Q Alfred in the Chroniclers ALFRED in the Chroniclers BY EDWARD CONYBEARE, M.A. AUTHOR OF 'A HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE,' 'LA MORTE D'ARTHUR,' ETC. LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 1900. PREFACE. I DESIRE in the following pages to present to English readers in a popular and readable form the early au- thorities for the life of King Alfred of England, which, interesting as they are, are for the most part scarcely known, save to professed students of history, and are in some cases hard to come by. I give, accordingly, in full, his biography by Asser, his friend and chaplain, and such entries as relate to his reign in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the leading mediaeval his- torians Ethelwerd, Florence of Worcester, Henry of Hunt- ingdon, William of Malmesbury, Simeon of Durham, Geoffry Gaimar, Roger of Wendover, etc. In each case I have made a new translation from the original, and have endeavoured, as far as possible, in my selections from each writer, to confine myself to such events as are narrated by him alone, or with some special colouring of his own ; for each, as a matter of course, made the freest use of the work of his predecessors, and almost invariably without one syllable of acknowledgment. But each adds his own touches to the story touches which may well be founded on some floating tradition still surviving to his day. I have also prefixed to each a few words of critical notice, and, when needful, a table of contents. The Introductory Sketch will, I hope, show how the in- formation derived from these various sources combines into an 2063246 VI Preface authentic picture of our hero-King. And this picture I would fain make yet more life-like by the extracts given from his own literary works, his laws, and the beautiful ' Proverbs of Alfred,' which record far-off echoes of his traditional wisdom. EDWARD CONYBEARE. CAMBRIDGE, 26 October, 1899. CONTENTS. PART I. INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. CHAPTER I. Celtic and Teutonic ideals Arthur and Alfred Scope of the present work English settlement of Britain Gradual unification Marks Kinglets Bretwaldas Church of England Bede's forecast - - I CHAPTER II. Earliest Danish troubles The Heptarchy Egbert, first King of the English Egbert and Charlemagne Defiance of Roman claim to Britain - 5 CHAPTER III. Danish invasions renewed Sack of London Battle of Ockley First Danish settlements Raid of 870 St. Edmund Invasion of Wessex Alfred succeeds to the throne - - 10 CHAPTER IV. Early life of Alfred His claim to the throne Designation by Pope Leo Saracen sack of Rome Alfred at Rome Judith, his stepmother- Devout childhood and youth Friendship with St. Neot Marriage Alfred's ' thorn in the flesh ' - 14 CHAPTER V. Outset of Alfred's reign The nine battles of 871 Wessex cleared of Danes Their settlements elsewhere Alfred's early reforms His wondrous versatility - 20 CHAPTER VI. Great Danish inroad of 876 Siege of Wareham Capture of Exeter Danish fleet destroyed at Swanage Alfred the founder of our navy Danes at Chippenham Wessex wholly overrun Alfred unpopular Danish massacres Alfred in Athelney His jewel - - 25 CHAPTER VII. Danish defeat in Devon The Majic Standard Rising of Wessex Decisive battle of Ethandnne Surrender of Chippenham Baptism of Guthrum Peace of Wedmore Its results Alfred's restoration of London - - 33 viii Contents CHAPTER VIII. I'AGK Subsequent Danish wars Great invasion of 893 Military genius of Alfred Campaigns of 894, 895, 896 Battle of Farnham Danes at Chester Danish fleet taken Alfred's ships - - - 40 CHAPTER IX. Many-sided greatness of Alfred His educational reforms Status of clergy Asser Alfred's handbook 45 CHAPTER X. Alfred's publications ' The Consolations of Boethius' Bede's ' History of the Anglican Church ' Orosius' ' History of the World ' Its purpose ' Flowrets from St. Augustine ' Gregory's ' Pastoral Care '- - 51 CHAPTER XI. Alfred and Rome Alms to Jerusalem and India Home charities Alfred's devotional life His lantern - - 59 CHAPTER XII. Alfred's laws The Witan His introduction to the code Offences against the person Against property Dog's first bite Sanctuary Statutory holidays Observance of Sunday ' Church-scot ' - 63 CHAPTER XIII. Death of Alfred Encomiums of chroniclers His burial The ' Proverbs of Alfred ' His work completed by his children - -71 PART II. EXTRACTS FROM THE CHRONICLERS, WITH PREFATORY NOTICES. i. ASSER :' OF THE DEEDS OF ALFRED '['DE ^ELFREDI REBUSGESTIS'] 83 a. THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE - - 120 in. ETHELWERD'S CHRONICLES [CHRONICA] - - 132 iv. SIMEON OF DURHAM: 'DEEDS OF THE ENGLISH KINGS' ['HISTORIA DE GESTIS REGUM ANGLORUM '] - - 144 v. WILLIAM OFMALMESBURY : ' HISTORY OF THE KINGS ' [' HISTORIA REGUM '] - 161 vi. HENRY OF HUNTINGDON : ' HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH ' [' HISTORIC ANGLORUM '] - 167 vn. FLORENCE OF WORCESTER'S CHRONICLE [CHRONICON] 173 vin. GEOFFRY GAIMAR: 'THE STORY OF THE ENGLISH' ['L'EsTORiE DES ENGLES'] - 177 ix. ROGER OF WENDOVER : 'FLOWERS OF HISTORY' ['FLORES His- TORIARUM']- 182 x. JOHN OF WALLINGFORD : ' CHRONICLES OF THE ENGLISH ' ['CHRONICA ANGLORUM '] - - 189 xi. JOHN OF BROMPTON'S CHRONICLE [CHRONICON] - - 195 xn. ' INGULF ' : ' HISTORY OF CROWLAND ' - 207 xin. THE BOOK OF HYDE - 216 xiv. CHRONICLE OF THE CHURCH OF ST. NEOT [' FANI Sen. NEOTI CHRONICON'], OR ' THE ANNALS OF ASSER' - 224 N.B. The whole of the above were originally written in Latin, with the exception of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which is in Old English, and Gaimar, who wrote in French. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 45- 477- ENGLISH HISTORY. First Saxon settlement in Britain. Ella of Sussex Bretwalda. 560. Ceawlin of Wessex Bretwalda. 593. Ethelbert of Kent Bretwalda. 597. St. Augustine's Mission to England. 6 1 6. Redwald of East Anglia Bretwalda. 617. Edwin of Northumbria Bretwalda. 634. Oswald of Northumbria Bretwalda. 642. Oswy of Northumbria Bretwalda. 658. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. 688. Ina, King of Wessex. 731. Bede's History ends. 755. Offa King of Mercia. 777. Mercian conquest of Wessex. 787. First Danish inroad. 794. Danish raid on Northumbria. 800. Egbert King of Wessex. 823. Battle of Ellandune. Egbert lord of South England. 827. Egbert Bretwalda and 'King of the English.' 832. Danish inroads renewed. 833. Danish raid on Dorset. 835. Danish raid on Cornwall. 836. Ethelwulf King of Wessex and Over- lord of England. Athelstan [St. Neot] King of Kent. A.D. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. 410. Capture of Rome by Alaric. St. Augustine writes. Orosius writes. 500. Theodoric King of Italy. 520. Boethius writes. 590. St. Gregory Pope. 622. Mahomet. 700. [?] English school at Rome founded. 711. Saracen conquest of Spain. 732. Battle of Tours. 800. Charlemagne Emperor. 814. Louis the Pious Emperor. 817. Partition of the Empire. 829. Second partition. Chronological Table A.D. ENGLISH HISTORY. 837. Danish raid on Hampshire. 838. Danish raid along East Coast. 839. Danish raid on Kent. 840. Danish raid on Devon. Battle of Charmouth. 845. Danish raid on Somerset. Battle of Pedredan. 849. Alfred born. 851. Danes first winter here (in Thanet). Sack of Canterbury and London. Battles of Wembury, Sandwich, and Ockley. Ethelbald King of Kent. 853. Ethelwulf subdues Wales. Alfred sent to Rome. 855. Danes winter in Sheppey. Ethelwulfs tithing and pilgrimage to Rome. He marries Judith, and becomes King of Kent. Ethelbald King of Wessex. 857. Death of Ethelwulf. 860. Ethelbert King. Danish raid on Winchester. 86 1. Death of St. Swithun. Alfred learns to read. 865. Danes harry East Kent 866. Danes settle in East Anglia. Ethelred King. 867. Danes take York. 868. Danes take Nottingham. Alfred's marriage. 870. Great Danish raid. Sack of Crowland, Peterborough, etc. Battle of Thetford. Death of St. Edmund. 871. Danes invade Wessex. Battles of Englefield, Reading, Ashdown, Basing and Merton. Death of Ethelred. Accession of Alfred. Battle of Wilton. Danes leave Wessex. 872. Danes in London. 873. Danes in Lindesey. 874. Danes conquer Mercia. 875. Danes on the Tyne and at Cambridge. First English naval victory. 876. Danes rush Wareham and Exeter. Danish fleet destroyed at Swanage. A.D. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. 838. Third partition of the Empire. 843. Fourth partition. Charles the Bald King of France. 846. Saracens sack Rome. 847. Leo IV. Pope. English school burnt down. 858. Nicolas I. Pope. 861. Photian schism. Eastern churches cut off from Rome. 867. Adrian II. Pope. 872. John VIII. Pope. 875. Charles (the Bald) Emperor. 876. Rollo settles in Normandy. 877. Louis (the Stammerer) Em- peror. Chronological Table XI A.D. ENGLISH HISTORY. 878. Danes at Gloucester and Chippenham. Alfred in Athelney. English victory at Kinwith. Decisive battle of Ethandune. Baptism of Guthrum. Peace of Wedmore. 879. Danes at Cirencester and Fulham. Eclipse of sun. 880. Danes settle in East Anglia, or leave England. 882. Sea-fight with Danes. 883. Alfred's mission to India, 884. Asser joins Alfred. Danes attack Rochester. Sea-fights at Stourmouth. Alfred restores London. Overlord of England. 890. Death of Guthrum. 893. Danes return to England. Hasting. 894. Danes defeated at Farnham, Beamfleet, Buttington, and Chester. 895. Danes defeated at Chichester. 896. Danish fleet captured in Lea. Danes defeated at Bridgenorth. 897. Danish host breaks up. 898. Danish pirates put down by Alfred's navy. 900[?]. Death of Alfred. A.D. CONTEMBORARY HISTORY. 879. Louis III. King of France. 880. Danes invade Flanders. 882. Marinus Pope. 883. Danes at Conde. 884. Danes at Amiens. Charles (the Fat) Emperor. Adrian III. Pope. 885. Stephen VI. Pope. 886. Danes besiege Paris. 887. Danes at Chezy. Arnulf Emperor. 890. Danesdefeated in Britanny. 891. Formosus Pope. 896. Boniface VI. Pope. 897. Stephen VII. Pope. Romanus Pope. 898. Theodorus II. Pope. John IX. Pope. 900. Benedict IV. Pope. ERRATA. Page vii., line 20, for " Majic " read " Magic." Page 2, line i^for " five" read "four." Page 16, line 7, for " eldest son " read " son and heir." Page 17, line 14, for "long " read " some." Page 27, line 29, /., the Feast of the Assumption, August 15), on All Saints' Day, and on the Wednesday of the four Ember weeks. On these holidays no work could be required of any free men in the performance of the customary services which they rendered in lieu of rent to their landlord, who was thus thrown back at these periods on such labour as he could hire or that of his own ' theow-men ' (or slaves), if he had any. But even these might not be em- ployed on Sunday. ' If a theow-man work on Sunday at his lord's behest, be he free, and the lord forfeit 30 shillings. If he work without behest let him suffer in his hide. If a free- man work that day let him forfeit his freedom or 60 shillings. And let a priest be held doubly guilty.' 19. This last enactment is of special interest, as showing that we owe that stricter and more primitive observance of the Lord's Day which it is the boast of Anglo-Saxons to continue, not, as is commonly supposed, to the Puritans of the sixteenth century, but to a much earlier source. Alfred's legislation on this point is taken from that of Ina (A.D. 688), and is repeated and amplified by later Saxon codes. That of 1 I.e., Rogation days, so called from the old custom of going round the parish hounds in procession, singing the Litany, on those days. yo Alfred in the Chroniclers Athelstane (A.D. 925) adds : ' If anyone market on Sunday he shall lose the goods, and eke thirty shillings ' ; while Ethelred (A.D. 980) bids ' the Sunday feast be rightly kept by all. Let markets and folk-motes, huntings and worldly works, be straitly kept from on that holy day. The Mass- Priests shall on the Sunday give the people the sense of the Gospel and Epistle in English, and tell out in English the Paternoster and the Credo, to the end that all folk may learn the Christian Faith on that day.' And though a laxer tone was introduced by the ecclesiastical adventurers who swarmed over at the Conquest, yet the old English ideal of Sunday never died out, and is again and again mentioned as one of the features of every religious revival in our land right down to the Reformation. 20. Alfred also enacts that every child must be baptized within a month under a penalty of 30 shillings. If after that it dies unbaptized, the party responsible forfeits ' all what- soever he owneth.' The appointed church-rate (' church- scot ') had to be paid each year by Martinmas, defaulters being mulcted in 60 shillings, and twelve-fold their 'scot.' 1 And if anyone who had ' forfeited his hide ' sought refuge in a church, ' be the swingeing forgiven him.' 21. Such was the merciful code of Alfred, in which the death-penalty is conspicuous by its absence. It was reserved, indeed, as we have seen was Alfred's principle, for treason alone. This guilt might be incurred either actively or constructively (by harbouring traitors), and could only be atoned by the forfeiture of life and goods. But the accused had opportunity to clear himself, if he could, before his lord. 1 This word is the name of the oldest Saxon coin, the sc&tta, a small silver piece, about the size of a threepenny-bit, bearing some rude imitation of Roman coinage. The phrases ' scot-free ' and ' to pay your shot ' are derived from it. CHAPTER XIII. Death of Alfred Encomiums of chroniclers His burial The ' Proverbs of Alfred' His work completed by his children. H i. y y ISTORIANS are divided as to the period of Alfred's life in which this great work of legis- lation was done. It seems probable, indeed, that he began it early, and did not conclude it till towards the end of his reign. After all, he was only fifty, when, 'shattered by the toil of the Danish wars ' l in poo, 2 ' six days before All-Hallow-mass ' (z'.tf., October 26), 'Alfred, the Truth- teller, 3 a hero mighty in battle, prudent, religious, and wise beyond all, to the great woe of his people, went the way of all flesh ' ' that steadfast stay of the West Saxons, full of justice, bold in arms, learned in speech, and, beyond all else, filled with divine lore ;' 4 ' renowned, warlike, victorious, the devoted champion of widows, orphans, and poor ; so skilled in Saxon song-craft ; the darling of his people ; kind of speech to all, and free of hand ; endued with prudence, forti- tude, justice, and temperance; so patient under his daily infirmity ; so fair and so sagacious in executing justice ; so watchful and so devout in God's service.' 5 ' His unwearied rule/ says Henry of Huntingdon, ' his never-ending toil, may I not worthily set forth, save in verse : ' Thine own greatness inborn, O Alfred mighty in battle, Made thee a teller of truth, and truth-telling made thee a doer, 1 'Book of Hyde.' 2 I do not propose to enter into the vexed question of the year of Alfred's death. See Appendix B. 3 Asser. 4 Ethelwerd. 5 Florence of Worcester. 72 Alfred in the Chroniclers And thy doing of deeds hath made thee a name everlasting. Not without sadness thy joy, thy hopes with fear interwoven. Ever, when worsted, thou madest thee ready to fight on the morrow, Ever, when victor, the more didst thou dread thee to fight on the morrow Stained were thy garments with sweat, with gore thy falchion bepainted, Marking how heavily weighed upon thee the burden of kingship. Nay, for in all the wide world like thee we find not another, Who, mid so many an ill, might breathing-space gain for a moment. Never could foeman's steel his steel beat down from his hand-grip ; Never was forged the blade that could end his toil with a sword-stroke. Now, when the woes of his reign and his lifelong labours are over, Christ be to him true Rest, be Christ his Kingdom unending.' 1 2. ' He was buried, as was meet, with kingly worship in the royal city of Winchester, in the Church of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles,' ' in the New Minster, where, with the just, he awaiteth the garment of immortality and a glorious resurrec- tion,' 2 ' when he shall once again be crowned.' 3 ' O reader, pray thou thus : " Christ, Redeemer, save Thou his soul." ' 4 3. ' The Book of Hyde ' mentions that he was at first buried in Winchester Cathedral, till 'through the folly of the canons,' who fancied that he ' walked,' his son Edward trans- lated his remains to the New Minster, Hyde Abbey, which Alfred had himself founded. There his tomb ' of most pre- cious porphyry ' 5 remained an object of veneration till broken up, along with many another royal and saintly sepulchre, by the greed of Henry VIII. 4. But no tombstone was needed to keep the memory of Alfred green in the hearts of Englishmen. From age to age his name was handed on as the saint and hero that he was, and the echoes of his wisdom were passed from lip to lip, till every wise saying that found acceptance amongst English folk was fathered, whether truly or mistakenly, on him. Thus came into being that wonderful work, 'The Proverbs of Alfred,' 6 selections from which will most fittingly conclude our sketch 1 For the Latin see Henry of Huntingdon, 17. 2 Florence of Worcester. 