 ; attacked by ^thelred and 
 Burhred, 90 ; winter at York, 91 ; 
 at Thetford,9i ; conquer East An- 
 glia, 91 ; put St. Eadmund to death, 
 92 ; Mercia pays tribute to them, 
 9" • causes of their success, 92 ; at- 
 tack Wessex, 93, 97 ; defeated at 
 Ashdown, 99 ; march upon Hamp- 
 shire, 99 ; their victory at Merton, 
 99 ; bought off by /Elfred, withdraw 
 from Wessex, ido and note 2 ; win- 
 
 ter at London, 100, note 2 ; return 
 to Northumbria, loi ; conquer Mer- 
 cia, loi ; winter at Repton, loi • 
 division of their host, loi ; set up 
 Ceolwulf as King of Mercia, loi and 
 note 2, 116 and iiote i ; seize Exeter 
 103 ; driven from it by /Elfred, 104 ' 
 overrun the Gwent, 104; their set- 
 tleruents 111 Yorkshire, in ; their 
 trading-port at Caupmanna-thorpe 
 113 and note 2; their trade, in' 
 114; their organization, 114, ik' 
 117; divide Mercia, 116; marks of 
 their settlement in its local names 
 
 /. iv/!l 1,"''^'^ ^' *^^''" distribution 
 n Mid-Britam, 115, ,16; their set- 
 tlements m Lincolnshire, 117- in 
 Leicestershire, 118; in East Anglia, 
 118; divide East Anglia, 1 18; effect 
 of their settlement on England, 12^ • 
 desertion of Englishmen to 140' 
 ^^ote 3 ; attack Frankiand. 141 ; be- 
 
 l^^r J"""^^^^^^' '^2' repulsed by 
 ^Ifred, 142 ; plunder London and 
 
 tw" i'i/:!^''^"^''44; frith be- 
 tween ^Ifred and Guthrum, 146 • 
 renewal of war with, i6r, 164, 165 ;' 
 their alliance with the Welsh. i6c • 
 defeated by Eadward and ^thelred 
 at Buttington, 165 ; driven back to 
 l!.ssex, 165 ; defeat an attack of the 
 Londoners 166; their retreat cut 
 off by yElfrecl, 166; break-up of 
 their host, 167; their raid over 
 Mercia repulsed by Eadward at 
 
 ?i ^"«^fe '^7' ^^^^^^ Towcester, 
 195; Bedford, 196; defeated at 
 rempsford, Colchester, and Mal- 
 clon, 196 ; fusion with the English 
 312, 313 ; union under Gorn? the 
 Old, 346; attack Courland, ^7 • 
 mercenaries take service with 
 j^thelred IL, 367 ; massacred by 
 his order, 380 ; win Exeter, 380 : 
 
 hI x?^?' ^"g''a'38i ; and plun^ 
 der Thetford, 381 ; their victory 
 over Ulfcytel and the East Angles, 
 381 ; held m check by yEthelred 
 384; winter in Wight, 384; march 
 vv- f "^^^"isly, 384 ; return to 
 vvight, 384, 390; a truce bought 
 with them, 385; defeat the Elst 
 Anglian fyrd under Ulfcytel, ^591 • 
 again bought off, 392 ; sack Camer-' 
 oury and seize Archbishop yElf- 
 heah, 392 ; their withdrawal, 200 • 
 choose Cnut for king at Gainsbor- 
 ough, 396; defeated at Brentford, 
 
 37 
 
 577 
 
 398; driven into Sheppey bv Ead- 
 mund 400; set aside for English- 
 men by Cnut, 407 ; impulse |iven 
 by them to trade, 113 1,4,^2^. 
 heir trade m slaves, 427; theirVt- 
 tlement at Chester, 425 ; Norwich, 
 431 ; i ork, 114, 434 and note; Lon- 
 don, 445 ; in Frankiand. 234, 2^1; 
 Dane-work, the, in Sleswick. £. ^' 
 David s, St., Cnut sends army to, 4C0 
 Deerhurst, meeting of PJadinund and 
 
 <-nut near, 401. 
 Defnsastas, English settlers in Devon, 
 
 Deira, Danes settle in, no; parted 
 among them, 1 10, 264 ; trade of the 
 Danish settlers in, 1 14 ; its organi- 
 zation under the Danes, 115 ; fSrms 
 
 part ofthe Danelaw, 176; traces of 
 Its ancient divisions in the "shires" 
 of modern Yorkshire, 221 • its alii 
 ance with the Ostmen, 23*2; Enir- 
 hsh fugitives from, 264 ; united with 
 Bern.cia under Oswulf, 281 ; under 
 Waltheof,34o; mider Uhtred, 182 • 
 under Siward, 477 ; kings of, thei^ 
 extinction, 38, no/e 1 ; see North- 
 umbria, Yorkshire. 
 
 Demesnes, royal, their share in taxa- 
 t»oii, 387, note 3. 
 
 Dene, residence of ^Elfred, IC2 
 
 Denewulf, Bishop of Winchest'er, 12c. 
 
 Denmark, kingdom of, its growth un- 
 ^.^;,^,f -'d «'-tand. .^l, physical 
 character of the country, ^46 • kine- 
 
 dom of Gorm. 347; earVst ac- 
 counts of, 347, uote; its capital at 
 i^ethra, 347 ; introduction of Chris- 
 tianity, 350 ; becomes an under- 
 kingdom of England, 407 ; ruled by 
 Ult, 407, 408 ; by Harthacnut, 448 • 
 Its bishoprics filled by Englishmen 
 416 ; Its frontier again extended to 
 the Elder, 449 ; revolts against Cnut. 
 450; claimed by Swein Estrithson, 
 4t>9; Its throne disputed between 
 Svvem and Magnus of Norway, 47c • 
 kjngs of, see Cnut, Gorm, Harald,' 
 Harthacnut, Swein. 
 Derby (Deoraby), Danish name of 
 Northweorthig, 116, 198; one of 
 
 l^^Fl^ ^^'''''o'^^^' '98; taken by 
 .(Ethelflacd, 198. 
 
 Derbyshire, 227. 
 
 Der\vent, river, limit of Strath-Clyde 
 
 in Eadmund's day, 266. 
 Dermot King of Dublin, shelters 
 
 Harold and Lcofwine, 510. 
 
 m 
 
 • .i 
 
 ? -' I 
 
 ^i 
 
578 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Devon or Dyvnaint, the country of 
 the Defnsxtas, 224 ; formed into 
 shire, 224, ^^oU I ; victory of its fyrd 
 over the Wikings, 72; attacked by 
 Hubba, 104, 106; Eadmund Iron- 
 side raises troops in, 399 ; bishops 
 of, see Leofric ; ealdormen of, 224, 
 
 Dish-thegn or steward, his functions, 
 
 Domfront surrenders to William, 490- 
 Dorchester, landing of Wikings at, 49- 
 Dorchester, see of, 226 ; relations of 
 the diocese to the Mercian kingdom 
 and ealdormanry, 250, note I ; divid- 
 ed between the ealdormannes ot 
 East Anglia and Essex, 250, note I ; 
 bishops of, J^^Ulf.Wulfwig. . 
 
 Dore, submission of the Northumbn- 
 ans to Ecgberht at, 90, note A^20'6 ; 
 of the northern league to Ladwarcl 
 
 at, 208. _^ 
 
 Dorsstan give their name to Dorset, 
 
 Dor'set, progress of cultivation and in- 
 dustry in, 5, 6; hundreds in, 5 ; set- 
 tlement of the English m, 6 ; its in- 
 dustrial life, 6, 7 ; appears as shire, 
 224, note I ; victory of ^ts fvrd over 
 the Wikings, 72 ; invaded by Wik- 
 ings from Ireland, 366; its feorm, 
 ^87, note 3 ; seaports in, 428 ; ea - 
 dormen of, 224, note I ; see A-thel- 
 
 helm. 
 Dover, its early importance as a sea- 
 port, 74 and note 2, 428 ; the .-Ethel- 
 ing itlfred lands at, 464; Eustace 
 of Boulogne at, 508; secured by 
 
 William, 5SI. . ^ , .<-, 
 
 Drof-o of Mantes marries Godgitu, 
 daughter of itthelred and Emma, 
 
 474. 
 ♦' Dubh-GaiU," their first appearance in 
 Ireland, 73, note i. 86 ; their struggle 
 with the " Finn-GaiU," 86. 
 Dublin taken by the Wikings 71 and 
 note 2 ; occupied by Olaf the tair, 
 86 ; becomes the centre of the Ust- 
 men, 86 ; Olaf Sihtric's son and 
 Guthferth take refuge at, 233; coins 
 of Eadgar minted at, 310; Harold 
 and Leofwine take refuge at, 510; 
 Harold gathers ships at, 513 ; kings 
 of, see Dermot, Olaf, Sihtnc. 
 Duduc, chaplain to Cnut, 525 ; his 
 foreign birth, 501, 525 ; Bishop of 
 Wells, 526; at the Council of 
 Rheims, 501. 
 
 Dues, customary, 316, 317. 
 Dumfriesshire, northern limit ol the 
 Norwegian settlements in Cumbria, 
 
 ''6'i 
 
 Duncan, King of Scots, defeated in a 
 raid upon Durham, 538 ; slain, 475, 
 538 ; his sons take retuge with hi- 
 ward, 538; his kinship with the 
 Northumbrian earls, 539, note. 
 
 Dunstan, St., authorities tor his life, 
 269, note 2; son of Ileorstan, 270; 
 description of, 270; date of his 
 birth, 271, note I ; his youth at Glas- 
 tonbury, 271, 272; goes to court, 
 
 271 ; twice driven thence, 272; be- 
 comes a monk, 272 ; his temper, 
 
 272 ; life at Glastonbury, 272, 273 ; 
 returns to court, 273 ; made Abbot 
 of Glastonbury, 274 and note i ; his 
 friendship with Eadred, 273, 274 ; 
 with Eadred's mother and with 
 ^thelstan of East Anglia, 274, 293. 
 note 3, 294 ; becomes Eadred's chiet 
 adviser, 275 ; accompanies him into 
 Northumbria, 281 ; his office under 
 Eadred, 282 ; in charge of the hoard, 
 282, 287 ; his educational work, 282, 
 283 ; buries Eadred, 287 ; at Ead- 
 wig's coronation - feast, 296 ; out- 
 lawed, 296 ; takes refuge at Ghent, 
 296 and note ; recalled by Eadgar, 
 301 ; Bishop of Worcester and of 
 London, 301 ; consecrated by Odo, 
 301, note 3 ; Archbishop of Canter- 
 burv, 304 and note i ; Eadgar s chiet 
 counsellor, 304; his policy, 3^4; 
 his share in the government, 305 ; 
 his civil administration, 305 ; intel- 
 lectual revival under him, 326 ; his 
 attitude towards the monastic revi- 
 val, 330, 331 and note; his policy of 
 fusion between Church and State, 
 111 ; crowns Eadgar, 336 ; supports 
 Eadward, 338 ; his motives, 339 ; 
 crowns iEthelred, 341 and note; 
 withdraws from court, 341 ; his 
 quarrel with itthelred, 342, 343 J 
 his death, 343 ; 1^'S anniversary in- 
 stituted by Cnut, 416 ; church m 
 London dedicated to him, 446. 
 
 Dunstan, son of .Ethelnoth, revolts 
 against Tostig, 542, note, 
 
 Dunwich,43i- , ^ j 4. oc^ 
 
 Durham, the Scots defeated at, 383, 
 
 452, 538 ; bishops of, see Ealdhun ; 
 
 its origin as a shire, 228, note I. 
 Dyddenham, labor-roll of, 318. 
 Dyvnaint, see Devon. 
 
 E 
 
 Eadberht, King of Northumbria, with- 
 draws to a cloister, 39; extent of 
 Northumbrian supremacy under, 
 263. 
 
 Eadgar, son of Eadmund, 274 ; first 
 king of all England, 46; withdraws 
 from Eadwig's court, 298 and note 2 ; 
 chosen king by the Mercians, 299 ; 
 joined by the Northumbrians and 
 East Angles, 300, uote ; division of 
 the kingdom, 301 ; his titles, 300, 
 note, 301 and uote 2 ; recalls Dun- 
 , Stan, 301 ; succeeds Eadwigas king 
 m Wessex, 302; his counsellors, 
 303 and note i ; marries yElfthryth, 
 303, note I, 306, 330 ; extension of 
 the system of ealdormanries under 
 him, 303 ; his alliance with the pri- 
 mate and the Church, 304, 305 ; his 
 work of Church restoration, 305 ; 
 account of his reign in the monastic 
 writers, 305, uote; in the Chronicle, 
 306 ; his person and temper, 306, 
 307; at Chester, 310, note 4, 425 ; 
 ballads about him, 284, uote 2 ; mar- 
 ries yEthelfloed the White, 306 • 
 
 w-n-^'^' ?^^> '^;S". 307- 309 ; 
 William ot Malmesbury's account 
 of. 307, note 2, 308, note i ; peace of 
 his reign, 308-310; the Ostmen be- 
 come his allies, 310; coins minted 
 at Dublin, 310; his relations with 
 Wales, 310 and note;^; with the 
 Scots, 311; with the Danelaw, 311 ; 
 cedes Edinburgh to the Scots, 311 • 
 possibly grants J.othian to them' 
 452; Danes in his service, 314; 
 love of foreigners, 314; English 
 society under, 314 et seq. ; his alli- 
 ance with Otto the Great, 314, note 
 4; his zeal for monasticism, 330; 
 extent of his direct government, 
 334; materials and authorities for 
 his reign, 334, note 2 ; the " hun- 
 dred " first api^ears by name under 
 '^•m, 335, note I ; his new coinage, 
 335, note 3 ; his crowning, 336 ; his 
 laws, 314, 334; ravages Thanet, 
 335 ; his royal progresses, 336 ; his 
 ^«et»335; his death, 336; his chil- 
 ^^ren, 337 ; names his successor, 338 ; 
 trade of London under him, 445 ; his 
 patronage of the Flemings, 449 ; his 
 laws renewed by Cnut, 408. 
 Eadgar, son of the astheling, Eadward, 
 536; chosen king, 552; submits to 
 
 579 
 
 William, 552 ; takes refuge in Scot- 
 land, 554 ; joins the Northumbrian 
 revolt, 554; returns to Scotland, 
 556. 
 Eadgifu, third wife of Eadward the 
 Elder, and mother of Eadmund and 
 Eadred, 257 and uote 2 ; her alliance 
 with Dunstan, 274, 293, uote 2, 294: 
 with /Lthelstan of East Anglia, 293, 
 note 2; prevents ^thelwold from 
 going over sea, 283, uote 2 ; driven 
 liom court, 294 and note 3 ; returns, 
 302 and 7iote 2. 
 ^^^)g}^u. daughter of Eadward the 
 Elder, married to Charles the Sim- 
 pie, 239; takes refuge in England, 
 254 ; recalled by Lewis, 255. 
 Eadgyth, daughter of Eadward the 
 Elder, marries Otto the German. 
 239. 
 Eadgyth, daughter of Godwine, mar- 
 ries Eadward the Confessor, 482 ; 
 sent to a monastery, 511 ; brought 
 back, 516; surrenders Winchester 
 to William, 552. 
 Eadhild, daughter of Eadward the 
 Elder, marries Hugh the Great. 
 240. 
 
 Eadmund, St., King of East Anglia, 
 martyred by the Danes, 92 ; his life 
 written by Abbo of Eleurv,326; ab- 
 bey built over his relics, 92; re- 
 founded by Cnut, 415. 
 Eadmund, son of Eadward the Elder, 
 at Brunanburh, 243 ; marries ^th- 
 elflaed, 250 ; succeeds iEthelstan as 
 J^>"g.257; his policy, 258; his royal 
 style, 258, note ; his struggle with 
 the Danelaw, 258, 259 ; drives out 
 Olaf and Ragnald, 262 and note i ; 
 harries Cumberland, 266 ; grants it 
 to Malcolm, 266 ; his hunting ad- 
 venture at Cheddar, 273 ; receives 
 ambassadors from Otto, 273 and 
 note I ; his alliance with Lewis, 
 268; his death, 269; buried at 
 Glastonbury, 287 ; his children, 274; 
 his reform of the law of feud, 26, 
 267. 
 
 Eadmund, son of ^thelred 11., called 
 Ironside, 400 ; sent to England with 
 pledges from /Ethel red, 396 ; dis- 
 sensions with Eadric, 397 ; his mar- 
 riage, 397 ; opposes Cnut, 398 ; falls 
 back on Northumbria, 398 ; joins 
 ^Ithelred in London, 398 ; crowned 
 king there, 399; raises forces in 
 Somerset and Devon, 399 ; meets 
 
 I y 
 
INDEX. 
 
 580 
 
 Cnut in Wiltshire, 399: relieves 
 London, 399 ; defeats the Danes at 
 Brentford, 399 ; returns to the west, 
 399 ; drives the Danes into Shep- 
 pey, 400 ; joined by Eadric and the 
 Mercians, 400 ; by Ulfcytel and the 
 East Anglians, 400 ; defeated at As- 
 sandun, 400; treaty of Olney, 401 ; 
 his death and burial, 401 ; Cnut s 
 pilgrimage to his tomb, 416; his 
 sons, 454 ; they fly to Hungary, 403, 
 
 536. 
 Eadmund, Ealdorman, 298, note 2, 303, 
 
 note I. , J J 
 
 Eadred, son of Eadward the Elder and 
 Eadgifu, 257, vote 2 ; his friendship 
 with Dunstan, 273, 274 ; succeeds 
 Eadmund, 274 ; Dunstan his chief 
 adviser, 275 ; his crowning at King- 
 ston, 275, 276; his proclamation, 
 275 and note 2 ; his royal style, 276 
 and note 2, 286 ; the Scots renew 
 their alliance with, 277; oath of al- 
 legiance from Northumbria, 277; 
 authority for his reign, 277, note 4 ; 
 his ill -health, 278, 287; subdues 
 Northumbria, 279 ; final submission 
 of the Danelaw to, 280: reduces 
 Northumbria to an earldom, 280; 
 his Witenagemots, 286 ; peace of his 
 last vears, 286 ; meets the North- 
 umbrian chiefs at Abingdon, 286, 
 note I ; his imperial claims, 276, 
 286; sends envoys to Otto, 286, 
 note 2 ; falls sick at Frome, 287 ; 
 his death and burial, 287. 
 Eadric and Hlothere, laws of, 20, notes 
 
 I and 3. . , 
 
 Eadric succeeds Wulfgeat as high 
 reeve, 383; his vigorous policy, 
 
 384 ; charges against him, 383 ; his 
 surname of " Streona," 384, note i ; 
 made Ealdorman of Mercia, 385 ; 
 marries a daughter of /Ethelred II., 
 
 385 ; his policy, 383 ; his reorgan- 
 ization of the army and the fleet, 
 386; hinders an engagement with 
 Thurkill, 391 ; falls back into Mer- 
 cia, 392 ; his ealdormanry called 
 « Myrcenarice," 392; ravages the 
 Welsh coast, 392 ; slays two chief 
 thegns of the Seven Boroughs, 397 ; 
 heads the host against Cnut, 397 ; 
 his quarrel with Eadmund, 397; 
 joins Cnut, 398; accompanies him 
 to the siege of London, 399 ; rejoins 
 Eadmund, 400 ; charged with deser- 
 tion at Assandun, 401 ; mediates 
 
 between Eadmund and Cnut, 401 ; 
 slain, 403. 
 Eadsige made Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 525 ; his death, 505. 
 Eadward the Elder, son of yElfred, 
 164; his education, 150, note 4, 181, 
 182, note I ; attacks the Wikings' 
 camp in Essex, 165 ; defeats them 
 at Buttington, 165 ; his temper, 182 ; 
 his accession, 182 ; authorities for 
 his reign, 190, note, 183, note 3; his 
 victory over ^Ethelwald, 183; re- 
 news the Frith of Wedmore, 183 ; 
 union of Wessex and Mercia under 
 him, 184 ; his change in the royal 
 style, 184 and note i ; repulses the 
 Danes at Tottenhale, 187; harries 
 the Danelaw, 187 ; musters a fleet 
 in the Channel, 187 ; takes the lower 
 valley of the Thames from Mercia 
 and annexes it to Wessex, 188; 
 founds Hertford, 189; annexes 
 southern Essex, 189 ; rebuilds Col- 
 chester, 197; the Danes of East 
 Anglia, Essex, and Cambridge sub- 
 mit to him, 197; takes Bucking- 
 ham, 195 ; Bedford, Towcester, and 
 Northampton, 195 5 Huntingdon, 
 196; Stamford, 197; Nottingham 
 and Lincoln, 199 ; fortifies Witham, 
 189; Buckingham, 194; Bedford, 
 Towcester, Maldon, and Wigmore, 
 195 ; Huntingdon and Colchester, 
 196; Stamford, 197; Nottingham, 
 199; Thelwell, Manchester, and 
 Bakewell, 205, 206 ; takes Mercia 
 into his own hands, 200 ; the North 
 Welsh brought under his direct gov- 
 ernment, 200 and note i ; receives 
 oaths of allegiance from English 
 and Danes, 202, 203 ; builds a bridge 
 at Nottingham, 206,421 ; league of 
 the North against, 207 ; its submis- 
 sion, 208 and note ; his death, 209 ; 
 marriages of his daughters, 239, 240 ; 
 children of his three marriages, 257, 
 note 2 ; his law against witchcraft, 
 
 Eadward the Martyr, son of Eadgar 
 and /Ethelflaed, 306; named by 
 Eadgar as his successor, 338 ; his 
 claim to the crown supported by 
 ^Ifhere, 338 ; by Dunstan and Os- 
 wald, 338 ; his crowning, 338 ; op- 
 position to, 339 ; slain, 340 ; buried 
 at Wareham, 341 ; counted a mar- 
 tvr, 341 ; buried at Shaftesbury-, 342 ; 
 succession of the ealdormen under 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 h'>. 357. fiofe I ; his anniversary in- 
 stituted by Cnut, 416. ^ 
 Eadward the Confessor, son ofyEthel- 
 red and Emma, his Norman educa- 
 tion, 395 ; makes a descent at South- 
 ampton, 462 ; summoned by Hartha- 
 cnut and recognized as heir to the 
 throne 467; his title of Confessor, 
 497; his personal appearance, 467 ; 
 his Norman sympathies, 468- re- 
 turns to Normandy, 468; crowned 
 at Winchester, 468 ; chosen king by 
 the English people, 470; his alleged 
 promise to Swein Estrithson, 470; 
 unwdhngness to accept the crown 
 473 ' h«s Norman followers, 472 • 
 his political position, 476; growth 
 of administration under him. 47c 
 nn?;' ' "tv"^^"^'"^'' 476, //./.; his 
 h^^ 'V^xx^^^'^^'^So? niakes his 
 home at Westminster, 480 ; redis- 
 tribution of the earldoms under him 
 
 PnJp'n^lf^xf E^^gyth, 482; influ- 
 ence of his Norman counsellors. 482- 
 gathers a fleet at Sandwich to sup- 
 port the emperor against Flanders, 
 503; opposes ^jfric's election to 
 Canterbury and appoints Robert of 
 Jumieges, 506 ; orders Godwine to 
 punish the citizens of Dover, co8 • 
 refuses to give up Eustace, co^ f his 
 measures after Godwine's fheht t; r i • 
 visited by William, 512; his%lieged 
 promises of the crown to William 
 473. 512 and note; gathers a fleet 
 and army to meet Godwine, 514- 
 his Norman counsellors outlawed! 
 5 16; his court after Godwine's re- 
 tur", 517; his reorganization of the 
 chancery, 527; his chaplains, 526- 
 his relations with Godwine's sons! 
 534 ; calls home the atheline Ead- 
 ward, 536 ; sends Siward to make 
 TrVn ^^'^^i^^h, 539 ; sends Gisa 
 
 rL l-^ ^? ^"""^^ ^^'^ consecration, 
 558; h»s death, 547, 559. 
 