3 Roger of Wendover. 4 Ethelwerd. 5 Chronicle of St. Neots. 6 This poem is found in only two MSS. one in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, the other in that of Jesus College, Oxford. It has been published by Kemble, in his ' Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn,' and by Morris, in his ' Old English Miscellany.' I do not know of any translation ; but that which I give here is practically word for word, and absolutely metre for metre. The whole series of the ' Proverbs ' runs to several times the length of the extracts here rendered. Introductory Sketch 73 of his life. The poem in its present form dates from the twelfth or thirteenth century, but it may well be founded on something much older. And the words it puts into Alfred's mouth show, at least, a true insight into his heroic and saintly nature. Thus it runs : Sat there at Seaford Many a thane, Many wise Bishops, Much folk book-learned ; Proud were the earls there, Noble the knights. There was Earl Alfric, Wise he in law-lore ; There too was Alfred, England's darling, England's shepherd, England's King. Them 'gan he learn, As now ye hear, How they their life Might bestmost lead. Alfred was of England King, Strong and skilled in everything ; He was King, and he was clerk, Loved he full well God's work ; Wise in word, And ware in deed ; Sure the wisest man was he Of all folk that England's be. Thus quoth Alfred, England's joy : ' Would ye, my folk, List now your Lord, Then should ye wit Of Wisdom's way ; How ye may this world's Worship wield, And eke your soul To Christ may cleave.' Wise were the words That Alfred spake : ' Mildly I move you, Dear my friends, 74 Alfred in the Chroniclers Poor and eke rich, People of mine, That all do fear Our Christ and Lord. Love Him and please Him Who Lord is of Life ; He the One Good, Over all goodness ; He the One Wise, Over all wisdom ; He the One Blest, Over all blessing ; He the One Master, Mildest of men ; He the One Father, He the One Helper, Of each and all. He the One Righteous, So rich and so royal, That nought of his need That man shall fail Who here on earth Doth worship Him.' Thus quoth Alfred, England's stay : ' No King of right 'Neath Christ is throned, But if of books He wot the lore, That he his writs Can soothly read A lettered man ; And look himself How he his land May hold with Law.' ' Earl is and Etheling 1 Under the King, The land to lead With lawful deed ; Both clerk and knight With even right, Both poor and rich, To judge 'mid each. 1 I.e. , Prince. Introductory Sketch, 75 For so as man soweth So also he moweth, And every man's doom To his own door doth come. ' Behoveth the knight 'Gainst foemen to fight, Lest they harry the land With fire-raising band ; That the Church have her peace ; And the churl be at ease, His seeds for to sow, His meads for to mow, To the welfare of all. To the knight this I tell, Let him look to it well.' Thus quoth Alfred : ' No, never should youth Give him o'er to distress, Albeit his case Misliketh him sore, And the thing that he would He hath not to wield. For God may yet give, When that He will, Good after evil, Weal after woe : And well is the man That hath shapen it so.' Thus quoth Alfred : ' Hard is it to row 'Gainst the tide in his flow ; So is it to toil 'Gainst the heart's own turmoil. Yet he that in youth So to labour is fain, World's wealth for to gain, That in eld he may rest ; And eke 'mid his wealth Aye worketh God's will ; His youth's hard spell It hath sped him full well." Thus quoth Alfred : ' If thou silver and gold Hast to wield from of old, 76 Alfred in the Chroniclers Yet never on earth Take thou pride in thy birth. It is not thine elders', It is not thine own ; All is but God's loan.' Thus quoth Alfred : ' In the flood- tide of fortune Ne'er put thou thy trust, Though silver and gold Thou hast untold. To nought shall it come ; To dust shall it drive ; But the Lord, He liveth Forevermore.' Thus quoth Alfred : ' If thou in thine eld Art wasted in wealth, And no more canst lead thee With power nor with might, And no more hast strength For to steer thee aright ; Then thank thy Lord Of all His love, And of all thine own life, And the light of the day, And of all the mirth He maketh for man. And whereso thou wendest, Say this at the end : V/hate'er may befal me, God's Will be done.' Thus quoth Alfred : ' Son of my heart, come, Sit thee beside me, And I will instruct thee In tracks of truth. My son, I do feel That paleth my face, That fadeth my hue, That faileth my heart. My days be nigh done ; Eftsoon must we part. For I shall me wend To the other world, Introductory Sketch 77 And thou shalt outlive me In all my wealth. ' My son, now I bid thee, My dear one, my own, Thou father thy folk, And be thou true Lord. To orphans be parent, To widows be friend, To poor men be comfort, To weak men be stay ; And wronged men right With all thy might. And keep thou the Law ; And love thou the Lord ; And think above all Of God, with full mind ; And bide till He rede thee In all thy deed ; The more shall He help thee To all thy will.' And the son here addressed was worthy of these touching words, and of his noble father. Next to Alfred himself, Edward the Elder is the monarch to whom England owes most. Without such a successor Alfred's work must have been in vain, and England, in spite of it, have broken up into a shifting congeries of petty independent States Danish for the most part with no national unity, and no splendid vista of national development and national glory. For the averting of this fate we have to thank the children of Alfred, Edward himself and his heroic sister Ethelfled, who, as widow of the Mercian Alderman Ethelred, was styled the ' Lady of the Mercians.' From the moment of their father's death, these two the same of whose promise in their youth so bright a picture is drawn by Asser set themselves to complete his work, and to harvest the good seed sown by him. Their first task was the systematic reduction of the Danish settlements in Mercia, pursuant of Ethelfled's claim to the dominion of that whole land, north as well as south of Watling Street. Here the Danes had formed a group of military heathen oligarchies, 1 1 Such as the ' Five Boroughs ' Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, and Stamford. 7 8 Alfred in the Chroniclers holding down the old English and Christian populations in a kind of serfdom. One by one these were brought under, and curbed by fortified posts, scientifically placed at strategic points, whose names, like St. Neot's and St. Ives (from the Cornish town so called), still bear witness to their West Saxon origin. And finally, such was the respect inspired by this steady and irresistible advance of the native power, that not only did every district of England acknowledge Edward as King, but the whole of Britain bowed to his sway. The Scots and Picts beyond the Forth, the Britons of Strathclyde and Cumbria, the various Welsh principalities from the Wirral to the Severn Sea, all alike * took him to Father and to Lord.' Under his suzerainty the whole island became, for the first time in history, united in one political entity, and the British Empire had begun. Such was the outcome of the life-work of Alfred. APPENDIX A. THE 'ENGLISH SCHOOL' IN ROME. THIS was a precinct in the Leonine City opening into the portico of (old) St. Peter's to the North, and bounded by the Tiber to the South. It is called in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ' The School of England ' [Angelcynnes Scolu]. In the Latin chroniclers it is Schola Anglorum, or Saxonum, or Anglo-Saxonum. The word schola had at that date no necessary connection with education, but was used of any kind of corporate institution. That our School had such a corporate organization we learn from the ' Liber Pontificalis ' (A.D. 800 and 846), where we also learn that the English themselves called it a ' borough.' The name Borgo still clings to the site. In early mediaeval times every nation sending a sufficiently large number of pilgrims to Rome seems to have had such a precinct ; we thus read also of the French, Lombard, and Frisian ' Schools.' That of the English contained many lodging-houses (domos), in which our pilgrims found shelter and entertainment, and also a church dedicated to St. Mary (S. Maria in Sassia [Saxonica], now S. Spirito in Sassia), which had the then rare privilege of sepulture (A.S. Chron., 874), and was served by a permanent colony of English ecclesiastics, the Superior being appointed by Papal Bull. Innocent III. transferred them in 1204 to St. Pantaleone, on the other side of the Tiber, and made over their old school to the Knights of St. John. The existing ' English College ' in Rome dates from the thirteenth century. The School (founded by Ina, King of Wessex, 688) was twice burnt out, once under Pope Paschal I. (817-824), and again in the first year of Leo IV. (847). In both cases the preservation of the adjoining portico of St. Peter's is ascribed to the special prayer of the Pope: Raphael, in the Vatican stanze, shows us Leo IV. in the act of thus checking the conflagration. At Alfred's visit in 853 the rebuilding of the place (mainly at his father's charge) must have been in progress, and it was probably on its completion that the precinct, at his request, was freed from taxation by Pope Marinus (A.S. Chron., 885). Able articles on this little-known subject will be found in the Dublin Review, vol. cxxiii. 8o Alfred in the Chroniclers APPENDIX B. THE DATE OF ALFRED'S DEATH. THE confusion of dates in the chroniclers, which causes some to place Alfred's death in 899, others in 900, and others, again, in 901, arises from the lack in the early Middle Ages of any generally accepted chronological system. Our present Anno Domini reckoning came into common use about 550, the date of the Incarnation being then supposed to have been conclusively established by the elaborate calculations of Dionysius Exiguus (526). But there were never wanting critics who declared that the true date was two (or four) years earlier than that adopted by him, and Chroniclers were apt to be thus confused. Bede, for example, uses in his 'Ecclesiastical History' our present reckoning, but in his ' Chronicles ' the Verus Anmis, two years behind it. Not till the twelfth century did the supreme convenience of a universally recognised era render these criticisms of merely academic interest. A further source of error arose from the absence of any fixed New Year's Day. Most early writers begin the year with the Incarnation (March 25), but some take the Nativity (December 25), some the Circumcision (January i), whilst some reckon from the Crucifixion. The Roman Era (A.U.C.) is also in use, and this began April 21, though the Roman Civil Year commenced on January i. Some chroniclers, again, reckon by regal years, and of these, some count as the first year of any given King the whole of the civil (or ecclesiastical) year in which his reign began, some the actual twelve months during which he first sat on the throne. Add the errors and amendments of copyists, and we can easily see how the year given in one chronicle as 899 might be in another 900, and in another 901. The wonder is that there is not much greater confusion. Nor is it worth while to spend overmuch good time and thought in attempting to harmonize these discrepancies. A mild balance of probability between the rival dates is the best we can hope to attain, and this, in my view, seems rather to incline to 900. The whole involved question of the chronology of the mediaeval historians is exhaustively dealt with by Mr. Petrie (' Monumenta Brit.,' p. 103). END OF PART I. PART II. EXTRACTS FROM THE CHRONICLERS, WITH PREFATORY NOTICES. PART II. EXTRACTS FROM THE CHRONICLERS, WITH PREFATORY NOTICES. I. ASSER. ' OF THE DEEDS OF ALFRED.' THE biography of Alfred which goes under the name of Asser is admitted by the all but unanimous consent of historical criticism to be his indeed, and to have come down to us (with the one or two very obvious and unskilful interpolations noted as such herein- after) substantially as the author left it. Asser, as he himself tells us, was a monk of St. David's, and an inmate of Alfred's Court from 884 onwards. His chronicle ends so abruptly (in 893) that we may conjecture it to be unfinished. His personal acquaintance with Alfred, and his access to first-hand sources of information for the whole period of which he writes, render his work the foundation for every subsequent attempt to portray our hero-King. No ancient MS. of Asser is now known to exist, since that in the Cottonian Collection perished by fire in 1731. It was edited by Parker in 1574, and again by Camden (1603), and by Wise (1722). 62 84 Alfred in the Chroniclers CONTENTS. SECTION I. Of Alfred's birth and parentage. 5. How the Danes sacked London ; and of the fight at Ockley 8. How the English subdued Wales. 9. Of Alfred at Rome. 10. Of the Danes in Thanet. 12. How King Ethelwulf tithed the realm, and how he wedded Judith, and what came thereof. 19. How King Ethelwulf died, and of his will. 21. Of King Ethelbald. 22. Of King Ethelbert. 24. Of King Ethelred, and of the Danes in East Anglia. 25. Of Alfred's boyhood. 30. Of the Danes at York. 32. Of Alfred's wedding. 33. Of the Danes at Nottingham. 34. How the Danes won East Anglia ; and of St. Edmund. 35. How the Danes came into Wessex ; and of the fighting at Englefield and Reading. 37. Of the fight at Ashdown. 42. Of the fight at Basing : and of the death of Ethelred. 43. How Alfred was made King ; and of the fight at Wilton. 44. How the Danes left Wessex. 46. How they won Mercia. 47. How they won Northumbria ; and how they took Cambridge. 48. Of the Danes at Wareham and Exeter. 50. Of Alfred's fleet. SECTION 52. How the Danes overran all Wessex; and of Alfred in Athelney. 58. How the Danes were worsted in Devon; and of the Raven banner. 61. How the English rose against the Danes ; and of the fight at Ethandune. 64. Of the peace made at Wedmore. 66. How the Danes left Wessex ; and of their deeds in France. 69. How they beset Rochester ; and of the sea-fights at Stour- mouth. 71. What befel among the Franks ; and of Pope Marinus. 75. Of Alfred's thorn in the flesh. 80. Of his children, and their up- bringing. 81. Of all his greatness. 82. Of his zeal and devotion to God and man. 87. Of his learning. 90. Of the Teachers he called in. 93. Of his calling in Asser. 99. How the Danes beset Paris. 100. How Alfred built again London. 101. [Of Oxford.] 104. Of matters over-sea. 107. Of Alfred's Handbook. 112. Of his troubles and alms-deeds. 1 1 8. Of the Abbeys that he made. 128. How he parted out his money. 134. How he parted out his time ; and of his lantern. 138. Of his justice. Asser 85 ASSER. To Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, and Ruler of all Christian folk within the Island of Britain, my kindest and most worshipful Lord and Master, Asser, lowest of all God's servants, wisheth, for either life, both here and hereof ter, wealth a thousandfold, and answer to all his prayer. I. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 849, at the royal town of Wanating [Wantage], in the shire called Berrocscire [Berkshire] (drawing this name from Berroc Wood, wherein the box-tree groweth freely), was born the King of the Anglo-Saxons, ALFRED. 2. Son was he to King Ethelwulf, who was the son of Ecgbert, son of Ealhmund, son of Eafa, son of Eowwa, son of Ingild. Full brethren were Ingild and Ina, that far-famed King of the West Saxons ; who wended him Rome-wards, and at Rome ended with good report this life here, so to begin in the Kingdom of Heaven his reign with Christ. 3. And these brethren were sons of Ceolwald, son of Cudarn [Cutha], son of Cuthwine, son of Ceaulin, 1 son of Cynric, son of Creoda, son of Cerdic, 2 son of Elesa, son of Gewis, from whom the Britons call all that stock Gegwis. [Asser continues the genealogy through eight more mythical genera- tions to Geatta, whom, on the authority of the Latin poet Sedulius, he declares to have been a Teutonic deity, and thence through ten more descents to Shem, and so to Adam.] 4. Alfred's mother hight Osburga, a devout woman, and keen of wit withal, great of heart as high in birth. Child was she of Oslac, the far- famed cup-bearer of King Ethelwulf. Now this Oslac was by birth a Goth, sprung both from Goths and Jutes, and of the stock of Stuf and Wihtgar, brethren alike and earls. From their uncle, King Cerdic, and his son, Cynric, their cousin, had they sway over the Isle of Wight. And there, at a place hight Gwihtgara-burhg [Carisbrooke], slew they the few British indwellers whom they found in that island ; for the other folk thereof had been slain before, or had fled into exile. 5. In the year 851 (the third of King Alfred's age) did Ceorl, earl of Devonshire, with the men of Devon, fight the heathen at Wicam-beorg [Wembury] ; and the Christians won. And in the same year the Heathen wintered in the island called Scheapieg [Sheppey], 3 which, being inter- preted, is Sheep Isle. It lieth in the Thames between Essex and Kent, but nearer to Kent than to Essex, and hath a fair Minster therein. 6. Also, in this same year, did a mighty heathen host, with 350 ships, come in into Thames mouth, and laid waste Dorubernia [Canterbury], the chief city of Kent, and eke London, which is on the march between 1 Bretwalda, A.D. 518. - The original leader of the West Saxons into Britain. 3 The A.S. Chronicle says Thanet. See p. II. 86 Alfred in the Chroniclers Essex and Middlesex ; howbeit it belongeth of right to Essex. And Beorhtulf, King of Mercia, who came forth to meet them with all his war-folk, did they put to flight. And thereafter the aforesaid heathen host passed over into Surrey, which lieth on Thames-bank southward, and from Kent westward. 7. Then came Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons, with Ethelbald, his son, and with all his war-men, and fought with them no short battle, at a place called Aclea [Ockley] , which meaneth Oak-lea. There strove they long and long (for full stout was either side, and full bold), even until the most part of that heathen horde was utterly overthrown and slain, so that never heard we tell of their being so cut down in any place, either before or since, in one day. And the Christians won them all honour, and theirs was the death-stead. Moreover, in the same year King Athelstane, 1 son of King Ethelwulf, and Ealhere the earl, utterly destroyed in Kent no small host of the Heathen, at a place called Sand- wich. And nine of their ships took they ; and the rest gat them off and fled. 8. In A.D. 853, the fifth of King Alfred's age, Burghred, King of the Mercians, sent an errand unto Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons, and besought of him aid against the Middle Britons, dwelling between Mercia and the Western Sea ; 2 for, beyond all wont, were they striving against his sway. Then King Ethelwulf, as soon as he heard the errand, hasted him with his host, and brake into Britain [Wales], and King Burghred with him. And so soon as he was in, then harried he the land, and brought it all under Burghred, and so came home again. 9. And in that same year did King Ethelwulf send his aforenamed son Alfred to Rome, and many a peer with him, full worshipfully, and many a commoner. Pope Leo held then the Apostolic See ; 3 and he it was who anointed for King this young Alfred ; yea, and confirmed him also, and received him for his own son by adoption. 10. And in this same year did Earl Ealhere, with the men of Kent, and Huda, with the men of Surrey, stoutly turn to against a Heathen host in the island called in Saxon tongue Tenet [Thanet], but in British Ruim. At the first had the Christians the better ; yet waxed the fight longer, notwithstanding; and on either side were full many slain, and full many were there plunged beneath the water and so drowned. And there both those earls perished. n. Also, in the same year, after Easter, did Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons, give his daughter in wedlock to Burghred, King of the Mercians ; and at the town royal of Chippenham did he the wedding, and that with kingly worship. 12. In the 855th year of our Lord, and the 7th of the aforesaid 1 King of Kent, afterwards St. Neot. See p. 17. 2 I.e., in Wales, called the Middle Britons, as lying between the Cumbrians and the Cornish. Wales had first been brought under English sway by Offa, King of Mercia, but never permanently submitted till the days of Henry V. y See Introduction, p. 15. Asser 87 King [Alfred], there abode a mighty Heathen host for the whole winter in the aforesaid Isle of Sheppey. In the same year did the aforesaid worshipful King Ethelwulf free from all royal service and tribute a tenth part of all his realm ; and by deed of gift hallowed he it for ever to God, One and Three, on the Cross of Christ, 1 for the welfare of his own soul and the souls of his forefathers. And in the same year he wended him to Rome, with mickle worship, and with him he took Alfred, his son above-named, to tarry there yet a second time, inasmuch as he loved him beyond all his other sons. And there abode he by the space of one whole year. And thereafter came he back again to his own land, and brought with him as a bride Judith, daughter of Charles, King of the Franks. 13. In the meantime, while King Ethelwulf was thus for a short space abroad over-sea, there chanced in the parts west of Selwood a shameful hap, clean against all Christian wont and righteousness. For King Ethel - bald, his son, and Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne, along with Eanwulf, Alderman of the shire of Summurton [Somerset], are said to have joined them together in this treason, that King Ethelwulf, at his home-coming from Rome, should never again be held for King. Many there be that count this wickedness, unheard of in all bygone days, to the Bishop and the Alderman only, and say that from their counsel the complot had its beginning. Many, however, count it wholly to the overboldness of the Etheling 2 Ethelbald, inasmuch as he held fast thereto and eke to many another crooked path ; whereunto certain witness is borne, yea, and proved by the outcome that followed. 14. For as King Ethelwulf was on his way back from Rome, this son of his aforesaid, with all his counsellors, or rather conspirators, were fain to do this wickedness of driving back the King from his own realm. But neither did God suffer it, nor the Lords of all Saxony [i.e., the Witan of Wessex] consent thereto. For lest a war between father and son should bring upon Saxony cureless ill ; nay, lest the whole folk, taking side with either, should day by day wax ever sterner and starker in civil war ; by the unspeakable kindness of the father, and the doom of the Lords one and all, the aforetime united kingdom was parted between the father and the son. And the Eastern shires were adjudged to the father, the Western to the son. For where the father of right should have reigned, there reigned that wicked and self-willed son (for the Western part of Saxony is ever counted above the Eastern). 15. Then, when King Ethelwulf got back from Rome, the whole folk, as was meet, were full glad of the old man's home-coming ; and, if he would have suffered it, were fain to drive that self-willed son and his ill counsellors quite and clean from the realm. But he, as we have said, all too kindly and prudently, forbade them this, lest it should bring into 1 I.e., laying his finger on the cross of his signature, as is now done with the seal of a legal document. This method of attestation lasted till the Norman Conquest. 2 Etheling (from the root Ethel = Noble) is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent for a Prince of the Blood Royal. 88 Alfred in the Chroniclers hazard the safety of the realm. He bade, also, that Judith should sit beside him on his kingly throne (and that without any murmuring or ill-will of his Lords) even unto his life's end ; against the perverse wont of that folk. 1 6. For the West Saxon use suffereth not a Queen to sit beside a King, nor yet to call her ' Queen,' but 'Consort' only. And this insult, nay, infamy, as the elders of that land tell the tale, sprang from one self-willed and evil-hearted Queen of that folk, whose deeds were so wholly hateful to her lord and all the people, that not only won she such hatred as to be herself cast out from the royal throne, but left the same brand upon all that came after. For, because of her surpassing wicked- ness, the whole folk of that land sware with one accord that never in his life should any King reign over them if he were fain to bid his Queen sit beside him on the throne royal. And because, as I think, but few know whence this perverse and hateful custom, against the wont of all other folk (Teutonic, to wit), first arose in Saxony, I think good to set forth, at somewhat greater length, what I have heard thereon from my Lord and Master, Alfred the Truth-teller, King of the Anglo-Saxons, who ofttimes told me it himself, and that he had it from many a truthful tale which spake in full thereof. 17. There was in Mercia, of late \inoderno tempore], a certain King of great might, dreaded by all the Kings and kingdoms around, by name Offa he who bade make from sea to sea the great dyke 1 between Britain [Wales] and Mercia. His daughter, named Eadburgh, did Beorhtric, King of the West Saxons, take unto him in wedlock. And she, so soon as she had gotten her the King's goodwill, and all but the whole sway of that realm, then began she, after her father's wise, to live as doth a tyrant. And against every man whom Beorhtric loved would she speak leasing, and whatsoever things be hateful to God and to man, such would she do. And all whom she might would she accuse unto the King, and thus take their life, by her crafts, or their sway at the least. And if this she might not gain from the King, then took she them off by poison. And thus was it well proven as to a certain youth, dearly beloved of the King ; for, when she might not belie him to the King, she worked his death by poison. And the King, all unwittingly, is said to have tasted of that poison (for she weened not to give it to him, but to the youth) ; but the King took it first, and thus both of them perished. 18. Therefore, when King Beorhtric was thus dead, seeing she might no longer dwell amongst the West Saxons, she sailed over sea, with countless treasures, and came unto Charles the Great, that most re- nowned King of the Franks. And to her, even as she stood before the dai's with many a royal gift which she had brought, Charles spake, and said : ' Choose thee, Eadburgh, which thou wilt, between me and my son, who standeth here on this dais beside me.' And she, in her folly, without thought, answered and said unto him : ' If mine be the choice, 1 Still called Offa's Dyke, from the mouth of the Dee to that of the Wye. Offa was King of Mercia 755-794. Beorhtric died in the year 800. Asser 89 then choose I thy son, insomuch as he is younger than thee.' Then did Charles laugh her to scorn, and said : ' Hadst thou chosen me, my son should have been thine ; but since thou hast chosen my son, neither me nor him shalt thou have.' Yet gave he her a great Abbey of nuns, wherein she laid aside her secular habit and put on nun's garb, and for a few short years there held office as Abbess. But even as in her own land she had lived a witless life, so lived she in another a life yet more witless. For with a certain man of her own kin did she commit adultery, and being taken in the very act, was, by the bidding of King Charles, cast forth from her monastery. And, in want and misery, led she, even unto death, a life of shame : so that at last, with but one little page beside her, as we have heard from many who saw it, dwelt she in all wretched- ness, begging her daily bread, at Padua. 19. Ethelwulf, then, lived, after he got back from Rome, two years ; wherein, among many another good thought for this present life, he dwelt upon his own going of the way of all flesh \ad universitatis viani\. And lest his sons after their father's death should strive unseemly amongst themselves, he bade write a will or rather a commendatory letter, wherein he wrote this doom, that his kingdom be meetly shared between two sons, the eldest to wit ; and his private heritage between his sons and his daughter ; and the moneys he might leave, between his sons and his soul, and eke his nobles. Of which Act of Prudence we think meet to give a few words (that many hereafter may follow the same) such, to wit, as have most to do with soul's health. For the rest, which pertain unto human stewardship, it boots not to bring into this small work ; lest our prolixity disgust our readers to say nothing of those who hear it read. 20. For his soul's health, then (whereof he was ever jealous even from his youth up), bade he that throughout all his own heritage, in every ten manors \inanentibus\ one poor man, either of inland folk or outland, should be stayed with food, drink and clothing by his successors, even unto the final Day of Judgment : yet so only if that land should still be dwelt upon, with men and flocks therein, and should not be waste. To Rome also, for his soul, bade he bear, in each and every year, much moneys, even 300 mancusses j 1 and that there they should be shared after this sort, namely, 100 in honour of St. Peter, more especially for buying of oil, wherewith might be filled all the lamps of the church of that Apostle on Easter Eve, and also at the Cock-crow [on Christmas Day], and 100 in honour of St. Paul, to the same ends ; and 100 also for the Universal Apostolic Pope. 21. But when King Ethelwulf was dead, and buried at Stemruga, 2 Ethelbald his son, against the ban of God and Christian worthiness nay, and against all Heathen wont also went up unto his father's couch, and took to him in wedlock Judith, daughter of Charles, King of the Franks ; wherethrough all who heard thereof cried ' Fie upon him !' 1 A mancus was thirty pence. The word is of Arabic origin. ~ This word is hopelessly corrupt. go Alfred in the Chroniclers And for two and a half lawless \effrenis\ years, after the death of his father, swayed he the helm of the West Saxon kingdom. 22. In A.D. 860, the i2th of the age of Alfred, Ethelbald, King of the West Saxons, died, and was buried in Sherborne [Scireburnan] ; and Ethelbert his brother, as right was, joined beneath his sway Kent and Surrey, yea, and Sussex likewise. In his days came there from the sea a mighty Heathen host, and stormed Winchester [Wintonia], and laid waste the city. And while, with all their spoil, they made back to their ships, came there upon them Oswald, Alderman of Hampshire, with his men, and Ethelwulf the Alderman, with the men of Berkshire, and, in manly wise, crossed their path. Eftsoon joined they battle, and on all sides were the Heathen cut down. And, seeing they might abide the fray no longer, they fled them away like women, and the Christians won that field. So for five years did Ethelbert sway the realm, in all peace and love and honour ; and, to the great grief of his folk, went he the way of all flesh, and in Sherborne, beside his brother, was he worshipfully laid to rest. 23. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 864, the Heathen wintered in the island of Thanet, and plighted sure troth unto the men of Kent, whereby the men of Kent, for the keeping of that troth, promised to give them money. Yet meanwhile, in fox-like sort, did the Heathen steal out from their camp by night, and brake the troth, and held in scorn that promised fee (for they knew well they would get more by thieving and spoil than by the peace). And the whole of East Kent did they lay waste. 24. In the year of the Incarnation 866, the i8th of King Alfred's age, Ethelred, brother of King Ethelbert, undertook, for five years, the sway of the West Saxon realm. And that same year came there from Denmark \Danubio\ to Britain a mighty Heathen fleet, and wintered in the kingdom of the Eastern Saxons, which in the Saxon tongue is called Eastengle. And there was that host, for the most part, horsed. 25. But, to speak in sea fashion (lest all too long our ship yield her to wind and tide, and all too far tack about in the orHng, ever wearing around amid such wars and slaughters and tale of years), I hold that we should go back to that which most stirred me to this work. That is to say, I think that here should be shortly brought in the little that has come to my knowledge of the childhood and boyhood of my worshipful lord and master Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons. 26. Beloved was he, by both father and mother alike, with a great love, beyond all his brethren ; yea, and the darling of all. And in the kingly court \curto\ was he ever brought up. As he grew on, both in childhood and boyhood, so showed he ever fairer than his brethren, and, in looks, and words, and ways, the lovesomest. From his very cradle, above all, and amid all the distractions of this present life, his own high- souled temper, and his high birth also, bred in him a longing after Wisdom. But, alas, through the unworthy carelessness of his parents and up-bringers, he abode, even unto his twelfth year or more, unable so Asser g i much as to say his letters. Yet learnt he by heart many a Saxon lay, for, day and night, would he hear them repeated by others, and no dull listener was he. A keen huntsman also, ever at work in woodcraft, and to good purpose. For peerless was he in the hunting-field, ever the first and ever the luckiest ; in this, as in all else, supremely gifted by God. And this we have ourselves ofttimes seen. 27. It chanced then that one day his mother 1 was showing to him and his brothers a book of Saxon songcraft which she had in her hand. 'Whichever of you,' said she, 'can soonest learn this volume, to him will I give it.' At this word, he, instinct with divine inspiration, and allured by the beauty of the opening letter of that book, answered his mother, forestalling his brethren, his elders in years but not in grace, and said : ' Wilt thou indeed give one of us this book and to him who can soonest understand and repeat it before thee ?' Then did she smile for very joy, and ' Yea,' she said, ' that I will.' Then at once took he the book from her hand, went off to his master, and read it. And when it was read, he took it back to his mother and said it all by heart. 