 ^^ 7 u' ^''" P^ Eadmund Ironside, 
 finds shelter ni Hungary, 536; called 
 
 d'e°a"h.5'/5/'^^^"''^^^^^'536; his 
 
 ^^.1"" w'lr^''^ of Mercia. 547 : submits 
 w-ir ^ ^^""^ 553 ; revolts against 
 William, 556 ; slain, 556. 
 
 iT' ^°:; ""i Eadmund, 274 ; suc- 
 ceeds Eadred as king, 293 and «^/^ 
 I ; changes his counsellors, 294 and 
 f'ote 4; influenced by ^thelgifu 
 against Dunstan, 294; date of his 
 
 t?o';r"fell?' '^5' "''' ' ' '^'^ <^^'^^^' 
 
 n n. M ' -^5 ; sentences Dunstan 
 da,?l'ir'''^'^""'^^^^he Mer- 
 cian ealdormanry m favor of AiU- 
 nere, 297; marries .Elfgifu, 208- 
 his marriage denounced, 29^ ; his 
 kindred withdraw from com ^8 
 and note 2 ; separated from his wife 
 by sentence of Archbishop Odo 
 
 fl^w^'^Pc'^"^ ^y ^thelwold and 
 
 the West-Saxon clergy, 299, uote 2 ; 
 
 his benefactions to Abingdon, 290 
 
 ''ot^2; revolt against hini. 29^ jiTs 
 
 date, 299, »ote 2 ; misrepresentations 
 
 of Its origin, 299, uote 2 ; authorities 
 
 or Its history, 300, note; division of 
 
 the realm between him and Eadgar, 
 
 301 and note i ; submits to the arch- 
 
 bishop s sentence, 302 ; his death. 
 
 Eadwulf of Bamborough, ruler of Ber- 
 nicia, his alliance with yElfied, 177 
 and note i. ' '' 
 
 Eadwulf, brother of Uhtred, made Earl 
 
 with the Scots at Carham,4C2. 
 
 Eadwulf, son of Uhtred, succeeds 
 Ealdred as Earl of Be;nicia' 477 
 and note 2 ; slain by Siward, 4^7^^^ 
 
 Eadhelm, St., Bishop of Sherbxirne, his 
 foundations in Dorset, 6; his diocese 
 called "Selwoodshire,"222../^/^ i 
 
 Eadhun, Bishop of Durham, his 
 daughter marries Earl Uhtred, 477. 
 note 2. '*yii^ 
 
 ^'hv^'Sfr"'!!^' ' '^^ Sreat, originated 
 by Alfred, 247; danger of the 
 measure, 247 ; suppressed by Ead- 
 ward 247; revived by ^thelstan 
 and his successors, 248; limitations 
 ot the system, 248 ; extended to Wes- 
 sex, 302 ; policy of yEthelred and 
 Cnut tovyards them, 411 ; changed 
 into earldoms, 41 1; see An|lia 
 (fc^ast), Essex, Mercia, Northumbria, 
 Wessex. 
 Ealdormen become delegates of the 
 k'»S. ZZ ; their distribution fn Mer- 
 cia, 44, 229 ; in Wessex, 47, 67, 228 • 
 title of ealdorman given to the head 
 of a frith-gild, 442. 
 Ealdormen, the great, how appointed, 
 248; their royal blood, 248; danger 
 of the arrangement, 249 ; growth of 
 their power, 292 ; checks upon it, 
 293; their claims upon Eadgar, 
 302; their order in the charters, 
 303, note I ; their power over the 
 
 * 1 1 
 
 U\ 
 
582 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 crown, 334, 342 ; their succession 
 under Eadward the Martyr, 357, 
 note I ; i*:thelred's policy towards, 
 358 ; their number and order after 
 ytthelwine's death, 377, 378, 383; 
 Cnut's treatment of, 403 ; changed 
 into earls, 411. 
 Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester, visits 
 the court of Bruges, 505; brings 
 Swein home, 505 ; fails to overtake 
 Harold in his flight, 511 ; sent to 
 call home the zetheling Eadward, 
 536 ; as Archbishop of York, re- 
 ceives the Pope's legates, 558; con- 
 secrates Wulfstan, 559; crowns 
 Harold, 559 ; crowns William, 552. 
 Ealdred of Bernicia, son of Eadwulf, 
 his friendship with Eadward the 
 Elder, 177, note 1 ; joins the North- 
 ern league against him, 208 ; sub- 
 mits to him, 208, note I ; to ^Ethel- 
 stan, 211 ; stirs up a rising of the 
 Danelaw, 242. 
 Ealdred, son of Uhtred, becomes Ear 
 of Northumbria, 478, note ; his feud 
 with Carl, 478, note ; murdered, 478, 
 note ; his daughter marries Siward, 
 476, 478, note ; his death avenged 
 by Waltheof, 478, note. 
 Ealdred, a descendant of Earl Uhtred, 
 
 revolts against Tostig, 541, ^^ote 2. 
 Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne, 70 ; 
 his victory over the Wikings, 72 ; 
 supports .Ethelbald against itthel- 
 
 wulf, 80. 
 
 Eamot, submission of the Scots, 
 Danes, and Welsh at, 211. 
 
 Eardulf, Bishop of Lindisfarne, driven 
 out by Halfdene, 102. 
 
 Eardwulf, King of Northumbria, suc- 
 ceeds ^thelred, 42 ; his death, 42. 
 
 Earldoms, ealdonnanries changed 
 
 into, 411 ; their distribution under 
 
 Harthacnut, 479; under Eadward 
 
 and Godwine, 481 ; on Godwine's 
 
 fall, 511 ; on his return, 517, 518; 
 
 under Harold, 537; see Anglia 
 
 (East), Hereford, Hwiccas, Kent, 
 
 Mercia, Northumbria, Wessex. 
 
 Earls substituted for ealdormen by 
 
 Cnut, 411. 
 Earth-goddess, prayer to the, II. 
 
 "Eastern Kingdom," its extent and 
 relation to Wessex, 66 ; j<r^ Kent. 
 
 Ebbe, St., church at Oxford dedicated 
 to, 421 ; date of her martyrdom, 
 421, note I. 
 
 Ecgberht, England under, 1-47 ; not a 
 
 King of England, 46 ; relation of 
 the other kings to, 47 ; deposes and 
 restores Wiglaf of Mercia, 47 ; ris- 
 ing of the West Welsh against, 64 ; 
 defeats them at Hengestdun, 64 ; his 
 efforts after a national sovereignty, 
 65 ; organization of Wessex under, 
 46, 65-67 ; his claim to be heredi- 
 tary King of Kent, 66; sets his 
 eldest son over Kent, 66 and note ; 
 alliance witli the Church, 69, 70 ; 
 owned as over-lord by the Northum- 
 brians at Dore, 90, note 4 ; his con- 
 quest of London, 143 ; the complete 
 shire-organization of Wessex prob- 
 ably dates from his day, 224. 
 Ecgberht, King of Deira under the 
 Danes, 90 and note i, no; driven 
 
 out, no. , V- 
 
 Ecgberht, Archbishop of York, his 
 
 regulations concerning slavery, 320. 
 Ecgberht's stone, .Alfred musters the 
 
 West-Saxon host at, 106. 
 Ecwils, King of Northumbria, 188. 
 Eddisburv, )Ethelfla;d at, 193. 
 Edinburgh becomes Scottish, 3n,452. 
 Edington, battle of, 106. 
 Egil Skallogrimson, Saga of, 214; its 
 
 account of the battle of Brunanburh, 
 
 243, note 3. 
 Eider, river, frontier of Denmark and 
 
 Germany, 449- ,,,,,„ 
 
 Eildon Hills, ^Ethelwold Moll s vic- 
 tory at, 39. 
 
 Elfege, Bishop of Winchester, kins- 
 man of Dunstan, 270, note i. 
 
 Elmham, bishops of, see ^ihelmaer, 
 Stigand. 
 
 Ely sacked by Ivar and Hubba, 91 ; 
 Cnut's gifts to, 416 ; tradition of his 
 visit to, 417; the aetheling Alfred 
 dies at, 464 ; surrenders to William, 
 
 556. 
 Emma, daughter of Richard the Fear- 
 less, her marriage with ^thelied 
 II., 370, 377 ; its effects, 376, 377 ; 
 takes refuge in Normandy, 395 1 
 left there on i^thelred's return, 
 396 ; marries Cnut, 404 ; supports 
 Harthacnut's claim to England, 
 461 ; remains at Winchester with 
 the huscarls, 462, 463 ; robbed of 
 Cnut's treasure by Harald, 463 ; 
 driven from the realm, 465 ; her 
 friendship with Stigand, 557 ; her 
 propertv seized, 557 ; takes refuge 
 in Flanders, 466 ; supports Hartha- 
 cnut, 466. 
 
 hi 
 
 t' 
 
 • Emperor," style of .^thelstan, 232 • 
 of Eadred, 276, uo/e 2, 287. ' 
 
 Emperors, see Charles, Conrad, Henry 
 Lewis, Otto. 
 
 Empire, the, its revival under Otto, 
 494 ; limits of its supremacy, 494 • 
 Its relations with the church, 496. 
 
 Engle, Middle, their land about Lei- 
 cester, one of the five regions of the 
 Mercian kingdom, 226 ; represented 
 by Leicestershire, 226, 227: later 
 earldom, 479. 
 
 Engle, North, represented by Nottinir- 
 
 hamshire, 227. 
 Engle, South, their land about Dor- 
 chester, one of the five regions of 
 the Mercian kingdom, 226 ; repre- 
 sented by Northamptonshire, 2''7 
 Engle land, the original, settled by 
 Scandinavian peoples, 59 and note, 
 172 ; known in the ninth century as 
 South Jutland, 60. 
 Ennerdale, 265. 
 
 Eric Bloody-axe, son and successor of 
 Harold Fairhair, 251 ; his charac- 
 ter, 251 ; his marriage with Gunhild, 
 251, 252 ; his early adventures, 251 • 
 chosen by Harald as his successor^ 
 252; slays his brothers Rognwald 
 and Biorn, 252 ; baptized, and set 
 over Northumbria by ^thelstan, 
 252 ; his Wiking life, 253 ; threat- 
 ened with deposition by Eadmund 
 quits Northumbria, 258. ' 
 
 Eric Hiring, son of Harald Blaatand, 
 received by the Northumbrians as 
 their king, 278 and note i ; driven 
 out, 279; returns, 280; driven out 
 again, 280 ; his death, 280, note 2 ■ 
 account of him in the Saga of Hakon 
 the Good, 280, note 4. 
 Eric, King of Sweden, drives Swein 
 from Denmark, 353, 354 ; his death, 
 368. 
 
 Eric, son of Jarl Hakon, joins Swein 
 and the Swedes in attacking Olaf 
 Iryggvason, 369: made Earl of 
 Northumbria by Cnut, 400, 407 • 
 brother-in-law of Cnut, 407; ban- 
 ished, 407. 
 
 Erkenwald, St., Bishop of London, 
 437 and note 2 ; rise of parishes in 
 London during his episcopate, 437 
 and note 3 ; founds the monastery 
 at Barking, 438, note i ; dies there, 
 437; struggle for the possession of 
 his remains, 437. 
 
 Essex forms part of the "Eastern 
 
 583 
 
 Kingdom," 66; its extent, 141. re- 
 united to East Anglia under Guth- 
 rum 118, 143, 144; its division at 
 the frith between Alfred and Guth- 
 rum, 144, 146; its western half 
 tormed into a separate district round 
 London, 146 ; its southern part an- 
 nexed by Eadward the Elder, 189- 
 the Danes of, submit to Eadward, 
 197; becomes a shire of the West- 
 Saxon realm, 225 ; joined with Mid- 
 dlesex, etc., under Leofvvine, 544 ; 
 ealdormanry of, its creation, 250 ; 
 its extent, 249 and note 3 ; ealdor- 
 men ot, 250; their alliance with 
 those of East Anglia, 250; see JEH- 
 gar, Byrhtnoth, Leofsige. 
 
 Estrith, sister of Cnut, her marriage 
 with U If, 408 ; its date, 40S, note 2. 
 
 Lthandun, see Edington. 
 
 Eu, counts of, their descent from Gun- 
 nor, 374. 
 
 Eugemus, under -king of the North 
 Welsh, 215, note i. 
 
 Eustace, Count of Boulogne, marries 
 Godgifu, daughter of .Etiielred II., 
 500 ; excommunicated by the Coun- 
 cil of Rheims, 502 ; visits Eadward, 
 507; quarrel of his followers with 
 the townsfolk of Dover, 507, 508 • 
 his surrender demanded by God- 
 vyine,5o8; refused, 509 ; called by 
 the Kentishmen to aid them against 
 Odo of Bayeux, 553. 
 
 Evesham, council of, 385, note 4. 
 
 Exchequer, origin of, 475, note; see 
 Hoard. 
 
 Exeter seized by the Danes, 103 ; re- 
 gained by Alfred, 104; defended 
 by him against the Wikings, 165 ; 
 /Ethelstan expels the Britons from, 
 2n ; Witenagemots at, 216 and note 
 I, 218 ; mint at, 219 ; Emma's dowry 
 town, 380; Swein lands at, 380 ; 
 surrendered to Swein, 380; its situ- 
 ation, 427; submits to William, 
 553 ; besieged by the English, 554 ; 
 relieved by William Fitz-Osbern. 
 554. 
 
 ii( 
 
 Falaise, birth of William the Con- 
 queror at, 457; William escapes 
 thither from the revolt of the Coten- 
 tin, 487. 
 
 Fearndun, death of Eadward the Elder 
 
 at, 209. 
 Feorm-fultum, 387, note 3. 
 Feud, right of, the original ground- 
 
 n 
 
534 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 work of national justice, 2i ; its 
 nature and limits, 21-26 ; its regula- 
 tion under Eadmund, 26, 267. 
 Feudalism, its growth in England, 289, 
 
 290.345- 
 Feversham, \\ itenagemot at, 216 and 
 
 note 2. 
 Finance, /Ethelred's system of, 3S7, 
 
 note 3, 413- 
 "Finn-Gaill," their struggle with the 
 
 "Dubh-Gaill," 73, noie i, 86. 
 Fisheries in the Severn, 422 ; in the 
 Wye, 422, note 2 ; on the south 
 coast, 427-429 ; in the German Sea, 
 430 ; their importance, 430. 
 Fitz-Osbern, house of, 374. 
 Five Boroughs, their organization, 
 117; first occurrence of the name, 
 I i6f fwte 4; conquered by ^diel- 
 flaed and Eadvvard, 197-199 ; rise 
 against Eadmund, 259 ; submit to 
 Swein, 393. 
 Flanders, its rise and growth, 492 ; 
 character of its people, 492 ; of its 
 counts, 492 ; their encouragement 
 of its freedom and trade, 493 ; rise 
 of its towns, 493 ; its relations with 
 France and with the Empire, 494 ; 
 with Normandy, 497 ; with England, 
 175,499; revolts against the em- 
 peror, 497 ; refuge of Dunstan, 296 
 and note 3 ; of Emma, 466 ; of God- 
 wine and his sons, 510; of Swein, 
 483, 504; of Tostig, 547; called 
 *♦ Baldwin's land," 466, 499 ; counts 
 of, see Arnulf, Baldwin, Lyderic. 
 Fleet created by /Elfred, 132 and note 
 2 ; its importance at the siege of 
 Exeter, 132 ; repulses the Danes, 
 142 ; its organization under Eadgar, 
 335 ; its decay under /Ethelred, 359, 
 367, 386 ; he engages Danes to man 
 it, 367 ; reorganized by iEthelred 
 and Eadric, 386. 
 Fleury, English clerks sent to learn 
 the Benedictine rule at, 329 and 
 note 2. 
 Florence of Worcester, his translation 
 of the Chronicle, 327, note; charac- 
 ter and composition of his work, 
 365, note 3, 382, note i. 
 Folks, the early, their consolidation 
 into larger kingdoms, 137; its re- 
 sults, 33-38. 
 " Folk-frith," 22. 
 
 Folk-moot, the, its judicial character 
 and process, 23, 24; difficulty of 
 enforcing its dooms, 28, 134 and 
 
 note 3 ; dies down into the shire- 
 moot, 35. 
 
 " Folk's justice," 27 ; passes into the 
 "king's justice," 29. 
 
 " Ford " in place-names, 265, note 2. 
 
 *' Foss " in place-names, 265, note 2. 
 
 Fosse Way, 193. 
 
 "Fourfold Realm," the, 275, note 2, 
 276 and note 2. 
 
 Fraena, Jarl, joins Guthrum, 93 j slain 
 at Ashdown, 93, note. 
 
 France, its relations with Normandy 
 and Anjou, 489 ; kings of, see Henry; 
 see also Frankland (West). 
 
 Frankland, East, see Germany. 
 
 Frankland, West, the Wikings in, 73, 
 74, 141, 163 ; settlement of Hrolf in, 
 234 ; kings of, see Carloman, Charles, 
 Lewis, Odo, Rudolf. 
 
 Frank-pledge, 220. 
 
 Friesland or Frisia conquered by God- 
 frid of Westfold, 61 ; settlement of 
 the Wikings in, 73 ; .(Alfred's fleet 
 manned by pirates from, 132 ; in- 
 vaded by Gorm, 348 ; merchants 
 from, 438. 
 
 Frideswide or Fritheswith, St., foun- 
 dation at Oxford, 419. 
 
 "P nth," 21. 
 
 Frith of Wedmore, 107 ; between /EX- 
 fred and Guthrum, 120; its true 
 date, 144;. its provisions, 144, 145. 
 Frith-gilds, their origin, 219, 220; their 
 constitution and objects, 220 ; an 
 element of municipal life in towns, 
 221 ; frith-gild of London, 220, 442 ; 
 its possible connection with the 
 cnichten-gild and merchant -gild, 
 
 443- 
 Frome, Witenagemot at, 215, note i, 
 
 242, note 3 ; Eadred dies at, 287. 
 
 Fulford, battle of, priests slain at, 543, 
 note. 
 
 Fulham, Danes winter at, 144. 
 
 " Fykli " correspond to " folks," 55. 
 
 Fyrd, the, corresponds with the Ka- 
 rolingian "land-wehr," 127; its 
 composition and its defects, 127- 
 129; fines for neglect of, 128; re- 
 organized by Alfred, 130 ; by 
 itthelred U. and Eadric, 386. 
 
 Gainas [^thelred], Ealdorman of the, 
 his daughter marries itlfred, 96. 
 
 Gainsborough, northern England sub- 
 mits to Swein at, 393 ; Swein dies 
 at, 395 ; Cnut chosen king by the 
 
 Danes at, 396; .Ethelred marches 
 upon, 396. 
 
 Galmanho, suburb of York, 540 • Si- 
 ward buried there, 540. ' 
 
 Game), son of Orm, 541, „ote 2. 
 
 Gamel-bearn, a Northumbrian, revolts 
 
 .. n^^\"l' 1'ostig, 541, Motg 2. 
 trartli m place-names, 265, note 2. 
 