28. After this he learnt the Daily Course, that is, the Services of the Hours, and then certain psalms, and many prayers, which he collected into one book and ever bare about with him in his bosom (as I have seen with my own eyes) day and night, for the sake of prayer, amid all the changes and chances {curricula} of this mortal life, and never parted therefrom. 29. But, alas, what he most longed for, a liberal education to wit, he attained not according unto his will, for why, as he used to say, there were then no good teachers \lectores\ in the whole realm of Wessex. And oft would he affirm, with many a complaint, and many a sigh from his inmost heart, that amid all the hindrances of his mortal life this was the greatest, that at the period when he had both years and leisure and capacity for learning, he had no masters. But when he was more ad- vanced in age, he was a prey, day and night, to pangs unceasing, past the skill of all physicians within the four seas, and to all the cares, out- ward and inward, of kinghood, and to the inroads, by sea and land, of the Heathen ; so that his masters and teachers, such as they were, were so distracted, that read [z>., study] he could not. But yet, amid the hindrances of this life, from infancy even unto the present day, he hath ever continued in this heartfelt longing, yea, even until now he ceaseth not to yearn for it, and will, as I believe, unto the very last day of his life. 30. In the year of the Incarnation 867, the rgth of the age of King Alfred aforesaid, the abovenamed host of the Heathen shifted from East Anglia to the city of York, which lieth on the northern bank of the river H umber. At that time, by the stirring of the devil, had there 1 Alfred's mother must have died before 855, when he was six years old, as in that year his father married again ( 12). If it is of her that this story is told (and from internal evidence it applies more reasonably to her than to his young step- mother Judith), Asser's assertion that he could not read till twelve must be loosely interpreted. In that year, 861, his third brother, Ethelbert, was already King. 92 Alfred in the Chroniclers arisen strife among the Northumbrians ; as to a folk which hath come into God's displeasure is ever wont to chance. For the Northumbrians of late, as we have said, had driven from the realm their lawful King, Osbert by name ; and a certain usurper, by name Ella, not of the seed royal, had they set up over the kingdom. But when the heathen came upon them, this strife, by the counsel of God and the help of the Lords of the land, was somewhat allayed, for the common weal. And Osbert and Ella joined forces, and gathered an army, and drew nigh to the town of York. 31. And at their coming the Heathen took at once to flight, and were fain to defend themselves within the city walls. And when the Christians saw their flight, they started in chase, even to within the ramparts, and would break down the wall ; and they did it, too. For hitherto, up to that time, the walls of that city were weak and decayed. But when the Christians, according to their purpose, had broken down the wall, and great part of them had made their way, along with the Heathen, into the city, the Heathen, for very need, charged them with fury, cut them down, put them to flight, crushed them utterly, within the town and without. And there for the most part were all the North- umbrians taken as in a trap. Both the Kings were slain, and many of the Lords ; and, in a word, they were annihilated \deleti\ And the rest who escaped plighted peace with the Heathen. In the same year did Ealhstan, Bishop of the church of Sherborne, go the way of all flesh, after ruling his see for 50 years in all honour ; and at Sherborne was he buried in peace. 32. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 868, the 2oth of the age of Alfred, the aforesaid worshipful King Alfred, then holding but secondary rank, wooed \expetimi\ and wed a wife from Mercia, high of birth, the daughter of Ethelred, Alderman of the Gainas, 1 whom men called Muckle. 2 And her mother's name was Eadburgh, of the blood-royal of Mercia ; whom I myself ofttimes saw with my own eyes for not a few years before her decease, a venerable lady, in sooth, who, after the loss of her husband, abode for many years a widow, in all chastity, even unto death. 33. In the same year the aforesaid Heathen host left the North- umbrians and wended them to Scnotengaham [Nottingham], which in British is, being interpreted, Tigguocobauc, but in Latin Speluncarum Domus [cave-stead] ; and there that year they wintered. Then at their coming did Burghred, King of the Mercians, and all the Lords of that folk, at once send messengers to Ethelred, King of the West Saxons, and Alfred his brother, begging and praying for help, wherethrough they might fight the aforesaid host. And their quest was full soon sped. For the brethren [Ethelred and Alfred] granted thereto ; and, while the word was yet in their mouths, gathered from all their land a numberless host, and gat them into Mercia, and were at Nottingham, seeking war with 1 The sept of the Middle English dwelling round Gainsborough. " I.e., the Great. Asser 93 one accord. Yet did the Heathen, in their stronghold on the citadel, refuse battle ; neither could the Christians break through the wall thereof. Thus peace was made between the Mercians and the Heathen, and those two brethren with their troops turned them home again. 34. In the next year (869) was there a mighty famine, and death among men, and plague among beasts. And the aforesaid Heathen host rode back to the Northumbrians and came to the city of York, and there abode one whole year. And in the next year (870) they made their way through Mercia to East Anglia, and in a place called Theodford [Thet- ford] they wintered. In this same year Edmund, King of the East Angles, fought against that same host a desperate fight. But, alas, the Heathen won all too gloriously ; and there was he slain, and the most of his men with him ; and they held the death-stead, and brought beneath their sway all that land. And in the same year did Archbishop Ceolnoth, the Bishop of Doro- bernia [Canterbury], go the way of all flesh, and in that city was he buried in peace. >' 35. But in the year of our Lord's Incarnation 871, and the 22nd of the age of King Alfred, did that Heathen host, hateful to tell, leave the East Angles, and hied them to the realm of the West Saxons, and came unto a town royal, called Rasdig [Reading], which lieth on the bank of Thames-stream River [ Tamesis flumensis fluminis\ to the south, in that part which is called Bearrocscire. And on the third day of their coming thither, then rode forth their chiefs, and many with them, to harry the land ; and the rest were after making them a dyke between the two rivers, Thames and Cynetan [Kennet], on the right hand 1 of that town royal. i 36. Then did Ethelwulf, Alderman of the land of Berkshire, with his comrades, cross their path at the place called Englefield ; and there fought both sides full valiantly, and long did either stand their ground. Of the two Heathen captains the one was slain, and the most part of that host laid low. Then fled away the rest, and the Christians gat them the victory, and held the death-stead. Yet four days more, after this hap, and there came Ethelred, King of the West Saxons, and Alfred his brother, and joined forces, and gathered them a host, and drew nigh unto Reading, cutting down and overthrowing whomsoever of the Heathen they found without the stronghold, and made their way even unto the gates. No less keen in fight were the Heathen. Out they burst from every gate like wolves ; and then waxed long the fight, and ever more deadly. But, alas, alas, in the end did the Christians turn their backs, and the Heathen gat them the victory and held the death-stead. And there, amongst the rest, fell the above-named Alderman, Ethelwulf. 37. Stirred by this woe and shame, the Christians, after yet another four days, went forth to battle against the aforesaid host, at a place called ^Escesdun [Ashdown] (which in Latin is by interpretation Ash Mount), 1 I.e., to the south. Until the sixteenth century the East, not the North, was the top of a map. 94 Alfred in the Chroniclers with their whole strength, and with a good will. But the Heathen formed in two divisions, of like size, made ready their shield-wall \testudo\. For they had, as at that time, two Kings and many Chieftains ; and the one half of their army gave they unto the two Kings, and the rest unto all the Chieftains together. And when the Christians saw this, they too, in like manner, parted their host in twain, and as keenly formed their shield-wall. 38. But Alfred, with his men, as we have heard from truthful eye- witnesses, came the quicker to the field and more readily. Nor wonder was it ; for his brother King Ethelred was still in his tent, fixed in prayer, hearing Mass. For ever would he say that never while he lived would he leave his Mass before the Priest had ended it, nor, for any man on earth, turn his back on Divine Service. And even so he did. And much availed with the Lord the faith of that Christian King, as in what followeth will appear most plainly. 39. The Christians, then, had thought best that Ethelred the King, with his force, should take battle against the two Kings of the Heathen ; while Alfred his brother, with his band, should be told, as was meet, to chance the fight {belli sumere sorteni\ against all the Heathen Chieftains. And when thus on either side they were in good order, and the King tarried long in prayer, Alfred, then second in command, could stand the advance of the foe no longer. Needs must he either draw him back from the battle, or charge the enemy ere yet his brother came into the fray. And, at the last, in manly wise, charged he, with the rush of a wild boar, leading his Christian forces against the foemen's hosts, even as had been fore-planned (save only that the King was not yet come), for he trusted in God's counsel and leant upon His aid. So drew he together his shield-wall in good order, and advanced his banner straight against the foe. 40. But here those who know not the place must be told that it was no fair field of battle, for the Heathen had seized the higher ground, and the Christian battle-line was charging uphill. There was also in that same place a lone thorn-tree and a low, which we ourselves have beheld. Around this, then, came the lines together, with a mighty shout- ing, in warrior wise, the one side bent upon all mischief [perperam agentes\ the other to fight for life and land and dear ones. This way and that swayed the battle for a while, valiant was it and all too deadly, till so God ordered it that the Heathen could stand against the Christian charge no longer. Most part of their force were slain, and with all shame they betook them to flight. 41. And in that place fell there by the sword one of the two Heathen Kings, and of their Chieftains five, and many a thousand of their men beside them. Yea, and, moreover, thousands more, scattered over the whole breadth of the field of Ashdown, were cut to pieces far and wide. And there then fell there Bsegsceg their King, and Sidroc the Elder, their Chieftain, and Sidroc the Younger, their Chieftain, and Osbern the Chieftain, and Frena the Chieftain, and Harold the Chieftain. And the Asser 95 whole Heathen host fled them away all that day and all that night, even unto the next day ; till they that escaped got back into their stronghold. And even until nightfall held the Christians the chase, and smote them down on every side. 42. And after this, again fourteen days, Ethelred the King and Alfred his brother, with their united force, hied them to Basing to fight against the Heathen. There joined they battle, and stood to it long. But the Heathen gained the day and held the field. And when this fray was lost and won, came there from over sea yet another Heathen host and joined the horde. And in the same year, after Easter, Ethelred, the aforesaid King, after ruling his realm well and worshipfully amid many a trouble, went the way of all flesh, and is buried in the monastery at Wimborne, where he awaiteth the Comingof the Lord and the First Resurrection with the just. 43. In the same year did our Alfred (who until then, while his brothers lived, had been in the second place) take upon him, so soon as ever his brother was dead, the sway of the whole kingdom, by the grant of God, and with all goodwill of the land-folk, one and all. For even while this brother was yet alive might he eftsoon have won it, would he have taken it, and that with the assent of all men : seeing that both in wisdom and eke in all good ways was he better than all his brethren put together yea, and, in especial, a surpassing warrior, and, in war, had ever almost the best of it. Then began he to reign, as it were unwillingly. For it seemed unto him that never might he, all alone, with but God for aid, endure so grievous a stress and strain of heathendom ; whenas, even along with his brothers, while they lived, full hardly and with great loss might he abide it. 44. So reigned he one full month, and thereafter, on the hill called Wilton, on the southern bank of the river Guilou [Willy] (from which river the whole of that shire is named), fought he, with but few behind him, against the whole Heathen host, a fight all too unequal. Up and down most part of the day raged the fight full stoutly. Then were the eyes of the Heathen opened, and they saw to the full their peril. And therewith bore they up no longer against their unremitting foe, but turned their backs and fled away. But, alas, through the rashness of the pursuit they tricked us. On they came again to battle, and won the victory, and were masters of the death-stead. 45. Nor let this seem strange to any that in this fight the tale of Christians was but small. For the Saxons, as a people [poptilariter], were all but worn out by eight battles in one and the self-same year against the Heathen ; wherein one Heathen King and nine of their Chieftains, and of their troops untold numbers, were cut to pieces ; to say nothing of the numberless raids, daily and nightly, which our oft-named Alfred and many a Captain of his kin, each with his Own men, and many even of the King's Thanes, 1 would ever keenly and tirelessly make against the Heathen. How many thousands of Heathen were slain in these never- 1 These were the squires, or landed gentry. See p. 48. 96 Alfred in the Chroniclers ending raids, over and above those cut down in the eight battles, God alone knoweth. Also in that same year did the Saxons make peace with the Heathen on this one condition, that they should depart from them. And this they fulfilled. 46. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 872, the 23rd of Alfred's age, the aforesaid Heathen host wended them to London, and the Mercians made peace with them. And in the next year they left London, and went right into the land of the Northumbrians, and there wintered in a place called Lindesige ;* and the Mercians once more made peace with them. And the next year again they left Lindesige, and made their way into Mercia, and there at a place called Repton [Hreopdune] did they winter. Burghred, moreover, the King of the Mercians, drave they to leave his kingdom and go over seas into exile, and hie him to Rome, in the 22nd year of his reign. And full loth was he so to do ; and after he got to Rome he lived not there long, but died, and in the School of the Saxons, 2 in the Church of St. Mary, was he buried worship- fully, and awaiteth the Coming of the Lord and the First Resurrection with the just. And after his driving out, the Heathen got under their sway the whole Mercian kingdom ; yet did they grant it in trust to a certain foolish King's Thane (Ceolwulf by name), on these miserable terms, that whensoever they might wish to have it again, he should, at a day's notice, give them quiet and peaceable possession thereof. And in this troth he gave them sureties, and sware, moreover, that never would he cross their will, but be obedient unto them in all things. 47. In the year of the Incarnation 875, the 25th of King Alfred's age, the host so often above spoken of left Repton and parted them into two bands. The one, with Healfdene, went off into the land of the Northumbrians, and there wintered near the river called Tyne. And they brought under their sway all Northumbria ; yea, and harried the Picts and the Strathclyde folk. And the other, with Guthrum and Oscytel and Osmund, three Heathen Kings, came unto the place which is called Cambridge [Grantebrycge] ; and there they wintered. And in this same year King Alfred, in a ship fight on the sea, engaged six Heathen ships. And one of them he took, and the rest slipped away and fled. 48. In the year of the Incarnation 876, the 26th of King Alfred's age, the oft-named Heathen host, setting out from Cambridge by night, made their way into a stronghold called Wareham, which is an Abbey of nuns, and lieth between two rivers, the Frome and the Trent, in the land called in British Durngueis, but in Saxon Thornsaeta [Dorset]. It is the safest spot on earth, save only towards the west, where it adjoins the land. And with this host did King Alfred plight firm troth, on these terms, that they should leave his land. And the host, without a word of gainsaying, gave up to him chosen sureties, named by himself alone. Yea, and they sware an oath on all the relics wherein the King placed 1 Perhaps Lindisfarne. 2 See p. 79. Asser 97 (after God) his chiefest trust yea, and on their ring, whereon heretofore never would they swear to any folk that they would get them out of his realm with all speed. Yet, after their wont, dealt they treacherously, and recked nought of sureties, or oath, or promise, or honour ; but one night brake their troth and slew all the horsemen he [Alfred] had, and suddenly hied them thqnce to Devonshire [Damnonia], to a place which is called in Saxon Eaxanceastre [Exeter], but in British Cairwisc, and in Latin [Exonia] ; a city on the east bank of the river Exe [Wise], lying near the South Sea which runs betwixt Gaul and Britain. And there they wintered. j 49. In the same year also Halfdene, King of those parts, shared out the whole land of the Northumbrians between himself and his men ; and tilled it, he and his host. [In the same year Rollo and his men made their way into Normandy.] 1 j 50. In the year 877, the Heathen, as Autumn-tide drew on, in part sat them down at Exeter, and in part went back to raid in Mercia. Day by day the number of the miscreants [perversi] grew ever larger, so that were thirty thousand slain in one day others would take their place twice- told. Then bade King Alfred make barks \cymbas\ throughout the realm, and keels [galeas], that is long ships, that he might meet the foes in sea-fight, as they came in. Therein embarked he adventurers [piratos] and let them keep the water-way \vias mart's]. But himself hied he with all speed to Exeter, where the Heathen were wintering, and shut them up in that city, and besieged them. On his seamen also laid he strait command, that they should suffer no supplies to reach the foe by way of the Narrow Seas \in parte freti\ 51. Then met there his seamen 120 ships, laden with armed warriors, coming to the help of their kinsfolk \concivium\ And when the King's officers found ships thus filled with Heathen warmen, then leapt they to arms, and boarded the savages like men. But the Heathen, who now for nearly a month had been wave-tossed and ship-worn, vainly returned the onset. So that in a moment their line of battle was shattered \laceratd\, and sunken in the place called Swanwich ; and they perished one and all. [Here follows a short and confused interpolation.] 52. In the year of the Incarnation 878, the 27th [really the 3oth] of the age of Alfred, the oft-mentioned host left Exeter, and came unto Chippenham, a town-royal in the left [North] of Wiltshire [Wiltunscyre], on the east bank of the river which in British is called Avon, and there they wintered. And many of the country-folk drave they, by force of arms, and through need and fear, to sail beyond seas, and, for the most part, brought they under their sway all that dwelt in that land. 53. At that same time Alfred, with a few of his lords, and some warriors also, dwelt in the woods and fens \_gronnosd\ of Somerset a life 1 This is an interpolation from the Chronicle of St. Neot's, whence some editors also insert here the story of Rollo's vision (see John of Wallingford, 3). 7 98 Alfred in the Chroniclers of sore trouble and unrest. For he had nought whereon to live save only what he might carry off, either by force or stealth, from the Heathen ; or even from the Christians who had bowed to their sway. 54. [And, as is written in the Life of Holy Father Neot, once, in the house of one of his cowherds, it chanced that one day a country- wife (the wife, indeed, of that same cowherd), was making ready to bake cakes. And the King sat thus by the hearth, and would make ready his bow and arrows and other war-gear. But when that unhappy woman saw that the cakes she had put before the fire were burning, she hasted and ran and moved them, scolding the while at our all-conquering King, and saying, 1 < Fie, fellow ! ' And why so slack to move the cakes ? And can'st not see them burn ? Thourt all too glad to eat them up, -when they are done to a turn.' Little thought that unlucky woman that this was King Alfred, who waged so many wars against the Heathen, and won over them so many victories. 55. Yet not only to that glorious King did the Lord deign to grant victory over his foes, and weal out of woe. Often and often \_multotiens] did that same Lord, of His loving-kindness, suffer him to be vexed by his foes, to be struck down by mishaps, to be lowered in the eyes of his folk. And this, that he might know that there is One Lord of all, to Whom every knee shall bow, in Whose hand is the heart of Kings, Who putteth down the mighty from their seat and exalteth the humble and meek, Who willeth that His faithful, high-placed in all wealth, should be touched sometimes with the scourge of adversity ; that, when brought low, they despair not of God's mercy, and, when lifted up, they pride them not on their earthly honours, but know to Whom they owe all things whatsoever they have. 56. And this trouble, in such wise brought upon our King, came upon him, as we believe, not undeservedly. For in the early days of his kingship, while he was yet young, he was a slave \detentus\ to youthful temper. And his men and his subjects came unto him, and sought to him, each for his own need ; and they who were wronged by the authorities besought his help and protection. Yet would he not list to them, nor pain him at all to help them, but altogether made nought of them. 57. Whereat that most blessed man Neot, while yet on earth, being his near kin, was grieved to the very heart, and, being full of the spirit of prophecy, foretold that, for this thing, there would come upon him very grievous trouble. But he recked little of the kind reproof of the man of God, and took not to heart that most true prophecy. Seeing then 1 ' Heus homo ! Urere quos cernis panes gyrare moraris, Cum nimium gaudes hos manducare calentes ?' These lines may be the relic of some early poetical account of the adventure. Asser 99 that whatsoever a man sinneth must needs be someway punished, either here or hereafter, our true and loving Judge willed that the King's folly should not go unpunished in this world, that He might spare him in the Day of Judgment. Therefore did this same Alfred of ours oft-times fall into such wretchedness, that none of his subjects knew where he was nor what had become of him.] 1 58. In the same year [Hubba] the brother of Ingwar and Halfdene, with 23 ships, sailed forth from the land of Demetia [South Wales], where they had wintered, after much slaughter of Christians, unto Damnonia [Devon]. And there, while bent on mischief, was he slain, with 1,200 more, by the King's Thanes, before the stronghold of Cynuit an ill death. For in that same stronghold had many King's Thanes, with their men, shut themselves for refuge. But though the Heathen saw that the stronghold was unprepared and wholly unfortified, save that it had mere ramps raised after our wont, yet tried they not to storm it. For the place is safe, by its situation, quite safe, on every side except the East, as I have seen myself. They sat down, then, before it, thinking that the folk within must speedily surrender, under stress of hunger, and thirst, and siege ; for that stronghold hath no water nigh unto it. 59. It fell out, however, otherwise than they thought for. For the Christians, rather than endure such utter lack and need stirred up, moreover, by God deemed it better by far either to conquer or to die. At dawn of day brake they out all suddenly with the dash of a wild boar \aprino tempore] upon the foemen, and overthrew them utterly. Down went the King ; down went his men, almost all ; and but few they were who got off and fled them away to their ships. ^ 60. [And there gat they no small spoil, wherein they took moreover that banner which men call the Raven. For they say that the three sisters of Ingwar and Hubba, the daughters, sooth to say, of Lodbrock, wove that banner, and made it all wholly ready between morn and night in one single day. They say too that in every fight, wherein that flag went before them, if they were to win, the raven in the midst thereof would seem to flutter as it were alive. But were their doom to be worsted, then would it droop, still and lifeless. And oft was this well proven.] 1 61. In the same year, after Easter, did King Alfred and a few of his comrades make them a stronghold at a spot called Athelney. And from that stronghold ever waged he, with his Thanes and vassals of Somerset, tireless war against the Heathen yoke. Next, in the seventh week after Easter, rode he to Egbert's Stone, which is to the East of the forest called Selwood (in Latin, SUva Magna, in British, Coitmawr). And there met him all the whole folk of Somersetshire and Wiltshire and all the folk of Hampshire, such as had not, through fear of the Heathen, sailed beyond seas. And when they saw the King, they were filled with joy untold, and they hailed him as one alive again from the dead ; 1 These passages are inserted from the Chronicle of St. Neot's. 72 ioo Alfred in the Chroniclers as, after such mighty troubles, was full meet. And there camped they one night. 62. And at peep of dawn did the King rouse the camp, and came to a place called Acglea [Leigh, near Westbury], and there one night he encamped. And next day, very early in the morning, he advanced his banners, and came to a place called Ethandun [Edington, in Wiltshire]. 1 And there against the whole Heathen host formed he firm his shield-wall, and fought a deadly fight. Stoutly and long kept they at it ; and, by God's help, in the end he got the victory, and laid low the Heathen with a very great slaughter, and followed hard upon their flight, with blow on blow, even unto their stronghold. And everything without the stronghold, men to wit, and horses, and herds, caught he and took, and the men he slew at once ; and before the gates of the Heathen stronghold did he and all his host take camp, like men. 63. And when he had there tarried 14 days, the Heathen, an-hungred, and a-cold, and a-dread, and, at last, hopeless, became sore afraid, and begged for peace, on this troth, that the King should name and take from them such sureties as he would, giving them none in return. Never before had they made peace with anyone after this sort. 64. And, when he had heard their message, the King, stirred thereto by his own kind heart, named and took from them such sureties as he would ; and, when he had them, the Heathen sware as well that they would depart from his realm with all the speed they might. Yea, and Guthrum, their King, pledged him to become a Christian, and to take upon him Baptism at the hand of King Alfred. And all this he and his fulfilled, even as they had promised. 65. For after seven weeks came Guthrum, King of the Heathen, with the thirty choicest men of all his host, to King Alfred, at a place, near Athelney, called Alre. And there did King Alfred receive him for his own son by adoption, and raised him up from out the baptismal font. And his chrisom-loosing 2 was on the eighth day, in the town-royal called Wedmore. And, when he was baptized, then stayed he with the King twelve nights. And the King gave to him and all his men many ex- cellent gifts, in great plenty, for their support and edification withal 3 [plurima atque optima cedificia\ . 66. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 879 (the 28th [jist] of King Alfred's age), the aforesaid Heathen host gat them up, as they had promised, from Chippenham, and hied them to Cirencester, which is called in British Caerceri, in the southern part of the Hwiccas. And there abode they one year. In the same year came there a mighty host of Heathen sailing from over-sea \ultramarinis\, and into Thames-stream, and joined them to the above host. Yet wintered they in the place called Fulham [Fullonham] upon the Thames. In the same year was 1 See Note A, p. 119. 2 See p. 36. 3 This seems the most probable meaning. In classical Latin crdifico and its derivatives never have a symbolical sense, which is first found in the Vulgate. Asser 101 there an eclipse of the sun, between the ninth hour and Vespers [6 p.m.] , but nearer the ninth hour. 1 67. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 880 (the 2gth [32nd] of King Alfred's age), the oft-mentioned Heathen host left Cirencester, and went off into East Anglia, and shared up that land among them, and began to settle down there. In the same year the Heathen host which had wintered at Fulham left the island of Britain and once more crossed the sea, and got to Eastern France and abode for one year at a place called Ghent [Gaent]. And the next year [88 1] went they up further into France ; and the Franks fought against them ; and, when the battle was done, the Heathen found them horses, and became horsemen. And in the next year [882] they towed their ships up the river Meuse [Mese], and drew much further up into France, and there wintered one year. 68. In the same year Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, met in sea- fight with the Heathen ships upon the sea. And of them he took two ships, and slew every man therein. And the captains of yet two more ships, with all their mates, laid down their arms so worn out were they with war and wounding and bowed the knee, and with humble prayers gave themselves up to the King. And in the next year [883] the aforesaid host towed their ships, against the stream, up the river Scheldt [Scald] to an Abbey of nuns called Cond [Cundoht], and there abode one year. 69. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 884, the 34th [36th] of King Alfred, the aforesaid host parted into two bands. The one band went on into Eastern France, and the other came into Britain and drew unto Kent, and laid siege to the city, called, in Saxon, Rochester [Hro- fesceastre], lying on the eastern bank of the River Medway. There before the gate did the Heathen suddenly throw up a strong work. Yet could they not take the city, for the citizens held out like men, until King Alfred came up with a great army to their aid. Then did the Heathen leave their stronghold, and all the horses which they had brought over from France, yea, and let go most of their captives in the stronghold : for the King came upon them as in a moment, and they fled, without stay, to their ships. And both captives and horses were seized and shared upon the spot, by the Saxons. But the Heathen, under stress of utter need, that same summer went off into France once more. 70. In the same year [884] Alfred manned well his fleet with war-men and sent them across from Kent, with orders to harry East Anglia. And when they came to the mouth of the River Stour, all at once there met them 13 Heathen ships, cleared for action. Then began a sea-fight, and on either side was it waged full keenly. And the Heathen were slain, one and all ; and all their ships were taken and all the spoil therein. And thereafter when the King's fleet was in slumber after its victory, the Heathen who dwelt in East Anglia, gat them ships together on every 1 This eclipse took place March 14, 880. (N.B. The old English year began March 25.) IO2 Alfred in the Chroniclers hand, and bore down upon this same fleet in the mouth of this same river. And they joined battle ; and the Heathen had the victory. 71. In the same year [884], Carloman. King of the East Frank?, while boar-hunting, met with a sad death, being horribly gashed by the tusk of a boar, in a specially furious charge \singulari congressione}. His brother Louis [Hlothwicus] died the year before, and he too vas King of the Franks. For both were sons of Louis [the Second] , King of the Franks, who died in the year of the abovementioned eclipse [879-80], And this Louis was son of Charles [the Bald], King of the Franks, whose daughter Judith, Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons, took, with her father's goodwill, to be his queen. 72. In the same year also, a mighty host of Heathens came out of Germany even unto the land of the Old Saxons, which in Saxon is called Ealdseaxum. 1 Against them did the Saxons and the Frisians join hands, and fought them twice in one year, like men. And God had pity on the Christians, and, by His aid, in both these rights, theirs was the victory. 73. And in the same year [884] Charles [the Fat], King of the Germans \Almannoruiri\, took unto him, by free assent of all men. the realm of the West Franks, yea, and all the realms between the Tyrrhenian sea [the Mediterranean] and the inlet [sinus] which lieth between the Old Saxons and the Gauls, save only the realm of Armorica [Brittany]. And this Charles was the son of King Louis [the German], and this Louis was the brother of Charles [the Bald], King of the Franks, the father, to wit, of Judith aforesaid. And these two brethren were sons of Louis [the Pious], and Louis was the son of Charles the Great, the Old, the Wise, and he was the son of Pepin. 