 Gatesgarth, 265. ^ 
 
 Geoffrey Martel, Count of Anjou, his 
 conquest of Poitou and Maine, 489 ; 
 his war with King Henry, 490 ; with 
 William of Normandy, 490. 
 
 Germany, its friendly intercourse with 
 England 475; kings o(, see Arnulf, 
 Conrad, Henry, Lewis, Otto. 
 
 Ghent, Its origin, 493 ; Dunstan takes 
 refuge at, 296. 
 
 ^'xl' T <-^nichten-giId, Frith -gild. 
 Merchant-gild. ^ 
 
 "Gill "in place-names, 265, note 2. 
 
 Gisa, chaplain to Eadward the Con- 
 fessor, 527 ; a Lotharingian, C27 • 
 made Bishop of Wells, 527 ; conse- 
 crated at Rome, 558. 
 
 Glamorgan, descent of the Northmen 
 on, 63, note 4. 
 
 Glastonbury, birthplace of Dunstan 
 ^2°.' '^s school and church, 271 • 
 ^.thelstan's pilgrimage to, 271, vote 
 2 ; tomb of St. Patrick at, 271, note 
 2; Irish pilgrims at, 271, note 2; 
 Dunstan made abbot of, 274- its 
 school under him, 282 ; memorials 
 ot his scholastic work at, 282 and 
 fiote ^-^ Its influence on English iit- 
 eratuie, 284, 285 ; wide range from 
 which Its scholars were drawn, 282, 
 note 4 ; decline of monastic rule at' 
 329 and note 2 ; clerks from, accom- 
 pany ^thelwold to Abingdon, 28" 
 note 4, 329, fiote 2 ; Eadmund, Ead- 
 red, and Eadmund Ironside buried 
 at, 287, 401 ; Cnut's pilgrimage to, 
 415' 
 Gleemen, preservers of the old nation- 
 al poetry, 324 ; their popularity, ^24 ; 
 hostility of the Church to them, ^2s! 
 G onieorn, son of Heardolf, 542, note. 
 Gloucester (Glevum), its importance, 
 422 ; Alfred's mint at, 422 ; Guth- 
 rum winters at, 104 ; /Ethelstan dies 
 at, 257 ; Eustace of Boulogne visits, 
 507 ; monastery at, 422 ; Dudoc, ab- , 
 bot of, 525. I 
 
 Gloucestershire, part of the land of 
 the Hwiccas, 226; detached from 
 Mercia and joined with Hereford 
 
 etc., under Swein, 481 ; with Worces- 
 ter under Odda, 517. 
 Godfrey, Count of Lorraine, revolts 
 against the emperor, 497 ; excom- 
 municated by the pope, 501 ; sub- 
 mits, 501, f I » J , 
 
 ^""f^lli^' ?o <^"^'od, King of West- 
 fold and South Jutland, attacks Sles- 
 wick, 60; the "Dane -work," 60 • 
 conquers Frisia, 60 ; slain, 61 ; di- 
 vision of his kingdoms, 61. 
 Godgifu, daughter of ^thelred and 
 Emma, 474; marries Eustace of 
 rJouIogne, 500. 
 Godmanchester (Durolipons), 197. 
 Godmann, chaplain to Eadward the 
 
 Confessor, 526. 
 Godwine, traditions of his origin, 410 • 
 marries Gytha, 410 ; left as ruler of 
 England in Cnut's absence, 410- 
 made Earl of Wessex, 410 ; his im- 
 portance and wealth, 410 ; becomes 
 .Secundarius Regis," 412; his po- 
 sition at Cnut's death, 460 ; supports 
 the claims of Harthacnut, 461 ; op- 
 posed by Leofric of Mercia, 462 : 
 charged with the death of the aeth- 
 ehng Alfred, 464, 466 ; clears him- 
 self by oath, 466 ; forsakes Hartha- 
 
 tt"^ ?a^ j*''"^ '" *^^ election of 
 iiarald, 465 ; his influence, 469, 
 474; his good government, 47c- 
 his share in Cnut's administrative 
 system, 475, note; his power over 
 the crown, 480 ; promotion of his 
 house, 481 ; opposed by Eadward's 
 Norman counsellors, 482 ; opposi- 
 ^'°" of the Witan,483; his alliance 
 with Baldwin of Flanders, 499, 503 • 
 his attitude towards the religious 
 revival, 495 ; his relations with Sti- 
 gand, 558 ; supports the claim of 
 ^'Jfric to the see of Canterbury, 
 50^ ; his enmity with Robert of Ju- 
 mieges, 482, 505, 507; refuses to 
 avenge Count Eustace on the citi- 
 zens of Dover, 508 ; gathers forces 
 near Gloucester, 509; encamps at 
 bouthwark, 510; summoned before 
 the Witan, 510 ; outlawed, 510- 
 flies to Flanders, 510; his alliance 
 with the Ostmen, 510; regrets at 
 his departure, 511 ; equips a fleet 
 m the Yser, 513; sympathy with, 
 513 and note 2; embassies from 
 France and Flanders in his behalf, 
 514; failure of his first attempt at 
 return, 514; meets Harold off 
 
586 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wight, 514; his restoration, 515 ; 
 change in his position, 516; his re- 
 lations with Eadward after his re- 
 turn, 517 ; with the earls. 517 ; wuh 
 the Church, 518; Norman feeling 
 against him, 519 ; his character and 
 work, 520-522 ; his death, 534 ; po- 
 sition of his house after his death, 
 534, 546 and tiote i. 
 Gokstad, Wiking's ship found at, 56, 
 
 note 3. 
 Gorm the Old, Denmark united under, 
 346 ; at Haslo, 346, tiote i ; conquers 
 Jutland, 347 ; invades Friesland, 
 348 ; defeated by Henry the I'owler, 
 348 ; his death, 348 and note I ; ex- 
 tinction of his race, 459. 
 
 Gorm, sfe Guthrum. 
 
 Gospatric joins the revolt of North- 
 umbria against Tostig, 542, uott. 
 
 Greatley (Greatanlea), Witenagemot 
 
 ' at, 216 and uole 2. 
 
 Grimbald of St. Omer, Abbot of Win- 
 chester, 151. 
 
 Grimbald of Plessis, 487. 
 
 Grimsby, its commercial importance, 
 117 and note 2. 
 
 "Grith," the king's, 32. 
 
 Gruffydd, son of Llewelyn, growth of 
 his power in Wales, 475 ; his alli- 
 ance with /tlfgar, 544. 
 
 Guildford, the aetheling i^lfred seized 
 
 at, 464. 
 Gunhild, wife of Eric Bloody - axe, 
 
 2^1. 
 Gunhild, daughter of Burislaf, King 
 
 of the Wends, wife of Swein, 352, 
 
 note I. 
 Gunhild, daughter of Cnut and Emma, 
 
 betrothed to Henry of Germany, 
 
 449 ; her marriage, 475 ; her only 
 
 child becomes a nun, 459. 
 Gunnor, wife of Richard the Fearless, 
 
 374- 
 Guthferth, Sihtric's son, driven out of 
 
 Deira, 210, note i. 
 
 Guthferth, brother of Sihtric, takes 
 refuge in Dublin, 233. 
 
 Guthrum, or Gorm, leader of the 
 Danes, attacks Wessex, 93; de- 
 feated at Ashdown, 98 ; marches to 
 Cambridge, 102 ; his second attack 
 on Wessex, 103 ; makes a treaty 
 with itlfred at Wareham, 103; 
 winters at Gloucester, 104 ; joined 
 by Hubba, 104; marches to Chip- 
 penham, 104 : defeated at Edington, 
 106 ; treaty of Wedmore, 107 ; and 
 
 divides East Anglia, 118; becomes 
 master of London, 118; character 
 and extent of his realm, 119, 120; 
 baptized at Aire, 120; his chrism- 
 loosing, 120 and note i ; called J^i\\- 
 elstan in baptism, 121 ; story of his 
 relations with Harald Fairhair, 121- 
 123; his defeat at Saucourt, 141; 
 his submission to Alfred, 143 J 1^'S 
 [second] peace with itlfrcd, 120, 
 144, 145, note I ; his friendship with 
 Hi-olf, 233 ; his death, 161. 
 Guy of Burgundy, grandson of Richard 
 the Good, 487 ; his possessions in 
 Normandy, 487; revolts against 
 William, 487. 
 Guy, Count of Tonthieu, captured by 
 
 the Normans at Mortemer, 533. 
 Gwent, the, the earliest Wessex, 222 ; 
 its military advantages, 44 ; Danes 
 in, 100, 104. . ^. . , , . 
 
 Gyrth, son of Godwme, flies with him 
 to Flanders, 510 ; made Earl of East 
 Anglia, 544; accompanies Tostig 
 to Rome, 558; slain by William at 
 
 Senlac, 551. ,.,,,. ,, 
 Gyrwas, country of, included m the 
 
 'East - Anglian ealdormanry, 250; 
 
 joined with Nottingham and Lei- 
 cester under Beorn, 482. 
 Gyrwas, North, their land represented 
 
 'by Huntingdonshire, 227. 
 Gyrwas, South, their land represented 
 
 bv Cambridgeshire, 227. 
 Gyt'ha, sister of Ulf, marries Godwine, 
 
 410. 
 Gytha of Hordaland, 162. 
 
 H 
 
 Hafursfiord, battle of, 162 and note 2 ; 
 
 its date, 163, note 3. 
 Hakon, son of Harald Fairhair, drives 
 
 Eric Bloody -axe from Norway, 
 
 252. , 
 
 Hakon, Jarl, ruler of Norway under 
 Harald Blaatand, 349 ; Norway re- 
 volts against him, 365 ; defeats the 
 Jomsborgers, 390. 
 Hakon, nephew of Cnut, sent to rule 
 in Norway, 407 ; driven out, 448 ; 
 restored by Cnut, 450. 
 Halfdene ravages Bernicia, 88, note 2, 
 Id ; expels Bishop Eardulf from 
 Lindisfarne, 102; burns Colding- 
 ham, loi ; destroys Carlisle, 102 ; 
 ravages Cumbria and Strathclyde, 
 102 and note 2, no; divides Deira, 
 III. 
 
 Halfdene, King of Northumbria, his 
 defeat and death, 188. 
 
 Halgoland, 172; called a"scyr"by 
 Alfred, 224, fiote i. 
 
 Hallamshire, survival of the ancient 
 divisions of Deira, 221. 
 
 "Ham " in place-names, 265, note 2. 
 
 Hamon of Thorignv, 486. 
 
 Hampshire, see Hafntonshire. 
 
 Hamtonshire; victories of its fyrd 
 over the Wikings, 72, 81 ; Wiking 
 raids upon, 164; origin and mean- 
 ing of Its name, 222, 223 ; date of 
 
 «v, 1''^^^'°"' -22 ' i's relation to 
 Wiltshire, 223 ; ealdormen of, 224, 
 note I ; see Wessex (Central), Wulf- 
 heard. 
 
 Hamton, see Southampton. 
 
 "Hand " or "mund," its meaning, 21 
 and note 2. 
 
 Hanse Towns, their trade with En^r. 
 land, 430. * 
 
 Harald, son of Cnut, 404 ; claims the 
 crown of England, 459; called Hare- 
 foot, 462 ; his claims supported by 
 I^ofric and the lithsmen of London, 
 462; becomes King of all England 
 save Wessex, 462 ; seizes Sandw ich, 
 428, 429, note I ; robs Emma of 
 Cnut's treasure, 463; causes the 
 astheling Alfred to be blinded, 464 • 
 chosen king in Wessex, 465 ; his 
 death and burial, 466 ; his body out- 
 raged by Harthacnut, 466. 
 Harald Blaatand, King of Denmark, 
 date of his birth, 348, note i ; his 
 policy in Normandy, 268 ; his de- 
 signs upon Britain, 277, 278 ; his son 
 Eric in Northumbria, 278 and note 
 I ; his war with Otto the Great, 309 • 
 his son King of Semland, 278, 348; 
 his over-lordship over Norway, 349 ; 
 his alliance with Norman 'dukes' 
 
 349; mvades the Saxon Duchy, 
 
 349 ; defeated by Otto, 349 ; again 
 
 attacks Germany on Otto's death, 
 
 349; becomes a Christian, 350; 
 
 transfers his royal seat to Roeskilde, 
 
 350 ; goes to dwell in Jutland, 350 ; 
 
 opposed by his son Swein, 351 ; 
 
 drives Swein from Denmark, 351 ;' 
 
 his defeat and death, 351 ; story of 
 
 his burial-feast, 352, 353. 
 Harald, son of Swein, becomes Kin^r 
 
 of Denmark, 396 ; probable date of 
 
 his death, 408, note i. 
 Harald f^airhair (Harfager), King of 
 
 Westfold, 162; becomes King of 
 
 Norway, 162; drives out the Wik- 
 ings from the Orkneys and founds 
 an earldom there, 163 and notf 7 • 
 his relations with ^Ithelstan (Guth' 
 rum), 121-123 ; his death, 251. 
 Harald Hardrada becomes King of 
 Norwav. 484; invades England, 
 548; his overthrow at Stamford 
 Bridge, 549. 
 
 Harald, Jarl, joins Guthrum's attack 
 on Wessex, 93 ; slain at Ashdown, 
 92, note I. * 
 
 Harald, j<r^ Strut- Harald. 
 Harold, son of Godwine, 461 ; Earl of 
 East Anglia, 481 ; opposes Swein's 
 restoration, 504; flies to Bristol, 
 510; takes refuge in Ireland, 510; 
 gathers ships at Dublin, 5n: de- 
 scent on Porlock, 514; joins his 
 lather, 514; his earldom restored, 
 518 ; succeeds Godwine ns Earl of 
 Wessex, 534; his relations with 
 Eadward, 534 ; with England, 535, 
 501 ; his character, 561, 562, 563 ; 
 his plans for the succession to the 
 crown. 535 ; his policy in the dis- 
 tribution of the earldoms, 537, 562 • 
 and towards JVMg^r, 544; takes 
 possession of the earldom of Here- 
 ford, 544; his power and his aim, 
 545; failure of his foreign policy 
 546 ; his oath to William, 547 ; ob- 
 scurity of his administration, 562 • 
 his change of policy, 563 ; his possi- 
 ble share in the rising of Northum- 
 'jr'a. 563; present at Eadward's 
 death, 559 ; succeeds him as king, 
 547 ; crowned by Ealdred, 559 ; de- 
 feats the Norwegians at Stamford 
 Bridge, 549 ; marches back to Lon- 
 don, 549; encamps on Senlac, 549 • 
 his death, 55 1 ; his huscarls, 475. „ote\ 
 Harold, or Heriold, claims the throne 
 of Jutland, 61 ; his conversion and 
 expulsion, 61. 
 Harthacnut, son of Cnut, ruler in Den- 
 mark under the guardianship of 
 ulf, 448; appointed by Cnut to 
 succeed him in England, 460 ; his 
 treaty with Magnus, 458; his claim 
 supported by Godwine and Emma, 
 461 ; chosen King of Wessex, 462 • 
 forsaken by Wessex, 465 ; plans in- 
 vasion of England, 466; chosen 
 King, 466; character of his reign, 
 467 ; sends for Eadward, 467 ; his 
 death, 468 ; redistribution of earl- 
 doms in his time, 479. 
 
588 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Harthacnut, or Ilardegon, a Norwe- 
 gian conqueror, supposed ancestor 
 of Gorm the Old, 346, note X. 
 Ilaslo, battle of, 142. 
 Hasting, leader of the Wikings, 107 ; 
 his defeat at Haslo, 142 ; his strug- 
 gle with King Odo, 163 ; invades , 
 Kent, 163 ; held at bay by Alfred, | 
 164 ; encamps on the Colne, 164 ; ^ 
 the Danelaw rises in his aid, 164 ; j 
 attacked by Eadward and ^thel- 
 red, 165 ; his attack on the Severn 
 valley, 165 ; defeated, 165 ; occupies | 
 Chester, 166 ; besieged and driven 
 out by itthelred, 166; withdraws 
 to a camp on the Lea, 166 ; rejoined 
 by the fleet from Exeter, 166; re- 
 turns to P>ankland, 167. 
 Hastings, mint at, 219 ; its sailors pur- 
 sue Swein, 504 ; support Godwine, 
 513, note 2 ; battle of, 549-551- 
 " Haugh" in place-names, 265, note 2. 
 "Heathenism," decrees against, un- 
 der i^^^thelred II., 385 and note 4 ; 
 under Cnut, 10, 11 ; strife of Chris- 
 tianity with, 9-11; survival of its 
 customs, II. 
 Hebrides, the, Wiking settlements in, 
 63, 207 ; conquered by the Orkney 
 jarls, 538. 
 Heca, Bishop of Selsey, 526. 
 Hecanas, their land becomes Here- 
 fordshire, 226. 
 Helinandus, chaplain to Eadward the 
 
 Confessor, 528. 
 Heniing, King of South Jutland, 61 ; 
 
 peace with the Franks, 61. 
 Hengestdun, battle of, 64. 
 Henry the Fowler defeats Gorm the 
 
 Old, 348. 
 Henry III., Emperor, betrothed to 
 Cnut's daughter, 449; his marriage, 
 475 ; his character and policy, 495 ; 
 his ecclesiastical reforms, 496, 500 ; 
 revolt against, 497 ; the rebels ex- 
 communicated by 1^0 IX., 501 ; calls 
 on England for help, 503 ; the rebels 
 submit, 503. 
 Henry, King of France, restored by 
 Robert the Devil, 455; fights at 
 Val-es-Dunes, 4S8; his war with 
 Geoffrey of Anjou, 490 ; joined by 
 William, 490 ; favors Godwine, 514 ; 
 his policy, 532 ; his invasion of Nor- 
 mandy, 532 ; its failure, 533. 
 Heorstan, father of St. Dunstan, 270. 
 Herebriht, Ealdorman, slain by the 
 Wikings, 75. 
 
 Hereford, the North - Welsh chiefs 
 submit to yEthelstan at, 211; bish- 
 ops of, see Walter ; earls of, see 
 Harold, Ralf, Swein. 
 
 Herefordshire, the land of the Heca- 
 nas, 225 ; and of the Magesoetas, 400, 
 479 ; severed from the Mercian earl - 
 dom, 479; fighting between Nor- 
 mans and English in, 508; raid of 
 iElfgar and Gruffydd upon, 544. 
 
 Heretha-land, 48, note I. 
 
 Hereward heads a revolt in the fens, 
 
 556- 
 Herfast, brother of Gunnor, 374. 
 Herlouin, founder of Bee, his recep- 
 tion of Lanfranc, 485. 
 Herlwin, Count of Ponthieu, attacked 
 I by Flanders, 255. 
 I Hermann, Bishop of the Wilsaetas 
 i (Kamsbury), 525, 526. 
 Hertford founded by Eadward the 
 
 Elder, 189. 
 Hertfordshire, its origin, 228; forms 
 part of the East -Anglian ealdor- 
 manry, 250, note i ; joined with Es- 
 sex, etc., under Leofwine, 544; Will- 
 iam marches into, 552. 
 Hexham, see of, its extinction, 89. 
 Hildebrand, counsellor of Pope Leo 
 IX., 497 ; of Nicholas II. and Al- 
 exander II., 558. 
 High reeve, or high thegn, office cre- 
 ated by /Ethelred, 378, 412, 524 ; be- 
 comes permanent under Cnut, 524 ; 
 develops into the " Secundarius 
 Regis" and the justiciar, 524; see 
 ^fic, Eadric, Wuifgeat. 
 "Higra,"ii3. 
 Hlothere and Eadric, laws of, 20, notes 
 
 I and 3, 323, note i. 
 Hoard, the, Dunstan in charge of, 282, 
 287 ; accompanies the king in Dun- 
 stan's day, 387, note i ; settled at 
 Winchester in Eadward's day, 387, 
 note I ; its contents, 387, 523 ; their 
 sources, 387 ; its importance under 
 Eadward, 476, note. 
 Holland, the Count of, revolts against 
 
 the Emperor Henry III., 497. 
 Holy Island, see Lindisfarne. 
 Hordere, the, his various titles, 523 ; 
 his functions, 524; growth of his 
 importance as treasurer, 524; earli- 
 est holders of the office, 524. 
 Horseflesh, use of, 9. 
 Horse-thegn, or constable, his office, 
 
 ^73- 
 Howel, King of the North Welsh, be- 
 
 ■I 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 comes subject to Eadward the Elder, 
 200, note; submits to .^thelstan,' 
 211 ; present in his Witenagemots, 
 215 and note i. 
 Hraegel -thegn, 523. 
 Hrolf, friend of Guthrum of East An- 
 glia, 233 ; his forays along the Seine, 
 233 ; their results, 233 ; his attacks 
 upon Rouen, 234 ; his settlement in 
 Frankland, 234 ; probably of Norse 
 blood, 236, 7ioie I ; supports Charles 
 the Simple against the dukes of 
 Pans, 236; receives grant of the 
 Bessm, 237. 
 Ilubba, brother of Ivar, 87, note 1,91- 
 conquers East Anglia, 91 ; com' 
 mands a Wiking fleet in the Bris- 
 tol Channel, 93; joins Guthrum in 
 the Severn, 104 ; defeated by the 
 fyrd of Devon, 106. 
 Hubert, St., his hermitage, 264. 
 Hugh the Great, son of Robert of Paris 
 236; marries .^thelstan's sister 
 Eadhild, 240; attacks Normandy, 
 240; brings back "Lewis from 
 
 ?x'r-n"^^^v" ^54; leagues with 
 William Longsword and Arnulf of 
 Flanders against Lewis, 256 ; makes 
 peace with Lewis, 261 ; joins Har- 
 ald Blaatand and the Normans 
 against him, 268; receives him as a 
 captive, 268; his defiance to Ead- 
 mund, 268. 
 Hugh, Norman reeve of Exeter, 380 • 
 surrenders it to Swein, 380. ' 
 
 Hundred, division of the shire, possi- 
 bly instituted by /Elfred, 135, note 5 ; 
 first appears by name under Ead- 
 gar, 335, note i ; names of hundreds 
 m Dorset, 5 and ftote. 
 Huntingdon occupied and fortified by 
 Eadward the Elder, 196; Danes oi, 
 attack Bedford, 196; encamp at 
 lempsford, 196; swear allegiance 
 to Eadward, 203. 
 Huntingdonshire represents North 
 Gwyra land, 227 ; forms part of the 
 East-Anglian ealdormanry, 250, note 
 I ; joined to Northumbria under 
 Si ward, 518. 
 Hungary, Eadmund Ironside's children 
 take refuge in, 403, 454; conquered 
 by the Emperor Henry III., 495. 
 Hurstbourn, its labor-rol I, 317. 
 Huscaiis instituted by Cnut, 408,414; 
 remain with Emma at Winchester, 
 462, 463 ; their development under 
 Harold, 475, note. 
 
 589 
 
 Huscarl-tax, its probable origin, ,87 
 note 3. G > J /. 
 
 Husting, the Danish, 446. 
 
 Hwiccas, land of the, one of the five 
 regions of the Mercian kingdom, 
 226; divided into the shires of 
 Gloucester and Worcester, 226- 
 their clearings in the south of Ar' 
 ^^" t»ecome Warwickshire, 226- 
 earJdom of, severed from Mercia by 
 Cnut, 479; given to Odda, 517- 
 ealdormen of, see Leofric, Leofwine 
 earls of, see Odda. 
 
 Iceland, emigration from the Danelaw 
 to, 124, 125, note I ; colonized by the 
 Northmen, 162. 
 
 Icknield Wav, 193. 
 
 India, >Elfred sends alms to, 100. 
 
 Ine, King of Wessex, his pilgrimage 
 to Rome and death, 16; his laws, 
 20 and note i, 21, note i ; their pro- 
 visions concerning the Welsh 21 • 
 concerning slaves, 320 ; concerning 
 chapmen and trade, 323, note i ; ex- 
 tent of the shire-organization in his 
 time, 224. 
 
 Ingelram, Count of Ponthieu, marries 
 the sister of William the Conqueror, 
 500 ; excommunicated by the Coun- 
 cil of Rheims, 502. 
 
 Inguar, see Ivar. 
 
 Ireland, advance of the Wikings upon, 
 59. 62, 63 ; their settlements in, 71 • 
 its earliest towns founded by them' 
 71 ; first appearance of the Danes in' 
 IZy note I, 86 ; see Dublin, Ostmen. ' 
 Iron supplied by Scandinavia to Brit- 
 am, 430. 
 
 Ipswich, plundered by Norwegian 
 
 Wikings, 354; its importance, 43 1. 
 Islandshire, survival of the ancient 
 
 divisions of Deira, 221. 
 "Itene Wood," 167. 
 Ittingford, the frith of Wedmore re- 
 newed at, 183. 
 Ivar, or Inguar, the Boneless, leader 
 of the Wikings, attacks Munster, 86 ; 
 brother of Hubba, 87, note i, 91 ; at- 
 tacks East Anglia, 87 ; conquers it, 
 87, note I, 91 ; returns to Deira. 93 ; 
 his race become kings of Northum- 
 bria, 117. 
 
 J 
 Jarrow burned by the Wikings, 49, 
 "Jarl" corresponds to the English 
 "aetheling,"55. ^ 
 
 m\ 
 
 fi -M 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Jedburgh, Wulfstan prisoner at, 280. 
 Jelling, burial-mounds of Gorm and 
 
 Thyra at, 348. , „r , 1. 
 
 Jeothwel, King of the North Welsh, 
 
 becomes subject to Eadward the 
 
 Elder, 200, note i. 
 
 John XII., Pope, gives the pallium to 
 
 Dunstan, 304. ,, . r 
 
 John the Old- Saxon made abbot of 
 
 Athelney, 151, 170 and note 2. 
 Jomsborg, Harald Blaatand's strong- 
 hold on the Baltic, 351 ; Harald dies 
 there, 351 ; its independence under 
 Palnatoki, 351 ; Swein's dealings 
 with, 352 ; its jarls defeated by Jarl 
 Hakon, 390 ; see Palnatoki, Sigwald. 
 Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, 
 her marriage with itthelwulf and 
 coronation, 78, 79, note i ; her mar- 
 riage with Baldwin Iron-arm, 175. 
 Judith, sister or daughter of Baldwin 
 of Lille, marries Tostig, son of God- 
 wine, 504- 
 Judwal, King of North Wales, story 
 of his tribute to Eadgar, 310, note 3 ; 
 present in .tthelstan's Witenage- 
 mots, 215 and note i. 
 Jurisprudence, early English, 21. 
 Justice, public, its original ground- 
 work, 21 ; earliest conception of, 22 ; 
 reorganized by yElfred, 132, 133; 
 difficulty of enforcing, 28, 134* ^35 5 
 its regulation under jEthelstan, 216, 
 217; folk's justice, 27; king's jus- 
 tice, 29. , ^ . 
 Justiciar, his office, 96, 412, 47°, ^tote, 
 
 524. 
 
 Jutland, settlement of the Danes in, 
 83 ; conquered by Gorm, 347. 
 
 Jutland, South, the original Engle 
 land, 60 ; its kings dependent on the 
 kingdom of Westfold, 60-62 ; kings 
 of, see Godfrid, Harold, Heming. 
 
 K 
 
 Kenneth MacAlpin, King of the Scots 
 of Dalriada, succeeds to the Pictish 
 throne, 177; Edinburgh ceded to 
 him, 311; and perhaps Lothian, 452 ; 
 his " raids upon Saxony," 452- 
 
 Kent, lingering heathenism in, 9 ; its 
 Witan petition /Ethelstan to enforce 
 justice, 29 ; revolts against Offa and 
 Cenwulf, 43 ; its relation to Wessex 
 under Ecgberht, 66 ; its wealth and 
 importance, 74, 75 ; »ts fy«i defeated 
 by the Wikings in Thanet, 76 ; its 
 eastern shores ravaged by pirates 
 
 from Gaul, 81 ; united to Wessex at 
 the accession of yEthelred, 82, note 
 i; invaded by Hasting, 163, 164; 
 early use of coin in, 218; kingdom 
 of, its shires perhaps represented by 
 the lathes, 222 ; becomes a shire of 
 the West-Saxon realm, 225 ; called 
 " Kent - shire," 225, note i; iron- 
 mines in, 322; salt-works in, 322 
 and note 2 ; harriedby pirates from 
 Ireland, 367 ; by Thurkiil, 390 ; sup- 
 ports Godwine, 513, note 2; joined 
 with Essex, etc., under Leofwine, 
 544 ; revolts against Odo of Bayeux, 
 553 ; kings oi.see ^Ethelbald, itlthel- 
 berht, i^thelstan, itthelwulf, Eadric, 
 
 Hlothere. 
 Kesteven, 249, note 3, 250. 
 Kettleside, 265. 
 
 King, the, his judicial powers, 29 ; ap- 
 peals to, 29 ; his justice supersedes 
 the folk's justice, 29 ; his court, 30 ; 
 his " grith," 32 ; his progresses and 
 their results, 31, 32 ; growth of his 
 dignity, 32, 33, 291 ; his consecration, 
 33, 295 ; organization of his house- 
 hold, 33, 172; change in the con- 
 ception of his position, 133 ; becomes 
 the source of justice, 133 ; his su- 
 preme jurisdiction, 134 and note I ; 
 principle of personal allegiance, 199, 
 200 ; his territorial character, 202 ; 
 importance of his presence and per- 
 sonal action, 247, 291 ; weakness of 
 his position, 291, 292 ; his share in 
 the appointment of bishops, 333, 
 505 ; growth of the royal adminis- 
 tration, 523 ; his writ, 525. 
 " King's Court," 524. 
 Kingdoms, the Three, i, 2, 38 ; their 
 influence on the kingship, 33; on 
 social classes, 34 ; on folk-moot and 
 Witenagemot, 35, 36 ; weakness of 
 Northumbria and Mercia, 37-44; 
 their break-up, 44-47- 
 Kings, tribal, tlieir relation to the 
 aethelings, 34; number of, in the 
 earlier states, 38 ; their extinction, 
 38 and note i. 
 Kingston, crowning of Ethelstan at, 
 209, itote 2 ; of Eadred, 275 and note 
 2 ; of iEthelred XL, 341. ^^o^'- 
 Kirbyshire, survival of the ancient di- 
 visions of Deira, 221. 
 Kirkshire or parish, 13, 222. 
 Kirtlington, Witenagemot at, 338. 
 Kyle in Ayrshire, 263. 
 Kynesige, Bishop of Lichfield, kins- 
 
 'f;i 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 man of Dunstan. 270, note r ; sent 
 with Dunstan to bring Eadwig back 
 to the coronation feast, 296. 
 
 591 
 
 Labor-rents at Hurstbourn. ^17. nf 
 Dyddenham.318. '''"'3'7, at 
 
 ^^in^^^l'^^'S^' ^'^o'-^egian settlements 
 in, 265 and note 2. 
 
 Lambay Island, 63, note 4. 
 Lambeth, Harthacnut dies at, 468 
 Lancashire, its origin, 228, note; Nor- 
 
 wegian settlers in, 265. 
 Lancaster, 264. 
 
 Land, its possession the test of free- 
 dom, 200. 
 
 Landnama-bok, 125. 
 
 Land's End, Ethelstan at, 21'' 
 
 Land-tax, its beginning, 389 and note; 
 
 us assessment, 389 ; the basis of 
 
 English finance, 414; its efTects, 
 
 T .ti ' I ^"?^""^ 447 ; see Danegeld. 
 Land-wehr, the, 127. ^ 
 
 Lanfranc, a citizen of Pavia, at Av- 
 ranches, 485 ; his school at Bee 
 486; opposes William's marriai^e,' 
 531.; reconciled with him, oi • „e. 
 gotiatesat Rome, 531 ^ ' 
 
 Laon, city of the West Franks, 2?? 
 
 Lastingham destroyed by Danes, 1^. 
 
 Lathes of Kent, 222. 
 
 Law, early conception of, 19; written 
 
 aw, Its limited sphere. 20; criminal 
 Jaw, Eadmund's reform of, 26, 27, 
 
 Lawmen at Cambridge, 442, note 3 ; 
 Chester, 42s ; Lincoln. 1 1 7, 432, 44^3 
 note 2', Stamford, 117, 442, «•;/;? ' 
 
 ^T.."^,'^'^^' 139. 140 and note\ ; 
 ^thelberht, 20 and notes i and " • 
 Athelstan, 216 and 7iote 4, 22 c and 
 Mw»r ' ^"^^ ^^-7 ; Eadgar. 408 ; 
 
 !^' wl? ^H^ ^^^'■'^' 2°' "^'^^ I -^nci 
 3 ; Wihtraed. 20, notes i and 7 ; Lie 
 
 20 and note I, 21, twte I. ' 
 
 Legates sent by Alexander IL, crq- 
 
 their share in Wulfstan's elevation,' 
 
 Leicester, 226 ; one of the Five Bor- 
 oughs 116; taken by ^thelfl^d, 
 I9» ; date of its submission, 18? 
 f^f^ 3; stormed bv the Ostmen! 
 260; recovered by Eadmund, 260 
 
 Leicestershire, 226; Danish settle- 
 ments in, 118; severed from Mer- 
 cia and joined with Nottingham, 
 etc .under Beorn, 479, 482. , 
 
 1^0 IX., becomes pope, 496 ; his re- 1 
 
 forms, 500; excommunicates the 
 
 hafoi'^'"'''' 501 ; quashes Spear 
 hatoc s appointment to London, 507 ; 
 
 clict.'c!;?'^ Normandy under inter- 
 
 J^ofa.' slayer of Eadmund L. 269 
 
 of tt'lT ^^ ^'^^^'"^' Eald^rman 
 ot the Hwiccas, 409; Earl of Mer- 
 cia, 461 ; opposes Godwine's policv 
 
 realm, 462 ; his royal descent, 479 • 
 
 revJv.i "^^ a'^ ^^^'^ '" ^he religious 
 revival, 496; joins the king at 
 Gloucester, 509 ; his death, 544^ 
 
 Leofnc. chancellor to the Conlbssor, 
 525.; Bishop of Crediton, 52<;, c-^6 
 
 Leofsige. Ealdorman of Ess^x. I58 and 
 '/^/^3- 3 and 4 ; his jurisdiction ove 
 the reeves of Oxford and Bucking 
 
 with the pirates, 378; his -pride 
 
 anddaring."378and«./.3;SlIys 
 ;^fic,379 and note i ; banished, 379 
 and »oU 2. ^"» J/y 
 
 Leofwine, Bishop of Lichfield. «8 
 Leofvvme, Ealdorman of the llvviccas 
 357,//^/^ 1, 358 ; of Mercia, 403, 409.' 
 LeoAyine. son of Godwine. fliesTo 
 
 Dublin. 510 ; his earldom, 544. 
 Leominster, the Abbess of, 48^ 
 Leonaford, 153. ^ *^' 
 
 Lethra. 347 and note. 
 Lewes, mint at, 219: tolls of, 320. 
 Lewis the Gentle, Emperor, supports 
 
 Harold m Jutland, 61. ^ 
 
 Le\yis the German, his struggle with 
 ^ P'rates, 141 ; his death, 14T 
 Lewis in King of the West Franks 
 
 clefeats Guthrum at Saucourl, ,41 ! 
 
 his death, 141. ' ^ ' 
 
 Lewis "from over -sea. 
 
 r'u 1 ---— "'v-i - .->crt, son of 
 Charles the Simple and Eadgifu, at 
 the court of ^Ethelstan, 2C4; re- 
 called by the West Franks? 2 C4 • 
 breaks with Hugh of Paris and the 
 Normans, 255; recalls his mother, 
 255; his alliance with ylithelstan 
 and Am ulf of Flanders, 256 ; break- 
 up of their league. 256; his war 
 w n- "°' ?56; league of Hugh, 
 ]\illiam, and Arnulf against. 2<r6 • 
 driven frorn Lorraine, 261 ; recon' 
 ciled with William, Otto, and Huch 
 26r ; master of Normandy, 262 • 
 taken prisoner by Harald Blaatand 
 
 f*. 
 
592 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 and the Normans, 268 ; his libera- 
 tion demanded by Eadmund, 268. 
 Lewton, Witenagemot at, 213, note i, 
 
 215, note's. 
 Lichfield, bishops of, see Kynesige, 
 
 Leofwine. 
 J^i^ge, a priest of, his Life of St. Dun- 
 
 stan, 269, note 2. 
 Limerick founded by Wikings, 71. 
 Limoges pillaged by Wikings, 73. 
 Lincoln, one of the Five Boroughs, 
 117; its lawmen, 117, 432, 442, note 
 3 ; submits to Eadward the Elder, 
 199 ; its growth, 432 ; connection of 
 its merchants with the North, 431 ; 
 its merchant-gild, 432. 
 Lincolnshire, 226, 227 ; trithings and 
 wapentakes in, 117; Danish settle- 
 ments in, 117 ; attached to the Mer- 
 cian earldom, 536 ; joined with 
 Leicester and Nottingham under 
 Beorn, 479, 482. 
 Lindisfarne plundered, 49, 89 ; Bishop 
 
 Eardulf expelled from, 102. 
 Lindiswaras, land of, becomes Lincoln- 
 shire, 226, 227. 
 Lindsey, kings of, 38, note I ; descents 
 of the \Vikings on, 74 ; its bishop 
 expelled by the Danes, 89 ; submits 
 to Swein, 393 ; negotiates with 
 Cnut, 396. 
 Literature under i^lfred, 148-151 ; 
 English prose, its birth, 153 ; its 
 character, 154 and notes; ^Elfred's 
 translations, 155-157. J^i ; the 
 Chronicle, 158-160 and notes ; lit- 
 erature under /Elfred's successors, 
 284 and note 1 ; influence of the 
 Glastonbury school on, 285 ; differ- 
 ence between the first and second 
 schools of, 285 ; its revival under 
 Dunstan and Eadgar, 325, 327. 
 Lithsmen of London, 443; support 
 
 Harald Harefoot's claims, 462. 
 Lochlann, White, 63, note I. 
 London, the mother-city of Essex, 143 ; 
 under Mercian rule, 437-439 ; con- 
 quered by Ecgberht, 143 ; sacked 
 by the Wikings, 75, 143 ; Danes win- 
 ter at, 100, note 2 ; doubtful story 
 of /Elfred's besieging them there, 
 100, note 2 ; becomes subject to 
 Guthrum, 1 18, 144 ; passes into Al- 
 fred's hands, 144 ; repeopled by 
 him, 144 and note ; its walls restored, 
 188, 441 ; intrusted to /Ethelred of 
 Mercia, 144, 164 ; its severance from 
 Essex and formation of its depen- 
 
 dent shire, 145 and note 2, 228 ; its 
 situation, 145, note 2 ; its men attack 
 the Danes in Essex, 165 ; taken from 
 Mercia and annexed to Wessex by 
 Eadward the Elder, 188 ; mint at, 
 219; possibly included in the East- 
 Saxon ealdormanry, 250 ; ^lithelred 
 IL gathers a fleet at, 361 ; repulses 
 Swein and Olaf, 364 and note l ; 
 successfully resists Swein, 394 ; 
 sends hostages to him, 394 ; yEthel- 
 red returns to, 396; Athelred dies 
 at, 399 ; besieged by Cnut and Ead- 
 ric, 399 ; Eadmund chosen king in, 
 399; its defence against Cnut, 399 ; 
 ceded to Cnut, 401, note; Cnut 
 crowned at, 408; obscurity of its 
 early history, 434; disappearance 
 of Roman life from, 434, 435, 439. 
 note 2 ; its heathenism, 435 ; its 
 growth, 435 ; church and monastery 
 of St. Paul at, 435 ; its trade, 438, 
 440, 445 ; sokes in, 436 ; churches 
 in, 436, 438, note I ; its growth under 
 Bishop Erkenwald, 438, note i ; its 
 oldest part, 438 ; site of its port, 
 438; its wic- reeve or port -reeve, 
 438, 443 ; Off"a's vill in, 439 and note 
 I ; East-Cheap, 440; its bridge, 439, 
 note 2 ; its geographical position, 
 440 ; its importance under .^^Ethel- 
 stan, 442 ; its frith-gild, 442 ; its 
 eight moneyers, 219, 442 ; cnichten- 
 gild, 443 ; merchant-gild, 443, 462 ; 
 connection of its municipal with its 
 ecclesiastical life, 441, note 3, 443 ; 
 its port-mannimot, 443 ; its growth 
 under Athelstan's successors, 443, 
 444 ; under Eadgar and /Ethelred, 
 445,446; Danes settled in, 446; its 
 taxation in Cnut's first year, 447 ; 
 becomes the centre of the kingdom 
 under Cnut, 447; its lithsmen, 443, 
 462 ; Flemish merchants in, 499 ; 
 declares for Godwine, 515; Ead- 
 ward the aetheling dies at, 545 ; sur- 
 renders to William, 552 ; his char- 
 ter to, 553; Witenagemots at, 408, 
 509, 515; bishops of, see Dunstan, 
 Erkenwald, Mellitus, Spearhafoc, 
 Theodred, William, Wini. 
 Lorraine harried by the Wikings, 141 ; 
 its loyalty to the Karolingian house, 
 256 ; becomes subject to Lewis 
 from over-sea, 256; Lewis driven 
 out of, 261. 
 Lorraine, Lower, see Godfrey. 
 Lotharingians in royal chapel, 525, 526. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ^^'f^' 452; possibly granted bv 
 Eadgar to Kenneth, 452 ; granted 
 by Cnut to Malcolm IL, 4s v re- 
 sults of the cession, 453. 
 
 •' Lunden-wara," the, 441, uote 3. 
 
 Lyderic, Count of Flanders, 492. 
 
 Lymne, Wikings land at, 163. 
 
 593 
 
 M 
 
 Macbeth, Arormaer of Moray, murders 
 Duncan, 475 ; succeeds him as King 
 of Scots, 475, 538; defeated by Si- 
 ward, 539 ; his death, 539. ^ 
 
 Maerleswegen, shire- reeve of Deira 
 joins revolt against Tostig, C41' 
 note 2. ^ •'^ ' 
 
 Magesastas, 400 ; join Edmund Iron- 
 side, 400 ; see Herefordshire. 
 
 Magnus, son of St. Olaf, King of Nor- 
 way, 458 ; treaty with Harthacnut, 
 45»; claims throne of Denmark 
 475 ; drives Swein Estrithson out' 
 403; threatens to invade Ens^land 
 483. * ' 
 
 Maine conquered bv Geoffrey Martel 
 
 489; by William;533. 
 Malcolm I., King of Scots, son of Con- 
 
 stantnie, 262 ; Cumbria granted to. 
 
 200. 
 
 Malcolm IL defeated at Durham, 158^ • 
 again invades Northumbiia, 4c-' 
 submits to Cnut, 452; receivefa 
 grant of Lothian, 453. 
 