74. In the same year went Pope Marinus, of blessed memory, the way of all flesh. He it was who, for the love and at the prayer of Alfred, freed the School of the Saxons 2 tarrying in Rome from all tribute and custom \talento telonio] ; yea, and moreover sent him therewith many a gift. And amongst these he gave him no small bit of the most holy and worshipful Cross, whereon our Lord Jesus Christ hung for the salvation of all men. In the same year also the Heathen host which dwelt in East Anglia shamefully brake the peace which they had made with King Alfred. 75. Now then, to return to the point wherefrom I have digressed (lest by so long sea-faring I be forced to forgo altogether the haven where I would be), I will strive [procurabo], by the grace of God, shortly and in few words (lest by prolixity in telling my news in full I disgust and offend), to get in a very little (such as has come to my knowledge), about the life, and the ways, and the right conversation of Alfred, my lord, King of the Anglo-Saxons, and (to no small extent) his deeds also, after he wedded the worshipful bride, of noble Mercian kin, already spoken of. 76. In Mercia, then, even while the marriage rite was being done, 1 See Note B, p. 1 19. - See p. 79. Asser 103 solemnly and with all honour, amid countless folk of either sex, after long feasting both by day and night even then was he seized, all at once, before all the throng, with a sudden pain, beyond all telling, and beyond all leech-craft. For it was a thing past the skill of all who were on the spot, and eke of all who have seen it from that day even to this. And this, alas, is the worst of all, that for such a length of time from his 2oth year to his 4oth and more it should have gone on without a break, all these years. Whence came such woe and pain ? Many there were who fancied that this thing was brought about by the evil influence of the adoring gaze \_favore et fascinations} of the throng round about him ; others that it was by the malice of the devil, who ever grudgeth at the good ; others, by some unwonted kind of fever. Others hold it a ficus j 1 for this grievous kind of disease he had from infancy. j 77. But therefrom God had already granted him relief, on a certain day, when he had come into Cornwall to hunt, and turned him aside to pray in a church there, wherein St. Gueryr resteth, 2 and where now St. Neot also is at peace [pausat]. For ever would he haunt holy places even from childhood, for prayer and almsdoing. Long lay he prostrate in silent supplication, beseeching the Lord's pity, that Almighty God, of His infinite mercy, would change the agonies of the distressing in- firmity upon him for some other lighter affliction ; yet on this condition, that this affliction should not be outwardly apparent in his person, lest he should be scorned and useless. For he dreaded leprosy, or blindness, or any such trouble, which, so soon as it cometh, maketh men scorned and useless. But, when his prayer was done, he took up his journey again ; and, but a little after, felt that, even as he had besought in his prayer, he was healed of that plague, by God's grace, so that it was wholly done away. 78. Yet that plague also had he won from God, by devout prayer and frequent supplication, in the first flower of his youth ; pious and prayerful that he was. For (to speak of his good-will and devotion toward God, in few words, though out of due course), when he was in the first flower of his youth, ere yet he had a wife of his own, he was fain to stablish his heart in God's commandments, yet saw he that he could not abstain from fleshly lusts. Then, fearing to incur God's displeasure \offensam\ if he were to do aught against His Will, often and often would he rise at cock-crow, and very early in the morning, unbeknown to all, sought he the churches and the relics of the saints for to pray. And there long and humbly prayed he that Almighty God, of His mercy, would turn him wholly to Himself, and stablish and strengthen his mind in the love of His service by some infirmity, such as he might bear, yet not such as would make him unfit and useless for his worldly duties. 79. And, seeing that he did this full often, and with whole-hearted 1 = piles or emerods. 2 St. Neot's, near Liskearcl. Nothing is known of St. Gueryr, whose name is said by Camden to mean ' healer.' IO4 Alfred in the Chroniclers devotion, after some little time God granted him the aforesaid ficus trouble, wherewith he was long and sore vexed for many years, insomuch that he despaired even of life, until, at his prayer, it was wholly taken away from him. But, alas, when that was taken away, another, yet more grievous, seized him, as we have said, at his wedding, and, from his 2oth year even unto his 45th, hath vexed him unceasingly, day and night. And if ever, by God's mercy, that infirmity was done away for a single day or night, or even for the space of one hour, yet the fear and dread of that horrible pain never left him, and made him, in his own thought, all but useless for every duty, either to God or man. 80. Thus were there born unto him sons and daughters by his wife aforesaid, to wit, Ethelfled, the eldest, next Edward, then Elgiva [Aethelgeofu], afterwards Elfthryth, and finally Ethelward, besides those who were snatched away by all too early a death in infancy, amongst whose number was [Edmund]. 1 Ethelfled, when she came of age to wed, was united in marriage-bond to Edred, Alderman of the Mercians. Elgiva, in turn, took upon her the service of God, espoused and con- secrated to God in the vow of virginity, in the Rule of the monastic life. Ethelward, the youngest of all, was handed over, by the counsel of God, and the admirable prudence of the King, to the literary discipline of school, under the diligent care of masters, along with nearly all the high- born infants of the land, and many, even, not high-born. In this school the books of either tongue, Latin, to wit, and Saxon, were read full diligently. They had time, moreover, for writing. So that, ere yet they had strength for manly \_humanis\ craft, wood-craft, to wit, and such like exercises, such as become the high-born, they proved studious and well- skilled in liberal Arts. Edward and Elfthryth were ever brought up in the royal court, with all diligence both of tutors and governesses. Yea, they abide even until now, dearly beloved of all, in all lowliness, courtesy, and gentleness toward all, both inland folk and outland, and in whole- hearted obedience to their father. Nor are they suffered slothfully and heedlessly to lack the discipline of a liberal education, amid such other pursuits as become the highborn in this life. For they have learnt the psalms, and Saxon books, and Saxon songs above all, and are for ever reading. 81. Yet, all the while, the King, amid his wars, and the constant hindrances of his worldly duties, yea, and the attacks of the Heathen, and his own daily attacks of illness, never slacked nor stayed in his tendance on the helm of the kingdom, and in his practice of all wood- craft ; nor yet in his teaching of all his goldsmiths, and his craftsmen, and his falconers, and his huntsmen ; nor in his construction of buildings, stately and costly beyond all the elder wont, by new plans of his own ; nor in his recitation of Saxon books ; nor, most of all, in himself learning by heart Saxon songs, with all diligence and to the utmost of his power, and bidding others do the like. 1 This name is supplied from the ' Historia Major ' of Rudborne (' Angl. Sacr. ,' i. 207). Asser 105 82. Nor yet slacked he ever in attendance at Divine Service. Daily, to wit, heard he Mass, and certain psalms and prayers, and the Day Hours and the Night Hours. 1 And by night too, as we have said, was he wont to haunt the churches, unbeknown to all his folk, for prayer. 83. Great too was his diligence, and great his bounty, in his alms- deeds which he did, both toward them of his own land and toward incomers from all nations. Kind of speech, above all, was he, beyond compare, and free of wit toward all men. And with all his mind did he throw himself into the seeking out of things unknown. 84. And of their own free will did many Franks, Frisians, Gauls, Heathens [Danes], Britons, Scots, and Armoricans, bow them to his sway, high-born alike and low-born ; and all of them, in his own worthy wise, did he rule, and love, and honour, even as his own folk, and enriched them with place [poteslate] and profit. $ 85. Unto Divine Scripture was he ever ready and careful to hearken, and that his own home-born folk should read it him ; yet would he join in prayer with outlanders no less, if need arose thereof. 86. His Bishops, moreover, and churchmen of every order, and his Thanes, and his Lords, and his Counsellors [minis teriales] also, and all his Household [familiares\ loved he with wondrous love. And their sons, too, who were brought up in the Royal Household, loved he even as his own, and slacked not by day nor yet by night, in himself setting them in every good way, and imbuing them with culture and the like. 87. Yet (as if in all this he found no comfort) would he, day and night, sadly bewail him, to the Lord, and to all near and dear unto him, with many a sigh and moan (as though he felt no grief either of body or soul save this only), that Almighty God had made him to lack Divine Wisdom and Culture. And herein was he even as the pious Solomon, richest and wisest of all Hebrew kings, who made light of earthly wealth and glory, and asked wisdom from God first. And thus, moreover, found he both wisdom, to wit, and earthly glory ; even as it is written, ' Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' 88. But God, Who ever beholdeth the inmost heart, by Whose holy inspiration we think those things that be good, by Whose bountiful guiding are performed the same ; Who doth put into our minds good desires, never save for this, that He may bring the same to good effect, by His abundant mercy ; He stirred up the heart of Alfred, by no out- ward means, but by His own inward working ; even as it is written: '/ will hearken what the Lord God "will say -within me ' (Psalm Ixxxiv.). 89. Fellow-workers, also, of his good purpose, who might help him in the wisdom he longed for, the attaining of his heart's desire, would he get him whensoever he could. And thus, like as the cunning bee riseth early in the summer morning from the cells of the hive, and cleaveth 1 The private recitation of the Breviary Offices takes at least two hours daily. io6 Alfred in the Chroniclers swiftly the pathless air, and settleth on many a divers plant moss, or fruit, or flowret and proveth that which pleaseth her most, and beareth it back home, with all foresight, so sought he from abroad that which he had not at home, that is, in his own realm. 90. And then did God shut not His ears to his cry (for righteous was it, and from a good will), but gave him comfort, and sent unto him, for the arising of light in his darkness, one Werfrith, Bishop of the church of Worcester, a man well taught in the Divine Scripture. And he, at the King's bidding, was the first to turn the books of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory, and of Peter his disciple, from Latin into Saxon, giving sense for sense most clearly and elegantly. Then was there Plegmund, of Mercian kin, Archbishop of Canterbury, a venerable man and a wise, and Athelstan, and Werwulf, priests of Mercian kin, and of learning. These four had Alfred called unto him out of Mercia, and raised unto great honour and place in Wessex, beside that which Archbishop Pleg- mund and Bishop Werfrith had in Mercia. 91. And by all their learning and wisdom, the King's longing grew ever the greater, and slacked not. For day and night, whensoever he had aught of leisure, were books read before him by such as these ; nor would he ever suffer himself to be without some one of them. And thus gained he knowledge of almost every book in the world, although of himself as yet he understood nothing about books, for he had not yet begun to ' read ' anything. 92. Yet was not all this enough to sale the King's avarice a praise- worthy avarice. Therefore bade he messengers to get him masters over- sea, in Gaul. And thence he called unto him Grimbald, a priest and a monk, a worthy man, and choice singer, and every-way skilled in Church teaching and in Holy Scripture ; and John too, also a priest and a monk, one of keen wit, skilled in all rules of literature, and a craftsman in many another art. By their teaching was the King's mind greatly enlarged, and with high place did he enrich and honour them both. 93. And in those days did the King call me also unto him, and into Saxony I came, from the uttermost west of Britain. So set I my face to go unto him, through many a long mile, and came even unto the land of the Saxons who dwell to the Right [South], which in Saxon is called Sussex, under the guidance of certain of that kin who were with me. And there, in a town-royal that is called Dean, 1 first did I see him. 94. Full kindly was his greeting ; and, amid all our talk, would he ever press me to devote myself to his service, and to leave for him, all that I had in the land north and west of Severn. 2 He promised me all back, and more also (which indeed he fulfilled). Then answered I that I could take upon me such a pledge as this after no rash and heedless sort. For it seemed unfair that I should leave that holy spot wherein 95] I was bred, and taught, and tonsured \coronatus\ and finally 1 Probably East or West Dean, near Chichester. 2 /.^; 8. Then did Ethelbert, his brother, follow him in the kingdom of Wessex, who was before King of Kent. In his days came over a great fleet, and the crews thereof stormed Winchester. Then came it to pass : ' Falls that old city, queen so many a year.' \_Urbs antiqua rutt, multos dominata per annos.~\ Virgil, ' .En.,' ii. 363. Then fought Osric the Alderman [dux], with Hampshire, and Ethelwulf the Alderman, with Berkshire, against that host ; and there put we them to flight with great slaughter, and won that day the field. . . . [Here follows the Danish harrying of Kent (Asser, j 23).] ***** j 9. Ethelbert this year [866] tasted death. Five years reigned he over Wessex, and over Kent reigned he ten years. And Ethelred his brother reigned in his stead. That same year came there to land in England a mighty host of Heathen. And their Chieftains who led them were Ingwar and Hubba, valiant men, but all too cruel. Ingwar stood first in craft, Hubba in 170 Alfred in the Chroniclers valour. Among the East Angles did they winter, and made peace with them, and took horses from that folk, and (for that they were all quiet and adread) spared them for that while. . . . [Here follows a short account of the Danish victory at York (Asser, 30, 300 10. In the third year of his reign [868] went King Ethelred, with Alfred his brother, unto Nottingham, to the aid of Burghred, King of Mercia. For the Danish host had marched to Nottingham, and there wintered. Ingwar then, seeing that the whole force of England was there gathered, and that his host was the weaker, and was there shut in, betook him to smooth words cunning fox that he was and won peace and troth from the English. Then went he back to York, and abode there one year, with all cruelty. 11. In the year of our Lord 870, which was the fifth of King Ethelred, was St. Edmund taken up into Heaven. For the aforesaid Host under King Ingwar, came through Mercia unto Thetford, and there wintered, and wrought upon that wretched folk utter ruin. And Edmund, being King, was liefer to die than to see such woe of his folk, whereupon he was taken by the unbelievers, and his sacred body made fast to a tree, and pierced all over through and through by their arrows. But by many a miracle has God's mercy glorified it. 12. In the sixth year of King Ethelred came there a new and number- less Host, rushing on like a torrent and sweeping all before it, even unto Reading. So many they were that they might not march in one body, but in sundry bands, and by divers ways. . . . [Here follows a shortened account of the campaign of 871 and the following events (Asser, j 36-51).] 