 Malcolm III., son of Duncan, becomes 
 King of Scotland, 539 ; sworn broth- 
 er of 1 ostjg, 543 ; marries Marga- 
 >etj 556; swears fealty to William, 
 
 -Maidon fortified by Eadward the El- 
 der, 195 ; Danes defeated at, 196 • 
 victory of Norwegians at, 354. 
 Malger, Archbishop of Rouen, 531 
 Man, Isle of, colonized by the Norwe- 
 gians, 265 ; yEthelred II. makes a 
 descent upon, 368. 
 Manchester (Mancuniuni) fortified by 
 
 Eadward the Elder, 206. 
 Manors, labor-rolls of, 317-319 
 Margaret, daughter of the ietheling 
 
 Eadward, 536; her marriage, 556. 
 Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V 
 sought in marriage bv William of 
 Normandy, 498; marriage forbid- 
 den, 502 ; it takes place, 531. 
 Mellitus, Bishop of London, his mis- 
 sion - work, 434, 435 ; founds St. 
 Paul's, 435. 
 Melrose destroyed by the Danes, 89. 
 
 38 
 
 Merchant-gild of Lincoln, 432 ; Lon- 
 don, 443, 462 ; Nottingham. 422 
 
 Me. c.a, lingering heathenism i.^n 10 . 
 earliest written law in, 19: its con-' 
 dition at the close of the eighth cen- 
 tuiy, 43, 44 ; its five great ealdor- 
 men, 44, ,16, uote 3 ; its five reqions, 
 226 ; Its dependent relation to Wes- 
 se.v, 90, 137, ,84 . threatened by the 
 iJanes,9o ; makes peace with them, 
 91 ; pays tribute to them, 92 ; con' 
 
 ilun'M ^\''^""V ^°^ ' itsdi'vision 
 " ?,i i"^ ''"^' ^"Slish, lor, note 
 :,' ^7.' f astern or Danish Mercia. 
 
 ;^ ^'^""i,."'" ^^'^ ^^'^^ IJoroughs 
 116, 117; Western or English Mer- 
 cia, its extent, 116. 136; its impor- 
 tance, 136 ; its union with Wessex 
 under ^Ified, 137; the intellectual 
 revival under him, 148-150; raid of 
 lie NVikmgs upon, 187; ravaged by 
 Danes, 188; part of it annexed to 
 wessex, 188 ; wholly annexed, 199 • 
 traces of its separate existence in 
 the election of /Ethelstan, 209, note 
 2; traces of its original divisions, 
 226, 227; Its shire -organization, 
 226; derivation of its shire-names, 
 227 ; Ladgar chosen king of, 200 • 
 reunited to Wessex, 302 ; disappear-' 
 ance of monasticism in, 328 ; rav- 
 aged by Cnut 399 ; kings of, called 
 Kings of the English" by the 
 
 the Church, 68; their burial-place 
 at Kepton lor; see yEthelstan, 
 iieorhtwulf, Burhred, Ceolwulf Ead- 
 gar, Offa, Wiglaf, Wulfhere ; ealdor- 
 manry of, 137; created by yKlfied 
 247 ; sui>pressed by Eadward, 247 • 
 revived by Eadwig, 297 ; significance 
 ot Its revival, 297 ; its extent under 
 liadwig, 297 and 7iote 2 ; suppressed 
 342; revived in favor of Eadric,' 
 385; called " Myrcenarice," 392' 
 ealdormen of. sre yl^lfhere, ^Ifiic' 
 Athelred, Eadric ; earldom of, its 
 extent under Leofric, 479 ; Anther 
 1 educed, 481 ; again extended, 517 
 537; earls of, see ^Ifgar, Eadwine,' 
 i-eofric, Leofwine. 
 Meredydd, son of Owen, 359. 
 Mersc-wara, 75. 
 
 Merton, victory of the Danes at 
 99. 
 
 Middlesborough, 112. 
 
 Middlesex, its origin, 145, note 2, 146 
 
 228; part of East-Saxon ealdoiman- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 594 
 
 ry, 250 ; joined with Essex, etc., 
 under Leotwine, 544- 
 Middleton, Witenagemot at, 213, uoig 
 
 Mieczvslav, Duke of the Poles, 353. 
 Mildred, St., 420, uoU 2 ; church dedi- 
 cated to her in Bristol, 426 ; O.xford, 
 420 and note 2 ; London, 439. 
 Mills in Dorset, 7, «i'/^. 
 Milton, Hasting winters at, 163. 
 Mines, salt, in Cheshire, 7, note ; iron, 
 in Kent, 322 ; lead, in the Severn 
 Vallev ^22. 
 Mints, 219 ; at Bristol, 426 and note i ; 
 
 Gloucester, 422 ; 0.\ford, 138, 421. 
 Monarchy, its character and growth, 
 290, 291 ; causes of its weakness, 
 246, 247, 291 ; its struggle with feu- 
 dalism, 289, 290, 292, 293 ; see Eal- 
 dormanries, Ealdormen ; its alliance 
 with the Church, 67-69, 304, 305 ; 
 see Crown, King. 
 Monasticism, its decay, 12, 170 and 
 uole 1,328; revival of, 330 ; atti- 
 tude of Dunstan towards it, 330, 
 331, fiote ; of Eadgar, 330 ; its local 
 character, 331 ; causes of its failure, 
 331 ; its part in political contest, 
 337, 339, uole 2 ; attitude of God- 
 wine and Leofric towards, 495, 
 496. 
 Montacute, 554- 
 
 Montreuil taken by Arnulf, 255 ; re- 
 taken by William Longsword, 256. 
 Moot, folk-, its decline, 35 ; answers 
 . to "Thing," 55. 
 Moray, Mormser of, see Macbeth. 
 Morcant, under -king of the North 
 Welsh, present in yEthelstan's Wit- 
 enagemots, 215 and note i ; in Ea- 
 
 Morkere, son of ^Ifgar, succeeds Tos- 
 
 . tig as Earl of Northumbria, 547 ; 
 submits to W^illiam, 552, 553 ; re- 
 volts against him, 556 ; joins Here- 
 ward, 556. 
 
 Mortain, counts of, 375. 
 
 Mortemer, battle of, 533. 
 
 "Mund,"2i,«(?/^ 2,23. 
 
 " Mund-bryce, 21, note 2. 
 
 Munster, Ivar the Boneless in, 86. 
 
 "Myrcenarice," for Mercia, 392. 
 
 N 
 
 Nantes sacked by the Wikings, 73. 
 Neal of St. Sauveur, 486. 
 Nicaea, Robert the Devil dies at, 457. 
 Nicolas n., Pope, 558; consecrates 
 
 Walter and Gisa, 558; Tostig's 
 visit to, 546, uole I, 558. 
 " Nithing," 504. 
 Norfolk, 228, note. 
 Norhamshire, 221. 
 
 Normandv, its connection with Eng- 
 lish historv, 234, 235 ; with the Eng- 
 lish Danelaw, 236 ; its influence on 
 French and English politics, 237, 
 239 ; claims to supremacy over the 
 Bretons, 240; attacked by Hugh 
 the Great and the liretons, 240 ; its 
 greatness under William Long- 
 sword, 261 ; revolts against him, 
 372 ; its anarchy after his death, 
 261 ; mastered by Lewis, 262 ; 
 stirred up against him by Harald 
 Blaatand, 268 ; its first treaty with 
 England, 360,361, uole; its friendly 
 relation to the Northmen, 367, 370, 
 note 2; its growth under Richard 
 the Fearless, 309, 371-373; "»?^er 
 Richard the Good, 375 ; beginnings 
 of its connection with England, 376, 
 377 ; Emma and her sons take ref- 
 uge in, 395 ; and ^thelred, 395 ; 
 the English a^lhelings in, 396, 454; 
 its anarchy in William's early years, 
 457, 458; the Truce of God, 471 ; 
 Eadward's relations to, 473 ; revolts 
 against William, 487; "s relations 
 with I'landers, 497. 499 ; hatred of 
 Godwine, 519 ; laid under interdict, 
 531 ; dukes of, see Hrolf, Richard, 
 Robert, William. 
 Normans called "pirates" by the 
 Franks, 237 ; their temper, 404, 455, 
 457 ; Norman chaplains, 526 ; com- 
 panions of the aetheling Allfied, 
 their fate, 464 ; followers of Ead- 
 ward, 473 ; their aims, 490, 491 ; 
 outlawed, 516; take refuge in Scot- 
 land, 538. 
 Northampton submits to Eadward, 
 
 196 ; burned by Thurkill, 391. 
 Northamptonshire, 227 ; part of East- 
 Anglian ealdormanry, 250 and note 
 I ; joined with Northumbria under 
 Si'ward, 518; under Tostig, 544; 
 feorm of, 387, note 3. 
 Northmen, use and meaning ot the 
 name, 48, note, 63, note i, 65. note; 
 see Danes, Norwegians, Wikings. 
 Northumberland, 228, m'/^f I. 
 Northumbria, lingering heathenism m, 
 9 10 ; absence of written law in, 20 ; 
 fall of its royal house, 39 ; civil wars 
 in, 39, 40, 87 ; the Church in, during 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 if 
 
 the anarchy, 40 ; its schook, 40, 41 ; 
 submits to Ecgberht, 91 and fioic 4 ; 
 first appearance of the Wikings in, 
 49 ; conquered by the Danes, 87, 
 88 ; ruin of its learning and civiliza- 
 tion, 89, 90; divided by Halfdene, 
 1 10; Its organization under the 
 Danes, 115, 117; joins a league 
 against Eadward, 20S; submission 
 to him, 208 and uole i ; .*:thelstan 
 ,-^PT^ ^'"S of, 212; rises against 
 ^theistan, 232, 243 ; descent of the 
 Ostmen upon, 242 ; severed from 
 Wessex, 246; its inhabitants in 
 vEthelstan's day, 252 and note 2 
 ;53; nses against Eadmund, 259: 
 Ulaf, Sihtric's son. King of, 277 ; its 
 Witan swear allegiance to Ead'red, 
 277; receive Eric Hiring as king, 
 278, 279 ; Eric driven from, 278, note 
 I, 279 ; ravaged by Eadred, 279 • 
 again submits to him, 279 ; Olaf re- 
 turns to, 279; its second revolt un- 
 der Eric, 280 ; its final submission, 
 2S0; Eadred becomes King of, 281 • 
 reduced to an earldom, 281 ; joins 
 the revolt against Eadwig, 300 and 
 note: absence of religious houses 
 ^T^^32>^\ submits to Cnut, 398 • in- 
 vaded by the Scots, 383, 417, 451 • 
 Its northern part joined to Scotland,' ' 
 452 ; earldom of, divided, 357 • re- 
 united, 383 ; struggle of the rival 
 earls in, 383, w/^,- again divided, 
 477 ; reunited under Siward, 477 
 note I ; Its independence under him' 
 474 ; Its wild condition, 477 and fioie 
 I, 478 and note, 479, 541, ,iote 2 • 
 Nottingham, etc., joined with it, 1:18 • 
 brought fully under the royal power' 
 540.541 and 7iote i; ravaged by 
 J"""^'', 555 ; kings of, see ^:thel- 
 red, ^thelstan, /Ethehvold, Alch- 
 red Alfwold, Bagsecg, Eadberht, 
 Eadred, Eardwulf, Ecgberht, Ecwils, 
 Eric, Guthferth, Halfdene, Olaf, Os- 
 red, Oswulf, Kagnald, Ricsig, Siht- 
 nc ; earls of, see /Elfhelm, Copsige, 
 Eadwulf, Ealdred, Eric, Morkere 
 Oslac, Oswulf, Siward, Tostig, Uht- 
 red, Walthcof ; see also Bernicia and 
 Deira. 
 
 Northweorthig, see Derby. 
 
 Norway, its beginnings, 60 ; its phys- 
 
 '^lu^^xT^'^'f' 53; starting-point 
 Ot the Northmen's first attack, 63 
 and uote i ; united under Harald 
 l-airhair, 162; Harald Blaatand 
 
 595 
 
 oyer -lord of, 349; ruled by Jarl 
 Hakon, 354; attacked by Swein 
 354 ; claimed by Olaf Tryg^vason' 
 363; revolts against Hakon, ^6:; • 
 under -kingdom of England, 407;' 
 ruled by Cnut's nephew Hakon, 
 407 ; revolts against Cnut, 448, 450 • 
 Svvein, son of Cnut, driven out of[ 
 458; Tostig takes refuge in, S48 : 
 kings of .^^ Cnut, Eric. Harald, 
 Magnus, Olaf, Swein. 
 Norwegians, character of their coun- 
 *•■>■' 5'. 53. 54. 171; their temper, 
 52; their love of fighting, 52 o- 
 of home, 52 and uote; of the' sea] 
 54.; tneir usages, 54, 55; their re- 
 hgion, 55; their warfare, 56; their 
 ships, 56 and notes, 84, tiote ; causes 
 of their movement to the south, 57, 
 58 and note, 59 ; their first coming 
 to England, 48,49 ; civil wars amonj;, 
 60 ; alliance with the Welsh, 64 7-' • 
 their settlement in Shetland, 63 ; hi 
 the Hebrides, Orkneys, Caithness 
 Sutherland, and Ross, 63, 103, 163* 
 207 ; in Ireland, 62-65, 71, 73> "ote 
 r.86; in Yorkshire, in, 112 ; i,i 
 Westmoringa-land, 263; in Man, 
 265 ; in Lancashire and the Lake 
 district, 265 and uote 2 ; in Iceland, 
 125, 162; their settlements marked 
 by the terminations " by," "thwaite," 
 and " d.ile," 1 1 1 ; movement towards 
 unity among, i6r, 162 ; threaten the 
 Scot kingdom, 207 ; their settlements 
 in Northumbria in ^thelstan's day, 
 252 and note 2, 253 ; enmity of Ead- 
 mund 10,258; attack East Anglia, 
 354 ; their victory at Maldon, 354 ; 
 treaty made with them, 359; its 
 policy, 362, note i; plot to "be- 
 trap^' them, 361, 362, 7wte i ; sack 
 Bamborough, 363 ; extent of their 
 
 Vi^M .' '^^°' 43t»432; see Northmen, 
 Wikings. 
 
 Norwich, its position and importance, 
 381,431 ; harried by Swein, 381 ; its 
 dues to the king, 431. 
 Nottingham, Danes winter at, 90 ; at- 
 tacked by >Ethelred and Burhred, 
 90; one of the Five Boroughs, 117, 
 199; Its situation and importance,' 
 199, 421 ; fortified by Eadward, 199 ; 
 his bridge and mounds there, 206^ 
 421 ; duties of its burghers, 422 ; its 
 I merchant -gild, 422; cnichten - gild, 
 422. *= 
 
 ! Nottinghamshire, 227 ; joined with 
 
59^ 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Lincoln and Leicester under Beorn, 
 479, 482; with Northumbna, 518, 
 
 544. o 
 
 Oath, its use in folk-moot, 24 ; see Al- 
 legiance. 
 Odda, Ealdorman of Devon, 106. 
 Odda or Odo, kinsman of Eadward 
 the Confessor, 474; 1^>^ earldom, 
 511,518,537; his deatli, 544- 
 Odin s ring, 103. 
 
 Odo, son of Robert the Strong, his 
 defence of Paris, 234 ; becomes king 
 of the West Franks, 234 ; hi^ sirug- 1 
 gle with Hasting, 163. \ 
 
 Odo, Bishop of Ramsbury, afterwards 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, his Uan- ; 
 ish origin, 214 and note 2, 313 and 
 note 2 ; negotiates a peace beiween 
 Eadmund and Ohif, 260 ; crowns 1 
 Eadwig, 295 ; sends Oswald to 
 Fleury, 329 ; denounces Eadwig s | 
 marriage, 299 ; withdraws from his j 
 court, 298, uofe 2, 299 ; sentences 
 Eadwig and /Elfgifu to separation, 
 299; consecrates Dunstan, 301, ^/^/'' 
 3; banishes /Elfgifu, 301, 302. ''^^*' 
 I ; returns to court, 302 and jwfe 2 ; 
 his death, 302. 
 Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, half-brother 
 of William the Conqueror, 485 ; Re- 
 gent of England, 553 ; Kent revolts 
 against him, 553. 
 Odo, brother of H enry, King of France, 
 
 533- ^ , , 
 Odo, see Odda. 
 
 Otfa, King of Mercia, his efforts to se- 
 cure the protection of pilgrims from 
 Alpine robbers, 17; his laws, 20, 
 tw(e I ; gives itthelwold Moll his 
 daughter to wife, 39; his coinage, 
 219 ; his vill in London, 439 and uote. 
 " Ofer-hvrnesse," 134, w^^'' 2. 
 Olaf, St.', King of Norway, 448; driven 
 out by Cnut, 450 ; his trading enter- 
 prises. 113; church of, in Chester, 
 425 ; London, 446 ; York, 434, 540- 
 Olaf the Fair, son of Ingialld, 86 and 
 note I ; attacks the Irish coast, 86 ; 
 occupies Dublin, 86; attacks the 
 Scot kingdom, 87. 
 Olaf or Anlaf, King of Dublin, his es- 
 cape from Brunanburh, 244, fiote I ; 
 raises the Danelaw against Ead- 
 mund, 259 ; storms Tamworth and 
 Leicester, 260 ; becomes Eadmund's 
 under-king, 260; his death, 259, 
 note. 
 
 Olaf or Anlaf, Sihtric's son, takes ref- 
 uge at the Scottish court, 242 ; mar- 
 ries the daughter of Constantine, 
 243 ; goes to Dublin, 233, 243 ; be- 
 comes the leader of the Ostmen, 
 243 ; raises the north against .-Ethel- 
 stan, 243 ; his escape from Brunan- 
 burh, 244 and nofe i ; succeeds 
 the other Olaf as King of Dublin, 
 259, note ; under-king of Northum- 
 bria beyond the Tees, 277 ; driven 
 out by Eadric, 278 ; returns, 279 ; 
 account of him in the saga, 281, 
 note ; rules in Dublin and becomes 
 Eadgar's ally, 310 and note i. 
 Olaf Tryggvason, his childhood, 113, 
 note 4; claims the throne of Nor- 
 way, 363 ; his W iking adventures, 
 363 ; joins Swein in an invasion of 
 England, 364; his conversion and 
 baptism, 363, note 3; treaty wuth 
 itthelred and withdrawal, 365 ; 
 saga of his death, 368-370. 
 Olaf, King of Sweden, 368. 
 Olaf, called "Tree-feller," 51, note. 
 Olnev, treaty of, 401. 
 Onund, the '" Road-maker," 51, note. 
 Ordgar, Ealdorman of the Wealhcyn, 
 303 ; father-in-law of /Ethelwokl, 
 303, note 2 ; of Eadgar, 303, note i, 
 307, note I. 
 Ordmaer, Ealdorman, 307, note I. 
 Orknevs, Wikings in, 63, 163, 207 ; 
 Harald Faiihair sets up a Norse 
 earldom in, 163 and note 3, 207; 
 starting -poii.c of attacks on the 
 Scot kingdom, 207 ; jarls of, masters 
 of Caithness, 102, 538 ; of the west- 
 ern isles, 538, 539 ; see Sigurd. 
 Ormside, 265. 
 
 " Orosius," /Elfred's translation ot, 
 I 155, note, 156. 157 ; first account of 
 Denmark, 347, note. 
 Osbeorn, son of Ulf, 469. 
 Osbeorn, son of Siward, 539. 
 Osbern, Jarl, joins Guthrum, 93 ; slain 
 i at Ashdown, 93 and note i. 
 '• Osbern, his "Life of St. Dunstan," 269, 
 ! note 2 ; his account of the revolt 
 i against Eadwig, 300, note. 
 Osbern, chaplain to Eadward, 526. 
 Osbuiga, mother of yEHVed, 173. 
 Osqar, Clerk of Glastonbury, sent to 
 i Fleury, 329 and Jiote 2. 
 Oslac, the " great earl " of Northum- 
 bria, 311 ; date of his elevation, 
 ' 303, wt?/<f 1,311 ; banished, 339- 
 1 Osred, son of Alchred, King of North- 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 unibiin, 40: revolt against, 40 ; 
 takes refuge in Man, 40 ; slain, 40. 
 Ustmen, the name, 71, 86, note 2 ; alli- 
 ance with the Welsh, 64, 77 ; their 
 quarrels, 72, 73, note i ; attack the 
 Scot kingdom, 86; their alliance 
 with the Danes of Northumbria, 
 205, 232, 242 ; stir up the Danelaw 
 to revolt, 243, 259 ; invade Mid- 
 Bntain, 260 ; their alliance with the 
 English kings, 310 ; with Godwine, 
 510; their trade with Chester, 42-. • 
 with Bristol, 426. 
 Oswald, nephew of Archbishop Odo, 
 329; his northern blood, 313 and 
 note 2 ; at Fleury, 329 ; Bishop of 
 Worcester, 330 ; his work on the 
 Chronicle, 326; his share in the 
 monastic revival, 330; Archbishop 
 of \ork, 331; joins Dunstan in 
 crowning Eadgar, 336 ; crowns Ead- 
 ward, 338; his death, 327, //,v^. 
 Oswine, King of Cumbria, 242, note 4. 
 Oswin, last king of Deira, 38, note i 
 Oswulf, King of Northumbria, suc- 
 
 ceeds Eadberht, 39 ; slain, 39. 
 Oswulf, High Reeve of Bernicia, 281 • 
 made Earl of Northumbria, 281. ' ' 
 Oswulf, son of Eadwulf of Bernicia 
 revolts against Tostig, 542, note; his 
 rivalry with Copsige, 542, note; 
 slain, 542, note. 
 Othere, earliest authority for the set- 
 tlements of the Danes, 83, note 3 • 
 his account of the Northman's land,' 
 171, 172; his description of Den- 
 mark, 347, note. 
 Otto, son of the German king Henry 
 marries Eadgyth, daughter of Ead- 
 ward the Elder, 239; crowned at 
 • Aachen, 256; his war with Lewis 
 from over -sea, 256; drives Lewis 
 from Lorraine, 261 ; makes peace 
 with him, 261 ; revival of the Em- 
 pire under him, 286, 494 ; his claim 
 to supremacy, 286, 494; its limits, 
 495 ; sends ambassadors to Ead- 
 mund, 273 and 7iote; receives envoys 
 from Eadred, 2S6, note 2 ; his wars 
 with Harald Blaatand, 309, 349 ; his 
 alliance with Eadgar, 314, note 4; 
 his death, 349. 
 Owen, under-king of the North Welsh, 
 submits to i^thelstan, 211 ; present 
 m his Witenagemots, 215 and note 
 I ; in those of Eadred, 286. 
 Oxford, earliest evidence for its ex- 
 istence, 138, note 1 i Alfreds mint 
 
 597 
 
 at, 138 and note i, 421 ; foundation 
 of St. Hideswide's, 419; bordvr- 
 town of the Mercian ealdormanrv, 
 119. 421 ; annexed to Wessex by 
 Eadward the Elder, 188 ; its extent, 
 421; Its portmannimot, 420; its 
 parishes, 420, 421 ; its traffic along 
 1 hames, 421; its dealings with 
 Abingdon, 421 ; burned by Thur- 
 k«ll,390; thegns slain at, 397; Ead- 
 gar s Jaw renewed at, 408; Wite- 
 nagemots at, 397, 408, 462; Harald 
 Harefoot dies at, 466. 
 Oxfordshire, its origin, 228; its feorm, 
 3»7> "fte 3 ; taken from Mercia and 
 
 jo.nedvvithHereford,etc.,48i;with 
 East Angha, 544. 
 
 m 
 
 Pallig, brother-in-law of Swein, serves 
 
 under /Ethelred H., 367. 
 Palnatoki, a noble of Fiinen, Swein 
 brought up in his house, 350 ; gives 
 Harald Blaatand liis death-wound, 
 351; seizes Jomsborg and founds 
 a state there, 351. 
 Papacy, rival claimants of, 496 • its 
 
 revival under Leo IX., 497. * 
 Paris sacked by the Wikings, 77 • its 
 defence agaiiist Hrolf, 233 ; duchy 
 of, Its creation, 233; policy of Charles 
 the Simple towards, 234; dukes of, 
 see Hugh, Odo, Robert. 
 Parish the, growth of, 13; its relation 
 to the township, 14, jc;; priest of, 
 nis dues, 13; supersedes the tun- 
 reeve, 15, 
 Patrick, St., the younger, his tomb at 
 
 Glastonbury, 271, note 2. 
 Paul, St., church and monastery in 
 London, 435 ; portmannimot and 
 muster of the citizens in its church- 
 yard, 441, note 3, 443. 
 Pavia, birth-place of Lanfranc, 48;. 
 Peada, 38, note i. 
 Pen, battle of, 400. 
 
 Peter, chaplain to Eadward the Con- 
 fessor, 526, 527. 
 Peterborough sacked by Danes, 91 • 
 Chronicle of, 327, note. * 
 
 Pevensey, Godwine and his sons at, 
 
 504 ; William lands at, 549. 
 Picts, the, spoiled by Halfdene, no; 
 take Alclwvd, 263; rise of their 
 kingdom, 177; its extinction, 178; 
 name superseded by that of the 
 Scots, 178; king of, see Kenneth. 
 Pilgrimages, 15; their route, 17 ; their 
 
598 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 danger, 17, i8 ; their popularity, 18 ; 
 efforts for their protection, 17; en- 
 joined as penances, 18 ; their evil 
 consequences, 18; pilgrimage ot 
 i^^.thelwulf, 77; of Ceadwalla, 16; 
 of Ine, 16; of Mercian and East- 
 Saxon kings, 16 ; of Cnut, 449 ; of 
 Robert the Devil, 456 ; of S wein, 5 1 3. 
 Plegmund, a Mercian, Archbishop of 
 
 Canterbury, 150. 
 Poetry, English, see Songs. 
 Poitou, 489. 
 
 Ponthieu, its relation to Flanders and 
 Normandy, 255 ; war between Ar- 
 nulf of Flanders and William Long- 
 sword in, 255 ; subject to William 
 the Conqueror, 533; Harold wrecked 
 at, 547 ; counts of, see Guy, Herlwin, 
 Ingelram. 
 Popes, see Alexander, John, Leo, Nico- 
 las. 
 Porlock, Harold at, ^14. 
 Portmannimot of Oxford, 420 ; of 
 
 London, 443 ; the " husting," 446. 
 Port-reeve of London, 443. 
 " Primarius," 275 and note 4. 
 Progresses, royal, 31 ; their effects m 
 creating the great officers of the 
 household, 32 ; on the system of 
 justice, 32 ; their extension under 
 Eadgar, 335 ; under Cnut, 409. 
 Pucklechurch, Eadmund slain at, 269. 
 
 R 
 
 Races, mixture of, in Britain, 3 ; its re 
 suits. 3, 4. 
 
 Ragnald, King of Northumbria, 262, 
 note ; under-king of Ueira, 277. 
 
 Ralf of Mantes, nephew of Eadward 
 the Confessor, 474 ; strife of his fol- 
 lowers with the English, 508; joins 
 Eadward against Godwine, 509 ; re- 
 ceives part of Swein's earldom, 511 ; 
 his forces routed by vElfgar and 
 Gruflfydd, 544 ; his death, 544. 
 
 Ralf of W'acev,47i. 
 
 Ralf ofToesny, 533- 
 
 Ramsbury, bishops of, see Hermann, 
 
 Odo. 
 Ramsey, Cnut's gifts to, 416; W yth- 
 
 mranri Abbot of, 525. 
 Randolf of Bayeux, 486. 
 Rapes of Sussex, 222. 
 Reading, Danes at, 94, 97, 98. 
 Rechru, 63, note 4. 
 Reeve, the king's, his duties, 229 ; see 
 
 High-reeve, Wic-reeve, Shire-reeve, 
 
 Port-reeve, Tun-reeve. 
 
 Reginbold, Chancellor, 527. 
 
 Repton, burial-place of the Mercian 
 
 kings, Id ; Danes winter at, loi. 
 Revenue, the royal, its distribution 
 
 under itllfred, 174; its sources, 387, 
 
 note 3. 
 Rheims, Council of, 500; its political 
 
 results, 501, 502. 
 Richard the Fearless, son and succes- 
 sor of William Longsword, 261 ; 
 reared in the Bessin, 372 ; his ac- 
 cession followed by a civil war, 262 ; 
 his alliance with Harald Blaatand, 
 348 ; Normandy under him, 309, 373, 
 374 ; treaty with ^-tthelred, 361, 362, 
 note. 
 Richard the Gooo, son of Richard the 
 Fearless, 375 ; his alliance with 
 itthelred, 376; gives a refuge to 
 /Ethelred and his house, 395. 
 Richard HL, son and successor of 
 Richard the Good, 455 ; betrothed 
 to Adela of France, 502. 
 Richard, son of Scrob, 474. 
 Richmondshire, 221. 
 Ricsig, King of Northumbria, 1 10 ; his 
 
 death, no. 
 Ridings, see Trithings. 
 Ripon, Wilfrid's abbev at, destroyed 
 by the Danes, 89 ; the church de- 
 stroyed by Eadred, 89, note i, 279 ; 
 ^thelstan's grants to, 213. 
 Riponshire, 221. 
 
 Roads, their dangers in the tenth cen- 
 tury, 323 ; Roman, see Watling 
 Street, Fosse, Icknield. 
 Robert the Devil succeeds Richard 
 HL as Duke of Normandy, 455 ; 
 subdues Brittany, 455 ^ restores 
 King Henry of France, 455 ; sup- 
 ports Baldwin of Flanders, 455 ; 
 prepares to invade England, 456 ; 
 his fleet wrecked, 456 ; names Will- 
 iam as his successor, 457; pilgrim 
 to the Holy Land, 456 ; his death, 
 
 457- 
 Robert, Abbot of Jumieges, chaplain 
 of Eadward the Confessor, 474, 526, 
 527 ; his influence over the king, 
 482 ; made Bishop of London, 482, 
 527; Archbishop of Canterbury, 506; 
 his quarrel with Godwine, 507 ; his 
 visit to William, 512, note; his flight, 
 515, 518; outlawed, 517; protests 
 against Stigand's intrusion, 519, 
 558 ; his deposition held invalid, 
 
 519. 558- 
 1 Robert the Strong, Duke of Pans, 233. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Rochester attacked by the Wikings, 
 75, 142, 367 ; relieved by Alfred,' 
 142 ; mint at, 219 ; see of, its lands 
 ravaged by order of /Lthelied H., 
 342, 343 ; bishops of, see Si ward. 
 
 Rodenc Mawr, King of North Wale-; 
 pays tribute to Mercia, 77 ; alliance 
 of his house with the Northmen, 
 176; its submission to /Elfred, 176.' 
 
 Rodward, Archbishop of York, 212, 
 213, note I ; his death, 213. 
 
 Roeskilde, Harald Blaatand builds a 
 church and castle at, 350; Cnut 
 appoints an English bishop to, 416. 
 
 Roger of Toesnv, 404, 455. 
 
 Kognwald, son of Harald Fair -hair 
 burned by Eric Bloody-axe, 2?-' 
 
 Ro]lo,j^^ Hrolf. 
 
 Rome, /Elfred's visit to, 95 ; yElfred 
 sends alms to, 100 and vote 2 ; his 
 intercourse with, 175 ; Saxon school 
 at, 19, 449. 
 
 Romney secured by William, 551. 
 
 Ross, Wikings in, 63, 207. 
 
 Rouen sacked by the Wikings, -jt. • 
 attacked by Hrolf, 234; ]oyal to' 
 William, 487. 
 
 Rudolf of Burgundy claims the West- 
 Frankish crown, 239 ; becomes king, 
 240 ; defeats the Northmen of the 
 Loire, 240; receives the homage of 
 William Longsword, 241 ; his death, 
 254. 
 
 Runcorn fortified by ^Ethelflxd, 194. 
 
 599 
 
 Saintes pillaged by the W^ikingp, 73. 
 
 Salt-works in Dorset, 7 and note; 
 Cheshire, 7, note; Worcestershire, 
 322 ; Kent, 322 and note i. 
 
 Sandwich, raid of the Wikings on, 75 ; 
 its early importance as a seaport] 
 74 and note 2 ; yEthelred's fleet as- 
 sembles at, 386, 428, note i ; Swcin 
 lands at, 393; becomes the main 
 port of the Channel, 428; its " but- 
 secarls," 428 and note i ; its ferry- 
 dues and port-tolls granted by Cnut 
 to Christ -Church, Canterbury, 428 
 and note 2 ; seized by Harald Hare- 
 foot, 429 and note i ; its possession 
 disputed between Christ-Church and 
 St. Augustine's, 429; its herring 
 fisheries, 429 ; Harthacnut lands at, 
 466 ; Eadward gathers a fleet at, 
 ^ 483,503,514- 
 
 Saxony, duchy of, attacked by Harald 
 Blaatand, 349. 
 
 Scale How, 265. 
 
 Scandinavia, its dependent position 
 under Cnut, 407 ; supplies iron to 
 Britain, 430; see Danes, Northmen, 
 Norwegians, Swedes, Wikings. 
 Scargate tortified by /Ethelflxd, 190. 
 Schools, see Abingdon. /Llfred, Bee,' 
 Glastonbury, Rome, Winchester, 
 W orcestei, York. 
 Scots subject to Uie Picts, 177; their 
 name supersedes that of Picts, 178; 
 join a league against yl':thelstan, 
 211,243; defeated at Brunanburh, 
 244; their alliance with Eadred, 
 277; invade Northumbria, 417 • de- 
 feated at Durham, 383,452; king- 
 dom of, attacked by the Ostmcn, 
 87 ; by Thorstein and Sigurd, 102 • 
 its extent in the time of ^<:ifred, 
 177; its alliance with him, 178; its 
 danger from the Northmen, 206, 
 207 ; its relations with Eadgar, 31 1 ; 
 its acquisition of Edinburgh, 311' 
 451;. ot Lothian, 452; its altered 
 relations to England, 452, 453 ; its 
 decline under Duncan, 538 ; Nor- 
 man refugees from England in, 538 • 
 , invaded by Siward, 538; the aeihel- 
 ing Eadgar takes refuge in, 554, 
 556 ; kings of, see Constantine, Dun- 
 can, Kenneth, xMacbeth, Malcolm. 
 Seal, Its use under Eadward, 468, 476 
 note. * 
 
 " Secundarius," ^2, note i ; office held 
 by Alfred, 82, note i, 96 ; by God- 
 wine, 412 ; instituted by Cnut, 4'76. 
 note ; continued under the Confes- 
 sor, 476, note ; its use, 524. 
 
 Selsey, bishops of, see ^thelric, Heca. 
 
 Selwood, the thegns of Wessex con'- 
 spire at, 80; boundary of East and 
 West Wessex, 224. 
 
 " Sclwoodshire," the diocese of Eald- 
 helm, 222, note i. 
 
 Scmland, 278, 348. 
 
 Senlac, battle of, 549-551. 
 
 Serf, j-^^ Villein. 
 
 Seterington, Carl's son slain at, 47S 
 
 note. ■ 
 
 Seven Boroughs, two chief thegns of, 
 
 slain by Eadric at Oxford, 397. 
 Severn, river, fisheries in, 422 and noU 
 
 2 ; lead-works in valley of, 322. 
 Shaftesbiiry, abbey founded by Alfred 
 
 at 127; mint at, 219; Eadward the 
 
 Martyr buried at, 342. 
 Sherborne, see of, 45 ; bishops of, see 
 
 Laldhelm, Ealhstan. 
 
 IK I 
 lii 
 
6oo 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Shcrstone, battle of, 400. I 
 
 Sheppey ravaged by the Wikings, 62 ; 
 they winter in, 76, 77 ; the Danes \n 
 Kent driven thither by Eadmund 
 Ironside, 400. > 
 
 Shetland, Wikings in, 63, 163; ex- 
 pelled by Harald Fair-hair, 163. 
 
 Ship-monev, 387, no/e 3. 
 
 Ships of the Wikings, 56, 57 and uotes, 
 84, fiote I. 
 
 Shires, their West-Saxon origin, 135, 
 uot<f 5, 222; uses of the word, 222, 
 223 ; instances of shires in Corn- 
 wall, Kent, Sussex, Yorkshire, 222, 
 223 ; in York, 221, 433, »ofe i, 442, 
 fioU 3; later shires preserve the ad- 
 ministrative forms of the "folk, 
 
 222 ; first named in the laws of Ine, 
 
 223 ; use of the word by Asser and 
 ALlired, 22^, fio/e ; early formation 
 in Wessex, 222-224; Hampshire 
 and Wiltshire, 223; difference in; 
 names of earlier and later shires, 
 225 ; extended to the eastern de- 1 
 pendencies of Wessex, 225 ; estab- | 
 lished throughout Wessex by /Ethej- 
 stan's time, 225 and tioie 2 ; their 
 introduction into Mercia, 225-227 ; 
 into the Danelaw, 227; their late 
 introduction into East Anglia and 
 the north, 228, tiote ; organization 
 of the whole kingdom in, its date, 
 228, nofg; difference of their organ- 
 ization in Wessex and in Mid-Brit- 
 ain, 228, 229: sums due to the king 
 from, 229 ; financial use of the sys- 
 tem, 229. 
 
 Shire-man, see Shire-reeve. 
 
 Shire-moot the sheriff's court, 230. 
 
 Shire-reeve, his office and duties, 223, 
 230 ; his importance in the shire- 
 moot, 230, fwfe 2 ; growth of his au- 
 thority, 230 ; its executive character, 
 230, fiofe 3. 
 
 Shoebury, Wikings encamp at, 165. 
 
 Shrewsbury, castle at, 554. 
 
 Shropshire, 227. 
 
 Sidroc the Old and Sidroc the Young, 
 jarls, join Guthrum, 93 ; slam at 
 Ashdown, 93, w<7//r I. 
 
 Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 negotiates a treaty with the Nor- 
 wegians, 360, tio/e I ; position in the 
 councils of /Ethelred, 411. 
 
 Sigurd, Jail of Orkneys, 102. 
 
 Sigwald, Jarl at Jomsborg, 353' 39© ; 
 his vow at Harald Blaatand's funer- 
 al feast, 3^3. 
 
 Sihtric, King of Dublin, driven out, 
 becomes King at York, 233 ; mar- 
 ries a sister of itthelstan, 210; his 
 death, 211. 
 Silver How, 265. 
 Silverside, 265. 
 
 Siward becomes Earl of Northumbria, 
 469, 476; of Nottingham, North- 
 ampton and Huntingdon, 518; his 
 independent position, 474 ; his char- 
 acter, 477 ; his surname of " Digera," 
 477 ; slays Eadwulf, 477 and uoU 2 ; 
 marries Ealdred's daughter, 477 ; 
 joins the king against Godwine, 
 509 ; his influence, 537 ; Duncan's 
 sons take refuge with him, 538 ; in- 
 vades Scotland, 539; establishes 
 Malcolm as its king, 539 ; his death, 
 540; his burial-place, 434, 540- 
 Siward, Bishop of Rochester, 558. 
 Siward, descendant of Earl Uhtred, 
 
 revolts against Tostig, 541, Jiote 2. 
 Skeggles Water, 265. 
 Skiringsal, centre of northern trade, 
 113, uo^e 3. 
 
 Slaves, the English, answer to the 
 Scandinavian thralls, 55 ; tolls on 
 the sale of, 319 ; efforts of the 
 Church in their behalf, 320 ; /Ethel- 
 stan's reform, 320; not bound to 
 work on Sundays, 320 ; allowed to 
 purchase their freedom, 320 and fio/e 
 3 ; forms of manumission and eman- 
 cipation, 321 ; enactment of the 
 Synod of Chelsea concerning, 321. 
 Slave-trade among the Danes, 113 and 
 tiote 4; at Chester, 426; Bristol, 
 427; London, 438; vain attempts 
 to abolish, 427. 
 Sleswick, 60. 
 
 Sokes, growth of, 29 ; the soke a priv- 
 ilege of the thegn, 129. 
 Somerset, origin of its name, 225 ; vic- 
 tory of its fyrd at the Parret, 72 ; 
 Eadmund Ironside raises troops in, 
 399; detached from Wessex and 
 joined with Hereford, etc., under 
 Swein, 481 ; ealdormen of, 224, uo/e ; 
 see ^thelnoth. 
 Somerton, 225. 
 
 Songs, national, preserved among the 
 gleemen, 324; by William of 
 Malmesbury, 284, uote 2; m the 
 Chronicle, 209, fiofe 4, 243, nofe 3, 
 326 ; Northumbrian songs preserved 
 in West-Saxon versions, 285. 
 Southampton gives its name to Hamp- 
 shire, 222 ; mint at, 219 ; Swein and 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 601 
 
 Olaf winter at, 365 ; Eadward the 
 Confessor makes an unsuccessful 
 descent at, 462 ; ealdormanry of, see 
 W essex (Central). 
 Southwark, Ciodwine encamps at, trio • 
 burned by William, 552. ' 
 
 Spearhafoc, Bishop of London, 507 ; 
 his appointment quashed by the 
 Pope, 507 ; withdraws, 518. 
 Stafford fortified by /Ethelflsd, 192 • 
 
 gives its name to a shire. 226. 
 Staffordshire, its origin, 226. 
 Staller, or constable, his office, 523. 
 Stamford, one of the Five Boroughs, 
 1 16, 197; its lawmen, 117, 442, w/^ 
 3 ; fortified by Eadward the Elder. 
 197. 
 Stamford Bridge, battle of, 549. 
 Stigand, Priest of Assandun, 525, 557 • 
 chaplain to Cnut, 557 ; to Harald 
 Harefoot, 525, 557; first nomina- 
 tion to a bishopric, 557 ; Bishop of 
 Elmham, 557 ; friend of Emma, 557 • 
 supports Godwine, 510, 516; de- 
 posed and restored, 557 ; Bishop of 
 Winchester, 558; Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, 519, 558; his uncanon- 
 ical position, 519; holds both sees, 
 558; his wealth, 558; gets a pallium, 
 548, 558 ; consecrates two bishoj)s, 
 558; feeling against him in Nor- 
 mandy, 519 ; at Rome, 558 ; in Eng- 
 land, 558-560 ; W^ulfstan's repudia- 
 tion ot him, 559 ; present at Ead- 
 ward's death, 560. 
 Strath- Clyde ravaged by Halfdene, 
 102 and uo/e 2, no; set free by the 
 wreck of Northumbria, 176; joins 
 the northern league against Ead- 
 ward, 208; submits to him, 208, 
 uote; its border extended to the 
 Derwent, 266; the name replaced 
 by Cumbria, 176, 266. 
 Streoneshealh destroved by Danes 
 88; replaced by Whitbv, 89. ' 
 
 Strut-Harald, Jarl of Zceland, 3^2, 
 
 390. -^^ 
 
 Style, royal, of Eadward the Elder, 
 184 ; of i^thelstan, 231, 257, uofe 3 ; 
 of Eadmund, 257, uo/e 3 ; of Eadred, 
 275, fw/e 2, 276, uo/e 2, 287 ; of Ead- 
 par, 300, no/e, 301 and no/e 2. 
 Suffolk, 228, no/e. 
 