13. In the seventh year of King Alfred [878] did the Danes hold all the whole land, from Thames northward. In Northumbria reigned King Halfdene, and in East Anglia his brother, and in Mercia those three other Kings [Guthrum, Oscytel, and Anwynd] ; and Ceolwulf. whom they had set up, reigned around London and in Essex. To King Alfred, then, was left nought save the lands south of Thames, and that the Danes grudged him, and thought scorn that it should yet be his. 14. On Wessex, then, dashed those three Kings, with wondrous swarms newly come in from Denmark. Unto Chippenham they came, and spread over the land, covering the face of the earth like locusts, and taking all for themselves, for none could withstand them. Of the land- folk some fled over sea, some bowed them to the foe, some were in hiding with King Alfred in the fens, and few these were. But now that King Alfred had neither land or hope longer, the Lord looked down upon the remnant of His people. . . . [Here follows Asser, j 58-69, much abbreviated, viz., the Danish Henry of Huntingdon 1 7 1 defeat in Devon, Alfred's decisive victory at Ethandune, Guthrum's baptism, the Continental doings of the Danes, their attempt on Rochester.] ***** 15. Then did King Alfred from Kent send a sea force unto East Anglia. And they came to Stour-mouth, and there met they 16 ships of the Vikings, 1 and worsted them in fight. But as they were homeward bound, all laden with spoil, there bore down upon them a Viking fleet, and no small one. And when it came to fighting therewith, they had this time the worse. . . . [Here follow the deaths of Carloman and Marinus (Asser, 71, 73).] ***** 16. The Danish Host went up the Seine, even to Paris Bridge, and there they wintered. And this year [886] King Alfred beset London, for most of the Danes therein had followed into France after their Host. Then, so soon as the Danes were off, did the English [of London] bow to him with one accord, and gave him entrance as their King. And he gave the city in ward to Ethelred the Alderman. . . . [Here follows a short account of Continental affairs, and the sub- sequent Danish invasion of England, in 893, from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.] ***** 17. Thus did King Alfred reign over all England, save what was under the Danish sway, for twenty-eight and a half years ; then felt he the sting of death. His unwearied rule, his never-ending toil, may I not worthily set forth save in verse : Thine own greatness inborn, O Alfred mighty in battle, Made thee the Teller of Truth, and truth-telling made thee a doer. And thy doing of deeds hath made thee a name everlasting. Not without sadness thy joy, thy hopes with fear interwoven. Ever, when worsted, thou madest thee ready to fight on the morrow, Ever, when victor, the more didst dread thee to fight on the morrow. Stained was thy garment with sweat, with gore thy falchion bepainted ; Marking how heavily weighed upon thee the burden of kingship. Nay, for in all the wide world like thee we find not another, Who 'mid so many an ill, might breathing-space gain for a moment. Never could foeman's steel his steel beat down from his handgrip, Never was forged the blade that could end his toil with a sword-stroke. Now that the woes of his reign and his life-long labours are over, Christ be to him true Rest, be Christ his kingdom unending. [Nobilitas innata tibi probitatis honorem Armipotens yElfrede dedit, probitasque laborem, Perpetuumque labor nomen. Cui mixta dolore Gaudia semper erant ; spes semper mixta timore. Si modo victus eras, ad crastina bella parabas, Si modo victor eras, ad crastina bella timebas. 1 Henry of Huntingdon is the earliest authority for the use of this name, which is probably derived from the Teutonic ivig= war. 172 Alfred in the Chroniclers Cui vestes sudore jugi, cui sica cruore Tincta jugi, quantum sit onus regnare probarunt. Non fuit immensi quisquam per climata mundi Cui tot in adversis vel respirare liceret. Nee tamen aut ferro contritus ponere ferrum Aut gladio potuit vita; finire labores. Jam, post transactos vitae regnique dolores, Christus ei sit vera quies, sceptrumque perenne.] VII. FLORENCE OF WORCESTER. FLORENCE was a monk of Worcester, and died 1 1 18. His ' Chronicle ' extends from the English Conquest to 1117. For the reign of Alfred, it is merely a slightly abridged copy of Asser, so far as Asser goes, and afterwards of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Several MSS. of this work exist, all of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The standard text is that of Petrie (* Monumenta '), and has been translated in ' The Church Historians of England.' The following extracts are given : SECTION 4. Of St. Edmund. 5. Of St. Swithun. 10. Of Bishop Denewulf. 13. Alfred's stronghold. 15. His death and glory. 174 Alfred in the Chroniclers FLORENCE OF WORCESTER. I. For our period Florence copies almost throughout verbatim either from Asser or the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with here and there a slight difference in the arrangement of his items, and, very occasionally, a touch or two of his own. He thus gives us the birth and pedigree of Alfred, the first wintering here of the Danes in 851 (which, like Asser, he places in Sheppey, not Thanet), the sack of Canterbury, ' that is the chief city of Kent,' and London, 'which lieth on the North bank of the River Thames, on the boundary of Essex and Middlesex, though, indeed, this city pertaineth to Essex,' and the Battle of Ockley. 2. Next comes Ethelwulf's subjugation of the Welsh and his sending of Alfred to Rome [853] . ' Pope Leo, at his father's asking, wholly gave him due place \pppido ordinans\ anointed him to be King, and taking him for his own son by adoption, confirmed him.' 3. The fight at Thanet, the marriage of Elswitha to Burghed of Mercia, Ethelwulf's tything, pilgrimage to Rome, and marriage, follow as in Asser, also Ethelbald's conspiracy, and the story of Edburga. Then comes the death of Ethelwulf and Ethelbald's incest. 4. 'In 855, Edmund, a man most holy and acceptable to God, sprung from Old Saxon stock, the truest of Christians, pleasant-spoken and kind to all, for meekness far-famed, free-handed [liberalizer dapsilis\ toward the needy ; to orphans and widows the kindness of patrons ; gained the supreme authority \culmen regiminis} in the province of East Anglia.' 5. The reign of Ethelbert is marked only by the Danish raid on Winchester, and in 862 we read 'St. Swithun passed away and sought the starry height in the loth Indiction, the 6th of the Nones of July [July 2], on the fifth day [of the week].' 6. The harrying of Kent, the Danes in East Anglia, their capture of York, the death of Bishop Ealhstan, the comet of 868, the marriage of Alfred, the march to Nottingham, follow with one original sentence : ' The oratory of St. Andrew the Apostle at Kemsege was built, and was dedicated by Alhun, Bishop of Worcester.' 7. The return of the Danes to York is followed by their raid upon East Anglia, where ' Edmund, the most holy and glorious King, as is read in his passion, v as martyred by King Ingwar, an utter heathen \^paganissimus\ in the second Indiction, on Sunday the i2th of the Kalends of December [November 20].' 8. The events of the year 871 are wholly from Asser, from whom also, on Alfred's accession Florence inserts the notice of his infancy and boyhood, his thorn in the flesh, his children, his versatility, his devout- ness, his liberality, and his zeal for education. And under the date of 872 he tells of his galaxy of teachers (including Asser). Florence of Worcester 175 9. The conquest of Mercia by ' the Danish pirates,' and their subju- gation of Northumbria and Cambridge, Alfred's first sea-fight, the episodes of Wareham and Exeter, bring us to 876, where Florence adds : ' Rollo and his men invaded \j)enetravif\ Normandy, on the ijth of the Kalends of December [November 17].' The destruction of the Danish fleet at Swanage is given, not from Asser, but from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 10. The overrunning of Wessex, and the following events of 878 are taken from Asser, (without the story of the cakes). In 879 we read : ' Dunbert, Bishop of Winchester, being dead, Denewulf succeeded. He, if fame is to be trusted, to an advanced age was not merely un- lettered, but a mere swineherd, whom King Alfred, when he fled to the woods for the violence of his enemies, lit upon as he was feeding his pigs. Perceiving his good wit, he put him to school, and after he was fully instructed, created him Bishop of Winchester ; a truly miraculous transaction \commentus rent dignam miraculo}' u. The foreign doings of the Danes follow, and their attempt on Rochester, all from Asser (see p. 101), whose death, by some extraordinary blunder, Florence records in 883, in connection with Alfred's Mission to India, and whom he copies so slavishly that he does not correct even his most obvious slips of the pen. 12. He next gives Asser's account of Alfred's troubles, his abbeys, his systematic almsgiving and devotion (with a description of his lantern), and his administration of justice. [See pp. 111-118.] 13. The defeat of the Danes in Britanny, their return to England, the simultaneous invasion under Hasting, and the rising of the resident Danes, follow as in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with the following addi- tional details : ' And when this was known, King Alfred took with him part of his army, (leaving part, as he was wont, at home, and placing some, too, on garrison duty in his castles and cities), hied him with all speed to Kent, and pitched his camp between the two Heathen hosts, in a spot strong by nature, (girded to wit by brimming waters, whose waves ran high \_undis admodum crispantibus\ by high rocks and by overhanging woods), so that, forsooth, if they should seek any open country for spoil or fight he might instantly join battle with them. But they, now on foot, now on horse, raiding by bands, haunted in their harrying those parts where they saw the King's army was not. Yet did many a man, not only of the King's force, but of burghers, almost every day and night, surprise and slaughter them, harassing them to such a degree that they forsook Kent and burst forth on foray from all their holds at once. So had they done once before, when first they took up their abode hereabouts. But this time held they more and choicer \uberiorem~\ spoil, and were fain to cross Thames river and get them into Essex, thus to meet, booty and all, with the ship-host whom they had sent before them. 3 14. The Battle of Farnham, the capture of Beamfleet, the episode of the sons of Hasting, the Danish attack on Devon, and their defeats at 176 Alfred in the Chroniclers Chichester and at Buttington, where ' many thousands of the Heathen were slain,' their march to Chester, ' which was at that time uninhabited,' the capture of their fleet in the Lea, and their final break up at Coat- bridge, are told from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. ' O with what ceaseless harrying, with what grievous raids, in what dire and piteous fashion was all England then vexed, not only by the Danes who had occupied parts of the land, but by these sons of Satan ' [the Danes from abroad]. 15. The final suppression of the Danish piracies by Alfred's guard- ships [see p. 130] brings us to his death : ' Renowned, warlike, victorious ; the devoted champion of widows, wards, orphans, and poor ; the master of Saxon song-craft ; the darling of his people ; kind of speech to all, and free of hand ; endowed with prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance ; so patient under his daily infirmity ; so fair and so sagacious in awarding sentence ; so watchful and so devout in God's service ; Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, son of the most religious King Ethelwulf, having completed 29 years and six months of his reign, died in the fourth Indiction, 1 on the 5th of the Kalends of November [October 28], and at Winton in the New Monas- tery is he buried, awaiting the robe of a blessed immortality, and the glory of the resurrection with the just. 2 'To him succeeded his son Edward, surnamed the. Elder, in letters inferior to his father, but in dignity, in power, and eke in glory above him.' 1 This final encomium is also found in William of Malmesbury. - The fourth Indiction began September 24, A.D. 900. VIII. GAIMAR. LITTLE is known of this writer ; but there is good reason to assign his work to the middle of the twelfth century. It is a rhyming chronicle, in French, founded upon the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with various additions from floating legends, beginning with the English Conquest, and ending with the death of Rufus. Four thirteenth-century MSS. exist, and the earlier portion as printed by Petrie in 'Monumenta Britannica.' The extracts here given are these : 1. 2526. Of the Kings Ethel wulf, Ethelbald, and Ethelbert. 2. 2569. Of the coming in of the Danes. 3. 2725. Of King Ella. 4. 2840. Of the Danes at Nottingham. 5. 2870. Of King Edmund. 6. 2933. Of the Danes in Wessex. 7. 2955. Of the field of Reading. LINE 8. 3015. How Ethelred died. 9. 3023. How Alfred reigned. 10. 3065. Of the Danes at Cambridge. 11. 3130. Of Alfred in Athelney. 12. 3261. Of the Danes in France. 13. 3398. How the Danes came back. 14- 3439- How Alfred died ; and of his greatness. 12 178 Alfred in the Chroniclers GAIMAR. L. 2526. Ten years and nine reigned the King [Ethelwulf], and at Winchester was he buried. Son was he to King Egbert, who made all the realm obey him. His two sons, whom he gat by his first wife, had his kingdom. Edelbald had all Wessex, Edelbyrht held Kent, Sussex, Essex, and Surrey. Kings of might they were, all their life long. King Edel- bald reigned five years ; then died he ; life failed him. King Edelbyrht was his brother ; he took Wessex as was right. Six years did he reign ; then he died ; and to Sherburn they bare him after his brother. Very dear to the English died he ; for these two lost Kings had ofttimes worsted the Danes. . . . [Here comes in the harrying of Hampshire and East Kent (Asser, 22).} L. 2569. In the time of this King [Ethelred] came the great fleet ; the like saw never no man who saw not this. In East Anglia came they to land, and there abode over winter [866]. In March, for mockery, made they truce with that folk. Then they mounted them on the best horses their vassals had, and in ships too went some. So far as to Humber set they sail. Marched there on foot more than twenty thousand : great wonder is it to tell thereof. Turned then these Danes, and passed the water at Grimsby, those on foot and all, together. Great plenty had they of people. With the ships went they all to York ; great war waged they there both by land and water. . . . [Here Gaimar tells how the Danes had been brought in by Bruern, a Northumbrian Baron, whose wife the King had dishonoured ; and adds a spirited legend of the rival King Ella (Asser, 30). When the Danes surprised York, he tells us :] L. 2725. Ella the King was sitting in the wood : four bisons had the King taken in hunting. Sitting was he at his dinner ; he heard a [blind]; man sound a bell. In his hand he held it, a little bell ; clear it sounded as a chime \eschelete\ . Food he asked ; the King bade serve him there- with. Said the King to a knight, ' We have done well to-day : four bisons and six deer \cheverels\ : all we hunted have we taken.' From afar the blind man heard him ; then spake he a true word : ' And if in this wood you have taken so much, you have lost all this land. Better have the Danes done : York have they taken ; Osbert is slain by his foes.' Answered the King : ' How knowest thou this ?' ' My sense showeth me. ... At York shall be a great battle. If thou believest me not, get thee on. Howbeit none otherwise can it be. A King must needs there lose his head. . .' L. 2822. King Ella rode on madly ... he was beside himself. On all sides were the Danes. Slain then was Ella the King. . . . The place is now called Ella-Cross. . . . Never a Dane took rest till all the land north of Humber was brought under them. . . . Gaimar \ 79 L. 2840. Then went they into Mercia ; in this realm the Danes took Nottingham. . . . King Burghred [Bureth] gathered a host ; to Ethelred [Edelreth] he sent, who reigned over Wessex. A brother he had, Alfred [Elured] ; right well knew he how to give good counsel, and to draw up a battle ; well-skilled was he in war ; clerk was he, and good astronomer. These two called their host, and came and beset Nottingham. But the Danes within full easily kept them off. All were glad when they took a truce. . . . [The Danes now return to York and march thence to Thetford, the Mercian and Northumbrian levies accompanying them. This informa- tion is given us by Gaimar alone.] L. 2870. A King they found in this land ; Edmund was his name. A good Christian he was, and the friend of (iod ; a holy man. This King fought ; and all the folk he had ; but win he might not, for the many the Danes had. Bravely they fought, but the field was the foe's. . . . King Edmund was driven to a castle. . . . The Heathen came hard after. Edmund went out to meet them. The first they met took him. Then asked they, ' Where is Edmund ? Tell us.' ' That will I freely and at once. Before the fight Edmund was here, and I. When I fled the field, so did he. If he will 'scape you I know not.' Now is the King's end in the hand of God, and of Jesus whom He served. . . . When they knew St. Edmund, the miscreants, full cruelly bade they him deny God's Fa ; th, and Christ the Maiden-born. Said the King, ' Not so. Firm will I hold to Him.' What then did the foe? To a tree made they bind him. . . . They shot the King with hand-bows. ... So full was his body of the darts of these villains, as is of prickles the skin of the hedgehog, when he bears off apples from the garden. 