 Surrey forms part of the "Eastern 
 Kingdom," 66 ; its fvrd defeated by 
 the Wikings in Thanet, 76 ; attacked 
 by the Danes, 99 ; earldormen of, 
 224, tw/e; becomes a shire, 225 ; sup- 
 
 ports Godwine, 513, fio/e 2 ; joined 
 with Essex, etc., under Leofwine. 
 544- 
 Sussex forms part of the " Eastern 
 Kingdom," 66 ; its rapes, 222 ; be- 
 comes a shire of the Wcst-Saxon 
 rf^.V"' 225; its coast harried by 
 Child Wulfnoth the South Saxon, 
 390 and fio/e i ; supports Godwine, 
 513. '/^/«' 2 ; kings of, their extinc- 
 tion, 38, w/,r I. 
 
 Sutherland, Wikings in, 63, 207. 
 S\veden, its beginnings, 51 and ,>o/e, 
 00 ; settlement of the Danes in, 85 • 
 kings of, see Eric, Olaf. 
 Swein, son of Harald Blaatand. legends 
 of his childhood, 350 ; heads resist- 
 ance to Blaatand, 350, 351, uo/e i ; 
 his baptism, 350, uo/e i ; exiled by 
 his father, 351 ; succeeds him as 
 '*'"S»35i ; lestoies heathenism, 351 ; 
 struggle with Jomsborgers, 352 and 
 w/e I ; his marriage, 352, uo/e l ; his 
 vow at Hnrald's burial - feast, 352, 
 353 ; driven from Denmark, 353 • 
 his Wiking life, 353 ; joined by Olaf 
 Iryggvason in an invasion of Eng- 
 land, 364; lands at Southampton, 
 304; repulsed from London, 364 
 and uo/e i ; treaty with Ethelred, 
 305; vvithdraws from England, 365 • 
 recalled to Denmark, 368; wars 
 with Olaf of Sweden, 368; marries 
 Olaf s mother, 368 ; his victory over 
 Olaf Tryggvason, 368, 370; again 
 attacks England, 380 ; lands at Ex- 
 eter, 380 ; met by fyids of Wiltshire 
 and Hampshire, 380; invades East 
 Anglia, 381 ; breaks truce with Ulf- 
 cytel and plunders Thetford, 381 ; 
 defeats the East Anglians,38i ; re- 
 turns to Denmark, 382 ; sends Thur- 
 kill to attack England, 390; lands 
 at Sandwich, 393 ; enters the Hum- 
 mer, 393 ; joined by the Danelaw, 
 393; marches into Wessex, 394; 
 receives the submission of Winches- 
 ter, 394; repulsed from London, 
 394 ; receives the submission of 
 West Wessex, 394 ; receives host- 
 ages from London, 394 ; his death, 
 e 395. 
 Swein, son of Cnut, 404 ; driven from 
 
 Norway, 458 ; his death, 458. 
 Swein Estrithson claims the crown of 
 Denmark, 469 ; of England, 469 ; 
 Eadward's alleged promise to, 470 ; 
 his struggle with Magnus, 475, 483 ; 
 
602 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 sails to England, 554 ; bought off 
 
 by William, 554- . ^ ^ , r 
 Swein, son of Goclwine, 401 ; ^^' "' 
 Hereford, etc., 481 ; carries off the 
 Abbess of Leominster, 483; out- 
 lawed, 483 ; his restoration opposed 
 by Harold and Beorn, 504 ; murders 
 Beorn, 504 ; branded as " nithnig 
 and outlawed, 504; restored, 505; 
 flies to Flanders, 510; his earldom 
 divided, 511; his pilgrimage and 
 death, 513. 
 Swithiod, kingdom of, 60. 
 tiwithun, St., Bishop of Winchester, 
 70 ; his fidelity to AUhelwulf, 80 ; 
 his historical work, 158, 159 and w^/^ 
 2; church in London dedicated to, 
 444, note. rY 
 
 Taddenescyif, 277. 
 
 Taillefer at Senlac, 530. 
 
 Tamar, river, boundary of West W ales, 
 
 64,212. 
 
 Tamworth, residence of the Mercian 
 kings, 44. 192, 226; fortified by 
 yLthelflaed, 192; stormed by the 
 Ostmen, 260. ^ t , , 
 
 Taxation, national, under ^Ethelrec 
 II., 387, note 3; ship -levy and 
 Danegeld, 388, note; of London un- 
 der Cnut, 447. 
 
 Tempsford, Danes encamp at, 190; 
 taken by the English, 196. 
 
 Teowdor, under -king ot the North 
 Welsh, 215,//^/^ I- 
 
 Thames, river, the Danes sail up, 93 ; 
 its lower valley annexed to Wessex, 
 188 • boundary between the realms 
 of Eadwig and Eadgar, 301 and 
 
 note I. , . . /• 
 
 Thanet, victory of the Wikings in, 76 ; 
 
 ravaged by Eadgar, 335- , , 
 
 Thegns, origin of, 34; displace the 
 lEthelings, 34 ; their relation to the 
 
 king, 35 ; gro^^t^^ ^^ ^^^t^)"^^^.' ^^^ ' 
 its extension under /Elfred, 130; 
 
 three classes of, 129; their wealth 
 and luxury, 322 ; their share in tax- 
 ation, 387, note I. 
 
 Thelwell, Eadward the Elder at, 20^. 
 
 Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 
 320. 
 Theodred, Bishop of the "Lunden- 
 
 wara," 441, ^^ote 3. 
 Theow, see Slave. 
 Thetford, Ivar and Hubba winter at. 
 
 91 ; plundered by the Danes, 381. 
 •* Thing " corresponds to " moot," 55 ; 
 
 replaces it, 115; survival of the 
 
 word at Thingwall, 112, note 2. 
 Thored, Gunnar's son, 314. ^^o^e 1 ; 
 
 harries Westmoringa-land, 263, note 
 
 2, 3H, note I. 
 Thored, Ealdorman, 357,"^^^ ^ J 'e^"- 
 
 er of the fyrd with ^Ifric, 361. 
 Thorgils, leader of the Wikings, 64 
 
 and note i ; settles in Ulster, 71 ; 
 
 destrovs Armagh, 71 ; slain, 72. 
 Thorstein, son of Olaf the Fair, invades 
 
 the Scot kingdom, 102. 
 "Thrall," 55. ^ , 
 
 Thunresfeld, Witenagemot at, 216 and 
 
 note 2, 225, note 2. 
 
 Thurbrand, 478, note. ^ 
 
 Thurcytel, Jarl, holds lUickingham, 
 195 ; submits to Eadward the Elder, 
 195, 203. 
 
 Thurterth, Jarl, of Northampton, sub- 
 mits to Eadward the Elder, 196, 203. 
 
 Thuikill, son of Strut-Harald.of Zee- 
 land, 390 ; sent to England by Swein, 
 390; his ravages, 391 ; defeats the 
 East- Anglian fyrd, 391 ; bought oft 
 by ^thelred, 392 ; sacks Canter- 
 bury and seizes Archbishop Ai\i- 
 heah, 392 ; enters .-Ethelred's ser- 
 vice as a mercenary, 392 ; defends 
 London against Swein, 394 ; rejoins 
 the Danes, 396 ; makes peace be- 
 tween Harald and Cnut, 396 ; F:al- 
 dorman of East Anglia, 403 ; ban- 
 ished, 407. 
 "Thwaite" in place-names, 111,265, 
 
 note 2. 
 Thyra, wife of Gorm the Old, 348. 
 Tithes, their institution, 13 and note 3, 
 
 77, note. 
 " Toft " in place-names, 265, note 2. 
 Tolls on the sale of slaves, 320 ; at 
 Lewes, 320 ; on herrings at Abing- 
 don, 421 ; at Sandwich, 429, note i. 
 "Ton" in place-names, 265, 7/ote 2. 
 Torksey, Danes encamp at, 10 1 ; its 
 
 trading importance, 421. 
 Tostij;, son of Godwine, marries Judith 
 of Flanders, 504; flies with Godvvme 
 to Flanders, 510; Eadward's favor 
 to, 534; visits Pope Nicolas, 546, 
 tiote I, 558 ; Earl of Northumbna, 
 540; his character, 541; his stern 
 justice, 541 and note 2 ; becomes the 
 sworn brother of Malcolm, 543 ; ris- 
 ing of Northumbria against him, 547; 
 its leaders, 541, ^lote 2 ; goes to Flan- 
 ders, 547 ; goes to Norway and joins 
 Harald Hardrada in an invasion of 
 
 England, 549; engages "butsecarls" 
 at Sandwich, 428, note i ; his over- 
 throw at Stamford Bridge, 540. 
 
 Tottenhale, Danes defeated at, 187. 
 
 I oulouse, Wikings at, y^. 
 
 'J ouraine conquered by the counts of 
 Anjou, 489. 
 
 Towcester fortified by Eadward the 
 Elder, 196 ; attacked by Danes, 19c 
 
 Township, the, its relation to the par- 
 ish, 14, 15. 
 
 Trade, ^tiielstan's regulations con- 
 cerning, 218; inland trade in the 
 tenth century, 321-323. 419-426; 
 development of external tiatle, 423 
 etse^.; impulse given by the Danes, 
 423 ; trade on the east const, 429 • 
 of the Northmen, 430 ; of London,' 
 445 ; of Flanders, 492, 493 ; between 
 England and Flanders, 498. 
 
 T nthings in Deira, 115; their divisions, 
 115 ; in Lincolnshire, 117. 
 
 Treasurer, see Hordere. 
 
 Treasury, see Hoard. 
 
 Truce of God, 471. 
 
 Tun-moot, the, its place of meeting ic • 
 survival in parish vestrv, 16. 
 
 Tun-reeve, the, superseded by the par 
 ish priest, 14, ^ r 
 
 Tunsberg, its trade, 431, twte. 
 
 1 ynemouth, burning of, 88. 
 
 603 
 
 Val-^s-Dunes, battle of, 488. 
 
 Varangians, the, English among, cc, 
 
 V ermandois, counts of, 24 1 
 
 Vestry, parish, 14. 
 
 Villeins, their tenure, 316 ; degrees of 
 their social rank, 317, ,/^/^ o ; free 
 socially though not politically, ^10 • 
 into ^''^^ """"^^ gradually degraded 
 
 ••Vinheidi,"244, w/^. 
 W 
 
 U 
 
 Ufegeat blinded, 382, note. 
 
 Uhtred, son of Waltheof, made Earl 
 of Northumbria, 382 ; defeats the 
 Scots, 382, 452 ; his marriages, 383, 
 477; f'ote 2 ; joins Swein, 393 ; joins 
 Eadmund, 398; submits to Cnut, 
 398, 478, note; his feud with Thur- 
 brand, 478, note; murdered, 400,40^ 
 47S, note. ^ ■^' 
 
 Ulf, his marriage with Estrith, 408 • 
 ruler of Denmark, 407, 408; guar- 
 dian of Harthacnut, 448. 
 
 Ulf, Norman chaplain of Eadward 
 474, 526, 527 ; Bishop of Dorches- 
 
 ...V^'"' 491, 526, 527; his flight, 515. 
 
 Ulf, son of Dolfin, 541, uote2. 
 
 Ulfcytel, ruler in East Anglia, 378, 
 fto/e 1,381 ; his northern blood, 381 • 
 independence of East Anglia under 
 h'm, 381 ; defeated by Swein, 382; 
 by Ihurkill, 391; joins Eadmund, 
 400 ; slain at Assandun, 401. 
 
 Ulster, Wikings in, 71. 
 
 Ulverston, 265. 
 
 " Unraedig," /Ethelred the, 356. 
 
 Wal brook, 438. 
 Wales, North, see Welsh. 
 Walter, a Lotharingian, 527 ; chaplain 
 to Eadgyth, 528 ; Bishop of Here- 
 w u?' 528 ; consecrated at Rome, K^S. 
 Wa tham, ILirold's church at, 5C8. 
 \\c1 theof, Earl of Northumbna, 340. 
 \\ a theof. Earl of Bernicia, 357, 182 
 ^^^ltheof, son of Siward,'/40 ; Toins 
 he revolt against Tostig. 342, note; 
 legends of his exploits, 542, note; 
 avenges Ealdred's death, 478, note. 
 VVantage, 94 and f/ote 2. 
 Wapentake, meaning and origin of the 
 word, 115; Its use in Lincolnshire. 
 117. 
 Warbury, ^thelflaed at, 194. 
 \V ardour, story of ALlked at, 168. 
 U areham, shire-town of Dorset, 428 • 
 Guthrum encamps near, 103 ; mint 
 at, 219 ; Eadward the Martyr buried 
 at, 341. ^ 
 
 ^^ITJ^'fe '^f "'^'S'"' ^93 ; fortified by 
 ^.thelflaed, 193 ; gives its name to a 
 shire, 226; its feorm, 388, z/^/,. 
 
 \V arwickshire, its origin, 226 
 
 Waterford founded by Wikings, 71. 
 
 Uatiing Street, 191, fwte 1 ; origin of 
 name, 191 and note 2; seized by 
 /Ethelflaed, 190. ^ 
 
 Wealh-cyn, 2, 72. 
 
 Wearmouth, burning of, 49. 
 
 Wed more, peace of, 107 ; its effect on 
 Europe, 108; on the Danes, 146: on 
 
 „;hf English, 146, 147. 
 
 U eile, burial-mounds near, ^48. 
 WelandtheWiking,8i,«^/?3. 
 
 Wells, bishops of, see Duduc. 
 Welsh, North, their relation to Mercia, 
 43 ; revolt against it, yy ; their alli- 
 ance with the Danes, 165 ; Income 
 subject to yElfied, 176; to Eadward 
 the Elder, 200, note ; to --Ethelstan, 
 211; kings of, present in iEthelstan's 
 
6o4 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 li 
 
 \Vitenac;emots, 215 and twtes ; Ead- 
 gar's relations with, 310; united 
 under Meredydd, 359 ; at war with 
 Mercia, 392 ; rising of, suppressed 
 by Cnut,450; Gruffydd ap Llewelyn's 
 power. 475, 543 ; league of Gruftydd 
 and /tlfgar, 544 ; revolt aganist the 
 Normans, 553 ; kings of, see Cledauc, 
 Eugenius, Grufifydd, Howel, Jeoth- 
 wel, Judwal, Llewelyn, Meredydd, 
 Morcant, Owen, Roderic, Teowdor, 
 Wurgeat. 
 
 Welsh, West, provisions concernnig 
 them in Ine's law, 21 ; rise against 
 Ecgbcrht,64; defeated at Hengest- 
 dun, 64, 65 ; revolt against ytltred, 
 165 ; subdued by /Ethelstan, 21 1,2I2. 
 
 Wends, raids on Jutland, 85, note; 
 "kings of, see Burislaf. 
 
 "Wendune," or " Wcondune," 244, 
 
 itoU. 
 ••Wer," assessed in coin in the laws 
 
 of /Ethelberht, 218. 
 Werburgh, St., church of, at Chester, 
 
 186, 423, note. 
 Werfrith, Bishop of Worcester, his 
 school, 149; literary work, 149, 168; 
 possible share in the Worcester 
 Chronicle, 183, note 3. 
 Werwulf, chaplain to /Elfred, 150. 
 Wessex, earliest written law in, 20 ; its 
 military strength, 44 ; its geographi- 
 cal advantages, 44. 45 5 i^^ varied 
 composition, 45, 65, 66; its extension 
 west of Selwood, 224 ; its adminis- 
 trative order, 46; its connection with 
 the "Eastern Kingdom," 66; its mil- 
 itary organization, 66, 67 ; revolts 
 against .Ethel wulf, 80 ; closer union 
 with Kent, 82, note ; its isolation in 
 face of the Danes, 93 ; surprised by 
 them, 104; its exhaustion, 125; its 
 revival under ^Elfred, 127 et seq. ; 
 decline of monasticism in, 170 and 
 tiote I, 328; oath of allegiance to 
 Eadward in, 202 ; change in its re- 
 lations to northern Britain, 206 ; 
 probable date of its shire organiza- 
 tion, 224; extension of the shire-sys- 
 tem to its eastern dei:>endencies, 225 ; 
 organization of its shires, 228, 229 ; 
 foreign alliances of its kings, 239 ; 
 source of the second old English 
 literature, 285 ; its three divisions, 
 •?o2 ; its new organization under 
 Eadgar, 303 ; ravaged by Thurkill, 
 391; byCnut, 397; submits to Cnut, 
 398; made into an earldom, 410; 
 
 adheres to Harthacnut,46i ; accepts 
 Harald as king, 465; kings of, j^^ 
 vElfred, yEthelbald, Ethelberht, 
 >p:thelred, yEthelstan, /Ethelwulf, 
 Ceadwalla, Cenwalch, Eadgar, Ead- 
 mund, Eadward, Eadwig, Ecgberht, 
 Harthacnut, Ine ; earldom of, its ex- 
 tent and importance, 480 ; altered 
 position of the king in, 480 ; Somer- 
 set and Berkshire detached from, 
 481 ; earls of, see Godwine, Harold. 
 Wessex, the original or Central, 44, 
 222 ; later ealdormanry, 302, 303 ; 
 submits to Swein, 394 ; ealdormen 
 of, see /Elf heah, TElfric, /Ethelmaer. 
 Wessex, Western, mixture of blood in 
 its population, 45 ; its strong West- 
 Saxon character, 45 ; ealdormanry 
 of, 302, 303 ; submits to Swein, 394 ; 
 ealdormen of, J^^/Ethelma^r, /Ethel - 
 weard. 
 Westfold, kingdom of, 60 ; kings of, 
 
 see Biorn, Godfrid, Harald. 
 Westminster, Harald Haiefoot buried 
 at, 466 ; home of Eadward the Con- 
 fessor, 480; William crowned at, 
 
 552- 
 
 Westmoreland, 228, note. 
 
 Westmoringa-land, the modern West- 
 moreland, 266, note 2 ; colonized by 
 Norwegians, 263 ; harried by Tho- 
 red, 263, note 2 ; character of coun- 
 try and people, 264 ; English fugi- 
 tives in, 264. 
 
 Whitbv, Danish settlement, 89, in. 
 
 Whithern, English bishops of, 264 and 
 note I ; see Badulf. 
 
 Wic-reeve of London, 438, 443. 
 
 Wight, extinction of its kings, 38, note 
 i; Wikings winter in, 366, 384; 
 meeting of Godwine and Harold 
 
 off' 514. . , , , 
 
 Wiglaf, King of Mercia, deposed by 
 
 Ecgberht, 47 ; restored, 47. 
 
 Wigmore, Eadward the Elder at, 195. 
 
 Wiheal, Uhired slain at, 478, note. 
 
 Wihtraed, King of Kent, his laws, 9, 
 20, notes I and 3. 
 
 Wikings, the name, 54 and note 2 ; 
 their two lines of attack, 59, 73 J 
 raids on South England, 72-77* 81, 
 82 ; on Gaul, 73, 74 ; greed for booty 
 rather than dominion, 83 ; impor- 
 tance for them of Britain, 83 ; con- 
 centration of their forces on it, 103 ; 
 see Danes, Norwegians, Ostmen. 
 Wilbarstone,3i2. 
 William Longsword, son of Hrolf, his 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 policy, 237 ; his war with Hugh the | 
 Great and the Bretons, 240, 241 ; 
 conquers the Cotentin, 241 ; does' 
 homage to Rudolf of Burgundy, 
 241 ; /Ethelstan's negotiations with, 
 254; his war with Arnulf of Flan- 
 ders, 256 ; excommunicated, 256 ; 
 leagues with Hugh and Arnulf 
 against Lewis, 256 ; rejoins the Kar- 
 olingian party, 261 ; alliance with 
 Harald Blaatand, 348 ; revolt 
 against, 372; murdered, 261. 
 William, son of Robert the Devil, his 
 birth, 457 ; appointed by Robert as 
 his successor, 457 ; anarchv of his 
 early years, 458 ; his boyhood, 472 ; 
 his temper, 472 ; his counsellors, 
 485; revolt against him, 487; his 
 escape, 487 ; seeks aid of the French 
 king, 487; Val-es-Dunes,488; helps 
 King Henry against Geoffrey of 
 Anjou,49o; his vengeance on Alen- 
 9on,49o ; wins Domfront,490; seeks 
 the hand of Matilda of Flanders, 
 498 ; the marriage forbidden, 502 ; 
 visits England, 512; alleged prom-' 
 ises of the Crown to, 473, 512 and 
 note; marries Matild.t,53r ; threat- 
 ened with excommunication, 531 ; 
 his quarrel and reconciliation with 
 Lanfranc, 531 ; revolts against, 532 ; 
 attacked by France and Anjou, 532 ; 
 his plan of defence, 532 ; its success,' 
 533 ; Harold's oath to, 547 ; his 
 claim against ILirold, 547 ; lands at 
 Pevensey, 549 ; his exploits at Sen- 
 Jac, 550 ; his victory, 551 ; advance 
 over southern England, 551; Lon- 
 don submits to, 552 ; his crowning, 
 552; founds the Tower, 552; his 
 charter to London, 553 ; his rule, 
 553 ; returns to Xormandv, 553 ; 
 takes Exeter, 553 ; subdues the 
 north, 553; occupies York, 554; 
 Eadwine and Morkere submit to, 
 553 ; general rising against, 554 ; 
 his vow of vengeance on the north, 
 554; buys off the Danes, 554; re- 
 lieves Shrewsburv, 554 ; rava'^es 
 Northumbria, 555'; his march ''to 
 Chester, 555 ; last revolt against, 
 556 ; Ely surrendered to, 556 ; re- 
 ceives the fealty of Malcolm, 556. 
 William, a Norman priest, chaplain to 
 Eadward the Confessor, 474, 526, 
 527; made Bishop of London, 518, 
 526, 527. 
 William of Arques, 532. 
 
 605 
 
 William of Eu, 532. 
 
 William Fitz-Osbern, friend of Will- 
 lam the Conqueror, 485 ; left as re- 
 gent m England, 553 ; relieves Ex- 
 eter, 554. 
 
 Wilsaetan, bishops of, see Ramsbury; 
 
 ealdormen of, 224, ttote. 
 Wilton gives its name to Wiltshire, 
 „ 223 ; victory of the Danes at, 100. 
 
 » ItrY^' °'''S'" ®^ "s name, 223 ; 
 >\ iltun-scire," 224, note; its rela- 
 tion to Hampshire, 224, note; Swein 
 niaiches into, 380; plundered by 
 1 huikill, 391 ; war against Cnut in. 
 399- 
 Wmchanheale, 39. 
 
 Winchester, centre of the older Wes- 
 se.v, 44 ; advantages of its position, 
 44; raid of the Wikings on, 81 ; its 
 abbey, 127; its mint, 219; yi'Lthel- 
 wold's school at, 325 ; clerks sup- 
 planted by monks in its cathedral 
 church, 330; the royal Hoard in. 
 387, note I ; submits to Swein, 394; 
 dwelling-place of Emma after Cnut's 
 death, 462, 463 ; Eadward the Con- 
 fessor crowned at, 468 ; surrendered 
 to William, 552; Witenagemots at, 
 213, jwte I, 215, jto/e I ; bishops of, 
 see /Elfheah, /Ethehvold, Denewulf 
 Stigand, Swithun ; Chronicle of, its 
 origin, 157-159; its account of the 
 reign of Eadward the Elder, 181, 
 note, 183, note 3 ; its character dur- 
 ing the reign of .Ethelstan, 21 1, note 
 3 ; its last continuation possibly due 
 to Bishop /Ethehvold, 326. 
 Wimborne, /Ethelrcd L buried at, 100. 
 Wini buys see of London, 437, uote i. 
 Wirral, northern settlers in, 265. 
 Witenagemot, the, changes in its char- 
 acter, 35, 36 and ttote i ; not a rep- 
 resentative of the nation, t,-j and fiote 
 I ; a royal council named by the 
 king, 37 and tiote 2 ; its composition 
 under /Ethelstan, 212, 213, uote i, 
 215 and uotes ; its rights, 215, 216 J 
 its work in restoring public order, 
 216 ; at Eadred's crowning, its na- 
 tional character, 275 and note 2; 
 presence of northern jarls and 
 Welsh princes in, under Eadred, 
 286; increasing importance of the 
 ealdormen in, 292 ; its measures of 
 defence against the Danes, 385, 389, 
 391,392; recalls ^thelred H.,395; 
 assembled by Cnut to sanction his 
 election as king, 408; chooses Har- 
 
 III 
 
6o6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 11. 
 If 
 
 aid for king, 462 ; tries and acquits 
 Godwine, 464 ; chooses Harthacnut 
 for king, 465 ; rejects Godwine's 
 proposal to help Swein Estrithson, 
 483; Godwine outlawed by, 510; 
 Godwine restored and the " French- 
 men" outlawed by, 515, 516; /Elfgar 
 outlawed by, 544 ; of Kent, petitions 
 ' yEthelstan to enforce justice, 29 ; of 
 Mercia and Wessex, divides the 
 realm between Eadwig and Eadgar, 
 301, note I ; of Wessex, banishes 
 Emma, 465, 557 ; deposes Stigand, 
 557 ; forsakes Harthacnut and 
 chooses Harald as king, 466; Wit- 
 enagemot at Calne, 338 ; Colches- 
 ter, 213, note I, 215, note 2 ; Exeter, 
 216 and note 2, 218 ; Feversham, 216 
 and note 2 ; Frome, 215, note I, 242, 
 note 3; Greatley, 216 and note 2; 
 Kirtlington, 338; Lewton, 213, note 
 1,215, notes ; London, 408, 509, 515; 
 Middleton, 213, note l, 215, note 2 ; 
 Oxford, 397, 408, 462 ; Thunresfeld, 
 216 and note 2, 22$, note 2; Win- 
 chester, 213, note I, 215, note l ; 
 Worcester, 559 ; York, 213, note i. 
 Witch drowned at London Bridge, 11, 
 
 441, note I. 
 Witchcraft, decrees against, 10, 11. 
 Witham, Eadward the Elder at, 189. 
 Worcester, Bishop Werfrith's school 
 at, 150 ; becomes the centre of Eng- 
 lish historical literature, 327; its im- 
 portance, 423 ; resistance to Har- 
 thacnut's Danegeld at, 467 ; see of, 
 annexed to that of York, 333 ; bish- 
 ops oUsee Aldulf, Dunstan, Ealdred, 
 Werfrith ; first or lost Chronicle of, 
 its origin and composition, 183,;/^/^ 
 3, 327 and note : preserved in the 
 Peterborough Chronicle, 327, note, 
 355, note I ; its influence on the later 
 historians, 328; its importance, 328 
 and note ; its character in reign of 
 ^thelred II., 355, ^'ote ; extant 
 Chronicle of, iis date, 327, note; 
 Witenagemot at, 559. 
 Worcestershire, 226; salt-works ni, 
 321 ; severed from Mercia, 479 ; 
 joined with Gloucester under Odda, 
 
 517- 
 "Worth" in place-names, 265, note I. 
 
 Wreckage in Thanet punished by Ead- 
 gar, 335 ; rights of, at Sandwich, 
 428, note 2. 
 
 Writ, the king's, 525. 
 
 Writing, introduction of, 19. 
 
 Wulfeah blinded, 382, note. 
 
 Wulfgar, Ealdorman, counsellor of the 
 crown under Eadmund, 275. 
 
 Wulfgeat made high reeve, 382 ; de- 
 prived, 382 and note. 
 
 Wulf heard, Ealdorman of Hampton- 
 shire, defeats the Wikings, 72 and 
 7{ote I. 
 
 Wulfhere, King of Mercia, sells the 
 see of London to Wini, 437, note 1. 
 
 Wulfhere, an English ealdorman, de- 
 serts to the Danes, 140, note 2. 
 
 Wulfnoth, Child, the South -Saxon, 
 390 and note i. 
 
 Wulfstan, St., Prior of Worcester, 559; 
 made Bishop of Worcester, 559; 
 consecrated by Ealdred, 559 ; his 
 repudiation of Stigand, 559. 
 
 Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, 213; 
 present in /Ethelstan's Witenage- 
 mots, 213, note I, 242, note ^ , 260; 
 his influence in the north, 260 ; his 
 policy, 260 ; mediates between Ead- 
 mund and the Danes, 260 ; joins the 
 Danish party under Olaf, 260 ; ac- 
 companies Olaf and his host into 
 Mid-Britain, 260 ; helps to negotiate 
 a peace between Eadmund and Olaf, 
 260; returns to court, 268; swears 
 allegiance to Eadred, 277 ; breaks 
 his oath, 277 ; present at Eadred's 
 court, 277, note 3, 280, note I ; arrest- 
 ed, 280 ; released, 280, note 2. 
 Wulfstan, his voyage up the Baltic, 
 172; /Elfrcd's 'comment on it, 59, 
 note, 172 ; his account of Denmark, 
 347, note. 
 Wulfwig, chancellor to Eadward the 
 Confessor, 526 ; made Bishop of Dor- 
 chester, 527 ; his consecration, 558. 
 Wurgeat, under -king of the North 
 
 Welsh, 215, note i. 
 Wye, river, boundary between Welsh 
 and English, 211, 212 ; fisheries in, 
 422, note 2. 
 Wythmann, German chaplain of Cnut, 
 made Abbot of Ramsey, 525. 
 
 York, Alcuin born at, 40 ; its school, 
 41 and note; seized by thi Danes, 
 87 ; its defences, 87 and note 4 ; vic- 
 tory of the Danes at, 88 and note l ; 
 the minster rebuilt, 41 ; disappear- 
 ance of its library and school at the 
 Danish conquest, 89 ; Danes winter 
 at, 91 ; traces of Danish settlement 
 in its local names, 114; capital of 
 
 Danish Northumbria, 115, 117. sub- 
 •n'ts to /Ethelfla^d, 198 and note 3 ; 
 Witenagemot at, 212, note 3 ; .Kth- 
 elstan receives the West-Frankish 
 envoys at, 254; submits to Cnut, 
 398 ; Its trade, 1 14, 432, 434 and 
 ^f^, Koman remains at, in Dun- 
 
 J'r. ^'"^f' '^^~ ' "s castle-mound 
 atid Danish fortress, 432 ; its popu- 
 lation 433 and w/..; its extent 4^4; 
 IS suburbs, 434 ; its fishermen, 4^4 ' 
 Its Danish quarter, 434 ; its churches! 
 
 fc'^x'u i'.''''*'''^ '^'^^ ^^' 539 ; occupied 
 by William, 554; stormed, and its 
 garrison slaughtered, 555 ; "shires " 
 '»' 221, 433, „ote, 442, uote 3 ; see of. 
 
 607 
 
 its importance after the Danish con- 
 quest of Northumbria, 89; Worces- 
 , bllh^pr^'^'^ •^-33; ...Arch. 
 
 , Yorkshire, traces of Danish settlement 
 in Its loca names, 111,112 and notes ; 
 trade of the Danish settlers in, in 
 114; its ridings and wa])entakes; 
 115; traces of the ancient divisions 
 oi Deira m, 221 ; late introduction 
 of the name, 22S, note; see Deira. 
 1 ser, river, Godwine's fleet in, 513. 
 
 Z 
 
 Zeeland, settlement of the Danes in,8^. 
 jarls of, see Strut- Harald, ThurkilL 
 
 THE END. 
 
HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 
 
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 Philadelphia Evening Bnlletvu utPrature There is an immense 
 
 p;a,,yt.eted_a..l.,e.^ 
 
 partment that t is l^'^'^'^^^^l^ ^^ , i^i^torical criticism. The ma- 
 
 paXskctch of English hist ory that e.is.s.-4.a .ie^i>, Loudon. 
 
 PuBLisuEO BY HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 
 Tany% of the United Stales, on nceipt of the pna. 
 
 A SHORT HISTORY 
 
 OP 
 
 THE ENGT TSH PEOPLE. 
 
 Bv JOHN RICHARD GREEN, M.A. 
 
 8vo, Cloth, $1 30. 
 
 The object of the book, that of combining the history of the people with the 
 history of the kingdom, is most successfully carried out. It gives, I think, in the 
 main, a true and accurate picture of the general course of English history. It 
 displays throughout a firm hold on the subject, and a singularly wide rano^e of 
 hought and sympathy. As a composition, too, the book is clear, forcible" and 
 bnlhant It is the most truly original book of the kind that I ever ,^^^'.-Extract 
 from Letter of Edwaru A. Fueem.vn, D.C.L., LL.D., &c &c 
 
 Rightly taken, the history of England is one of the grandest human stories, 
 and Mr. Green has so taken it that his book should delight the general reader 
 quite as much as it deliglits the student.-i'x^racf />o,n Letter of Professor IIenuv 
 
 MORLEY. 
 
 We know of no record of the whole drama of English history to be compared 
 with It. We know of none that is so distinctly a work of genius. • * -It is a rcallv 
 wonderful production. There is a freshness and originality breathing from one 
 end to the other-a charm of style, and a power, both narrative and descriptive, 
 which lift It altogether out of the class of books to which at first si-ht it mi-ht 
 seem to belong. The range, too, of subjects, and the capacity which tlie wrker 
 shows of dealing with so many dificient sides of English history, witness to pow- 
 ers of no common order. And, with all this, Mr. Green shows throughout that he 
 IS on all points up to the last lights; that he has made himself thoroughly master 
 both of original authorities and of their modern interpretcrs.-/'a7^ Mall Gazette, 
 London. ' 
 
 Numberless are the histories of England, and yet until now it has been difli- 
 cult to select any one from the number as really and thoroughly satisfactory. 
 This difficulty exists no longer. We will not go so far as to pronounce Mr. Green's 
 book faultless, but we will say without hesitation that it is almost a model of 
 w'hat such a book should be-so far above any other brief and complete history 
 of England that there is no room for comparison. The characters of leader are 
 remarkably well described, and their respective Influence upon history fairly and 
 appreciatively judged. And the author has shown rare tact and discrimination 
 in the selection of his facts, so that the reader feels himself to be always stand- 
 ing on the firm ground of ascertained and systematized knowledge, while, at the 
 same time, every line is interesting reading. _r/ie Sation, N. Y. 
 
 Published by HARPER k BROTHERS, Xew York. 
 
 Z^ Harper & Brothers will send the above work by mail, postage prepaid, 
 to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price. 
 
STRM SiyiltS FROM ENGUi M ITftLl 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN EICIIAPvD GEEEX, M.A. 
 
 Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 For condensation of valuable material, happy rcanimation of old themes and 
 Boiestions of new, expressed in chaste and animated style, and thoroughly good 
 Enfusb, these papers have not been excelled for many years. -Preslytenan, 
 
 ^'"t^' u^^^^^^^ which Mr. Green's history evinces-learning, poetic sympathy, 
 common-sense, large ideas, a genial liking for mankind in general-appear m 
 he ^ev volume of "Stray Studies." Every chapter in this book ^^o^s f « f - 
 oughness of work and culture we should have expected. The range of thought 
 sympathy, and knowledge must be considerable of a man who discusses with 
 enual zest and interest the manners of the poor of London, the resemblance be- 
 tween Virc^il and Tennyson, the Florence of Dante, the foibles of British tourists 
 and the charms and glories of the British maiden. • * « These "Stray Studies" 
 will be a source of real pleasure and proiit to all who read them. Ihe range 
 of "ifis and sympathies they show is indeed remarkable.-^. 1 . Times. 
 Lively, and eminently readnhle.-AthencBum, London. 
 
 A deli.' htful series of reveries by a scholar, an historian, and a master of pure 
 and captivating prose. The author's " History of the English People has proved 
 one of the most popular works of the day; these essays will farther stamp hi 
 reputation with the seal of cultivated approval. He brings his poetical tas e and 
 ripened learning into full play while sunning himself in ^-nes, St I onorat, and 
 Ban Remo. He paints the Florence of Dante and the Venice of Tintoretto with 
 the backward glance of poetical enthusiasm, and he is at home J^ Cnpn as in 
 Oxford. Familiar with all their histories, and clothing himself ^^^ the time being 
 with their romance, he is sufficient of an artist and a lover of the beautif lo 
 revel in the changing tints of the sunny skies and the picturesque grace of silent 
 rJns. such essays as these form the most delightful reading possible.-C/nca,o 
 
 '" Th^sTudies all alike bear internal evidence of having been w^ten wUh a 
 leisurely delight, which expresses itself in calm thoughts wedded to a style of 
 chastened simplicity and elegance which all lovers of faultless composition must 
 
 admire.— Christian at Works's. Y. i„:„ ,,;„ 
 
 An altogether pleasant book to read. « • ' It is written in t^e pure, plain vg- 
 orous English of a writer who has the habit of writing earnestly, and earnestly 
 endeavoring to choose his words solely for their aptness to express his thought. 
 —JS. Y. Evening Post. ^___ 
 
 Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 
 
 r^ Harper & Brothers icill send the above work by mail, postage prepaid, 
 
 to any part of the United States, on receipt of (he price. 
 
 THE MAKING OF ENGLAND. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOIIX RICHARD GREExV, M.A., LL.D. 
 With Maps. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 
 
 ^^^^^st:xz::^^^ ^-ost of 
 
 page it is emphatically n book of hard woiV Mr r;.„ " 'u"""'' '" "'^^''^ 
 
 ii^ii^il 
 
 sh^-^Holla Z:^:i^^^^f Whose talents is apt to throw into the 
 dowed with rare Cce of s vie iV. il T""^' '^ ^'' "•"">^' ^« '^""- "« i« en- 
 ing features of unX^Uvrsnblect! 1^'' ^"'" '°, ^""^ ^"^^ ^^"'^f '^' ^""terest- 
 which, in other hand^would sin n ly op^r^^^^^^ "" '"f ^ of detached facts, 
 
 rative which it is easy to reac la fl hnr/t r "^^^^^^'T of students, into a nar- 
 artist. • • • Yet, though all this is ^nonn,!'? ^"•^''- "' ''^ '" '^'''^^ ^ "^erary 
 pose that Mr. G een if Vb ilUant mit^ .1 '7 '" '" ""'''''' ""''''^^ ^^an to sup- 
 to the knowledge of MsTol V^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 sparkles with life and spirit. Mr Gree is n/Lu T^''^ P"^^ ^'^ ''''^"^^ 
 
 ling good sense, whose spe ikfexce Lnce ^ "" ""''i^' ""^ '"""^^ "''^ ^^^'- 
 
 eras with which he is called to deal » ti I m "' ^""'''P ^^^''^ "^«^" ^"^^s of the 
 very strongest manner this "botfl nf ^^'^^"" of England" exhibits in the 
 underlies all his speculations and In^^ ''"'f/' °^ ^''""^ J"dgment. which 
 niilch they ought to^Ser^^^^^^^^^^^ half the instruction 
 
 have hi, e„tU„,in™ n „ '™b"Tt !^^^S;a"?, ,'„',"•"' """;"' '"'""" '"'" '" 
 of impottaut and decisive cyenLZcCZucJaZlL''' °°' "'"'"" '"'"""' 
 
 Published bv HARPER & BROTHERS, xVew York. 
 
 lUnran & BRoinEns mil und the above u^ork by mail, postage prcmid 
 to any part of the United State., on receipt o/ t/le price 
 
[i 
 
 J 
 
 Selected from Foreign and American AVriters, and Edited by 
 John Richard Green, M.A., LL.D., Honorary Fellow of 
 Jesus College, Oxford. Three parts in one Volume. 
 Tart I. From Ilengest to Cressy.— Part II. From Cressy to 
 Cromwell.— Part HI. From Cromwell to Balaclava. 12mo, 
 Clotb, $1 50. 
 
 Th5<! book is a very happy thought indeed. From a large number of standard 
 antro-MaciulavfJibbou, Fronde. Gnizot, Freeman, Scott Bancroft. Motley, 
 Mi.s You're ^nd others-Mr. Green has made some ecveuty-flve selections, con- 
 Si <^ them "v th links of his own ; the effect of the whole book, m Us three 
 n bei^t to tell the story of En.-li.h history from ti.e bej^imnng until the 
 u?e eut by°means of successive pictures of notable periods, events and person- 
 n'es VaHcUes of style lend a peculiar attractiveness to the method, and in plan 
 nnd execut!fou the book is au admirable, as it is truly unique, short history of 
 
 ^'t;;f;^Sbe'a:^l^S;ic to pnpHs as they are likely t. be to teachers. 
 Mr F eeman's account of the Battle of Hastings, Kingsley's well-known defence 
 of the poetry of Puritanism, Macanlay's sketch of the landing of W illiam III and 
 other extracts of a similar character, are likely to enliven many an hour's teaching. 
 
 "^TC-P-eo? these Readings, as illustratiug dilTerent periods of English his^ 
 torv is excellent. « • « Mr. Green's selection of quotations is admirable. \\e 
 
 ItronHj recommend the introduction of Mr. Green's " Readings from English Uis- 
 torv ""into every school library.— f:j;awiner, London. , .^ , 
 
 It is needless to say that the extracts are admirably selected and woven to- 
 gethe The book is su.^ to be both useful and p.-pnlar.-Sa^urdaj, l:ev^e^c, Londou. 
 ^ It i; a gleaning of the picturesque and tragic scenes and brief b.ograph es and 
 events taken in mch connection as to make it a consecutive history. ' Many 
 of he' anic"e arc masterpieces. Such a book in the class-room of a eaclier 
 verled in English history will call a new interest to this ordinarily dry study- 
 
 '"'^ct^el^ciioS are given in this book-selections chosen as the brightest, 
 mos eloquent descriptive passages in monumental works-are cac"l;Ued to throw 
 a charm around the study of history which properly ^«\""f;V^5'^- ^^^^if^J^ 
 who are reading up. in order to crystallize their knowledge of English and 
 Imerfcan hTstor;, wfll And a rare treasure here. Every great event in he giow 
 of civi^ and religious liberty is illustrated by some graphic peiH^ainting which 
 vvill h deUbly imprint it on the memory.-Pac,7?c School Jouma, San Fmncisco 
 
 In these selections the author has used the wisest discretion and the rares 
 jud-ment. The selections have been woven into a continuous story by origma 
 conTments and connecting links of narrative. • ' « The book is admirably adapted 
 5oi a school historv. but is so complete that it may be perused with pleasure ami 
 profit by those children of n larger growth who have passed the meridian of life. 
 —yorthern Budget, Troy. 
 
 Published by HARPER k BROTHERS, New York. 
 
 Uarper & Brothers xcill send the above work by mail, postage prepaid, 
 to any part of the United States, on receipt of tJte price. 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the 
 expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as 
 provided by the library rules or by special arrangement with 
 the Librarian in charge. 
 
 JATE rORrJOWtO 
 
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 DATE DUE 
 
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 DATE BORROWED DATE DUE 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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