1 . . . Then sent they a wicked man, Coran Colbe was his name, to cut off the saint's head. Thus was Edmund the Martyr slain. . . . L. 2933. When they had done this shame turned they from thence, and went straight to Reading. Slowly they went ; towns they wasted and cities ; and Christians they slew, and churches they spoiled. . . . Two counts on horseback went to Englefield. There found they Edel- wolf, a great baron of that land. He had gathered his friends ... a many Danes they killed, and one of the counts, Sidrac ; wicked was he and warlike. . . . L. 2955. Four days after Ethelred and his brother Alfred came to Reading, with a very great host. The Danes soon sallied out. In the open field was the fray ; all day long it lasted. There Edelwolf was killed. And Edelred and Alfred were driven to Wiscletet [Wistley Green, near Twyford]. There is a ford towards Windsor by the riverside in a moor; Twyford was ever the name of that ford. Hither came the Host in chase, and wotted not of that ford. So the English escaped ; but many were killed and wounded. . . . 1 The hedgehog was supposed to rob orchards by biting off the fruit and carrying it away impaled upon his spines. 12 2 180 Alfred in the Chroniclers [Next come the battles of Ashdown, Basing, and Merton.] L. 30115. Then came in a mighty tyrant ; Summerlede the Great 1 was his name. . . . He would have fought King Ethelred, but he died ; he is in his coffin. At Wimborne the King is laid ; but five years did he reign. . . . L. 3023. Then reigned King Alfred ; Ethelwolfing was he called [i.e., the son of Ethelwolfj. Gathered the Danes, and sought him in Wessex. At Wilton was he found, with the few he got together ; he fought, but 'twas in vain ; from the field they chased him, and into the green- wood. . . . And this year the Danes took a truce from King Alfred, then forsook they Reading. In London they wintered. . . . [Here follows their conquest of Mercia.] L. 3065. Then went they divers ways. In London stayed Ingwar ; and Halfdene the other King went to war with the Picts. Oft put he them to the worse ; and eke Stretclued, King of Galloway. 2 The Kings Godrum, Oschetel, and Anwynd took counsel they should to Granta- brige [Cambridge] and beset the city. So did they: quickly from Repton led they their great host. Almost a year endured the siege : like fools, they left it in the end ; much they lost and little they gained. Then away they rode by stealth, straight to Wareham. . . . [Here follow the events at Wareham, Exeter, and Swanwich, where * one hundred and forty ships went to the devil'; and the overrunning of Wessex by the Danes.] L. 3130. With all their will set they them to do evil. Minsters they brake down, and houses, and chapels, and monasteries. They drave folk Irom the land; and many did they bind in prison. King Alfred, their Lord, he knew not what to do, nor yet what to say. . . . He kept him in the woods and wilds, to 'scape their bloody hands. . . . L. 3141. Nevertheless he gathered all he might ... oft slew he some of them. A brother of Iware [Ingwar] and Halfdene, did he kill, in the forest of Pen; an evil-doer was he, and his name was Ubbe [Hubba]. When the Danes found him, they made over him a great mound ; and they called it Ubbe-lawe. 3 The mound is in Devon. There were many slain ; eight hundred and forty there fell ; perjured, bloodthirsty felons they were. The war-flag of Ubbe was taken ; the name thereof was The Raven. . . . [We now come to the rising of the English and their victory at Ethan- dune : ' I cannot say aright which side had the more slain ; but this know I well, that good King Alfred and his barons there won renown and victory ' the baptism of Guthrum, and the departure of the Danes to France, ' more than a hundred Kings with their hosts.'] 1 I.e., a summer-lead. See pp. IO, 12. 2 This is another curious confusion. Galloway was part of the British kingdom of Strathclyde. 3 Till the seventeenth century there was a mound near Kinwith Castle, on the sandhills by Barnstaple Bay, called the Hubba Stone. Gaimar 1 8 [ L. 3261. At Yarmouth put they to sea ; unto Che"zig came they. . . . All the land they wasted . . . sore wailed the peasants . . . the cruci- fixes brake they down . . . many barons did they slay. ... So brake the Heathen into a land toward Bretagne ; St. Lo was its name. . . . The folk of Bretagne they fought like wild men [felons]. Thanks be to God, the God of glory, over the Danes had they the victory. There did those Heathen perish together ; all their pride and all their fame in one day. Into France came they back no more. . . . [Here we find the interchange of gifts between Alfred and Pope Marinus (Asser, 71) ; the death of Charles and his kinship to Judith ' never knew lady more of the Faith ' Alfred's rebuilding of London, and the death of Guthrum.] L. 3398. Then came it to pass that the Heathen Host appeared again, which went into France ; all that realm had they wasted. . . . Now had they store of spoil, of gold, of silver, and of horses of great price. At Cherbourg put they to sea ; and to Limne-mouth came they. . . . All the coasts by the sea did those foemen harry ; ill hap, indeed, was their return. Ships had they two hundred and fifty ; much evil did their stay. From the other side came back Estein [Hasting] ; into Thames drew he, and a large fleet. In Kent he did after his own will. . . . When these two hosts were together, they went about destroying Christendom. . . . L. 3439. Then came it to pass, as it pleased God, Alfred, who fought so well, died. Then from the Nativity, from the day wherein God was born, had passed nine hundred years and one, to the day King Alfred died. For twenty and eight years right well did he reign ; few such be now living. For wise was he, and a warrior good ; well knew he how to curb his foes. Never was better clerk than he, for from childhood upwards had he learning. A book made he write in English, of deeds, and of laws, and of battles in the land, and of Kings who made war. Books a many made he to write, which learned men go oft to read. May God have mercy on his soul, and St. Mary our Lady. Then reigned his son Edward, the valiant, the wise, the courteous. IX. ROGER OF WENDOVER. 'FLOWERS OF HISTORY.' THIS writer was a monk of St. Albans, who died 1237. His work covers the world's history to 1235, and, so far as our period is concerned, is almost wholly taken from earlier authorities. He inserts, however, various interesting and picturesque details, which are here given; and never fails to record the various ecclesiastical changes of the time. Roger's work was carried on by Matthew Paris, and passed under his name. In the next century it was pirated, name and all, by Matthew of Westminster. CONTENTS. i. Of King Ethelwulf. 3. Of King Edmund. 4. Of King Ethelbald S within. 5. Of Bishop Alfstan. 6. Of wasting of Abbeys. and of St. 7. Of the death of Edmund. II. Of the inroad on Wessex. 13. Of King Cuthred. 14. Of Hasting in Gaul. 1 6. Of Hasting in England. 17. Of Alfred's end. Roger of Wendover 183 ROGER OF WENDOVER. j i. In the year of our Lord 837 . . . Egbert, King of the West Saxons . . . departed out of this world. . . . After him came his son Ethelwulf or Adulf, who had four sons of fame . . . who all reigned after him. He had also a fifth son, Athelstan, born out of wedlock, to whom he gave the realms which his father Egbert won. . . . [Here follows Henry of Huntingdon's introduction of the Danes into England ; his account of the birth and parentage of Alfred, and events to the Battle of Ockley and the marriage of Elswitha. Roger here inserts the tale of tjie Old Woman of Berkley, immortalized by Southey. Con- tinuing, he tells of Ethelwulfs subjugation of Wales, of his tithing charter, his journey to Rome.] 2. With him he took the youngest and dearest of his sons, Alfred, that he might be instructed by Pope Leo in faith and morals. A whole year tarried he there with his son, and had him crowned King by the Pope, and a few days after set forth homewards. And on the way he wedded Judith . . . and brought her to England. But meanwhile was there a plot formed against him ... to keep him out of the realm . . . for twofold cause. First because he had Alfred, his youngest, crowned at Rome, as though to shut out his elder sons from the kingship ; and next that he had slighted all the women of England in wedding a stranger. . . . [Next comes the story of Edburga (from Asser) and the partition of the kingdom.] 3. In the year of our Lord 855 . . . Edmund . . . took over the rule of the East Angles, in the I3th year of his age, on the day of our Lord's Nativity. Chosen King he was, that pious and godly youth, of all the Lords and Commons of that realm ; and, sore against his will, needs must he reign. And the gift of hallowing took he from Humbert, Bishop of Elmham, in a town-royal called Bures. . . . [After this comes the death and will of Ethelwulf, who is said to have been Bishop of Winchester before his coronation. Ethelbald's marriage with Judith follows.] 4. But in the year 859 of our Lord, did Ethelbald . . . repent him of this fault, and did penance therefor. Judith, his stepmother, did he put away ; and ruled his realm for the rest of his days in peace and righteousness. . . . [His death follows, and that of St. Swithun, with sundry legends of that saint, and how, 'when he had to dedicate any new church, never would he ride thither nor yet be drawn, however long the way, but stoutly went on foot, and this by night, lest it should be set down to ostentation. For never made he show of his good deeds.' The reign and death of Ethelbert are next touched on, the accession of Ethelred, and the great Danish invasion of East Anglia, and their 184 Alfred in the Chroniclers sack of York (Asser, 31), with the additional entry that 'The Kings of the Northumbrians being thus slain, a certain Englishman named Egbert for six years ruled the realm, under the Danes.'] 5. In the same year [867] died Alfstan, Bishop of Sherborne. In the days of Egbert, and of Ethelwulf his son, great was his power in the realm. For by his statecraft brought he Kent and East Anglia under Egbert. He stirred up Ethelwulf, also, against the Danes . . . and himself raised money, and gathered a host, and fought with the foe many a stout fight, and won them, too. His power may be judged from his having kept King Ethelwulf out of the kingdom, on his return from Rome, and made his son Ethelbald King in his stead, till at length he suffered him to share the kingdom. He ruled his church 50 years. . . . [We now read of Alfred's wedding, of the Danes at Nottingham, and their great raid of 870.] 6. Old and young did these cut-throats slaughter, whomsoever they met ; and holy matrons and virgins they shamefully handled. . . . [Here we are told how the nuns of Coldingham, to escape dishonour, cut off their own noses, on beholding which, ' the tyrants rushed in haste away, nor would make one moment's tarrying.' They burnt the Abbey, however, nuns and all.] After this, sailed they, the wicked miscreants, along the coast, wasting with fire and sword all that ever they came to. ... The noblest Abbeys along the coast were wasted ; Lindisfarne (wherein was then the Bishop's see) . . . Tynemouth, Jarrovv, Wearmouth (wherein Bede the Priest was brought up), Streonshall [Whitby] (founded by the Blessed Hilda. . . .). Through Yorkshire next passed they, burning churches, towns and villages, utterly destroying all folk, of whatsoever sex and age. . . . Going on thence they brake down all the Abbeys of monks and virgins in the fens . . . Crowland, Thorney, Ramsey, Hampstead (which is now called Peterborough), and Ely, so famous of old. . . . 7. [Roger next tells at great length the story of St. Edmund, how Lodbroc, father of Ingwar and Hubba, was murdered at his court, and how the murderer persuaded the sons that Edmund had done the deed, how thereupon they invaded England to avenge it, and, landing at Berwick, marched, ravaging as they went, to East Anglia.] There camped they, at a town called Thetford, and put to the sword all they found, men and women . . . that the King might not be able to raise an army ... for they had heard the prowess of King Edmund, and also of his size and stature beyond all men. . . . Then sent they to the King ... a message . . . after this sort. ' Lord Ingwar, the dread and invincible King of the Danes, is come hither to winter. Despise him, and your life and kingdom are of little worth.' . . . Then groaned Edmund and asked counsel of the Bishop of Elinham, saying, ' O Humbert, servant of the Living God . . . here be these fierce barbarians . . . who would blot us out. . . . But never will I ... be under a Roger of Wendover 185 heathen, when, by dying for my land, I can become a standard-bearer in the kingdom eternal. . . . Moreover God is my witness that no fear shall separate me from the love of Christ, alive or dead.' Turning then to the messenger ... he said . . . ' Hasten back to your master, and bear him my answer . . . that never shall you make me subject to an unbeliever. . . .' j 8. Then bade King Edmund that his comrades fly to arms ... to fight for faith and fatherland. . . . From morn to eve raged the battle, and the whole field was red with the blood of the slain. And the pious King was woe, not alone for the slaughter of his comrades ... for they, he well knew, had attained the Martyr's crown ; . . . but much more bitterly bewailed he the doom of the unbelievers, thus hurled into the gulf of hell. . . . Thus, after the fray, he steadfastly purposed never again to fight with the barbarians . . . : but alone,' said he, ' will to die for the people, that the whole nation perish not. . . .' s' 9. Then fled he to the church . . . and humbly prayed God to grant him strength to suffer. . . . Led forth was he before the wicked chief, who bade bind him to a tree thereby ; whereafter he was long scourged and mocked every way. But he, Christ's undaunted champion, called ever on Him between every stroke, to the fury of his tormentors. . . . So they shot him till he was all covered with arrows ... as a hedghog with spines. And when Ingwar . . . could never make him forsake his faith in Christ ... he bade . . . cut off his head . . . even as he was praying and confessing the name of Christ. . . . 10. The headless body of the martyr . . . left those servants of Satan in Hailesdon Wood amid the thick briars . . . that it might not have Christian burial . . . and his head cast they into that same wood . . . to be devoured by the beasts of the field. . . . But, when spring drew on, all the Heathen left East Anglia. On hearing this the Christians everywhere came forth from hiding, and did their best to find the head of King Edmund. . . . Then came a wondrous thing ... for as they searched among the brake, and called one to another in their native tongue ' Where are you ? Where are you ?' the martyr's head made answer in the same tongue, ' Here, here, here.' So found they a huge wolf, with the head between its paws as watching over it. ... Praising God, they bare it to the body . . . and laid both in a fit tomb. . . . And the wolf followed to the grave, and went back to the wilds. . . . Now the martyr suffered in the year of our Lord 870, the 2Qth of his age and i6th of his reign, on the I2th day of December. ... In the same year was the see of Dunwich transferred to Elmham, and instead of two Bishops, the one at Dunwich and the other at Elmham, one only was made. . . . n. [Here follows the invasion of Wessex ; the battles of Englefield, Reading, Ashdown, Basing, and Merton ; the accession of Alfred ; his pedigree ; his childhood ; his infirmity ; his virtues ; all from Asser. Next comes the Battle of Wilton ; the calling in of Grimbald, Asser, etc. ; the Danish conquest of Mercia and Northumbria ' which touched 1 86 Alfred in the Chroniclers Ricsy, the last King thereof, so deeply that he died of a broken heart' ; their taking of Cambridge, Wareham and Exeter ; and the sea-fight at Swanage.] In the year 878 . . . Guthrum, King of the Danes, had passed through every realm in England, with boldness unconquerable, laying waste every holy spot, and sharing out amongst his men all the silver and gold he might come by. Now, at last (hearing of the fame of King Alfred, how, in forethought, wisdom, and wealth, he was beyond all Kings that were in England), he turned thitherward his impious arms. Towns and villages he gave to the flames, whomsoever he met them put he to the sword . . . sparing neither man nor woman, nor yet the tender babe. . . . [Here Roger brings in the Danish defeat at Kinwith, where ' the blood of Edmund was avenged by the sword of Alfred.' But he makes the ravage of Wessex continue still.] j 12. In this storm of persecution, the faithful Bishops of Christ fled over sea, with the relics of the saints and the treasures of the churches. With them went much people ; and some, with King Alfred, sought hiding in the woods and deserts, through that evil time. . . . There is a spot in the West called Athelney . . . girded in by fen on all sides, so that by boat only can it be come at. On this isjet is there a thicket of alders, full of stags and goats and other such creatures, and in the midst a bit of open ground, scarce two acres. Hither, in his distress, came Alfred all alone. . . . [Here is the episode of the cakes ; the reproof of St. Neot ; the vision of St. Cuthbert ; the English rising ; the victory of Ethandune ; the Baptism of Guthrum ; the Peace of Wedmore ; the Danish invasion of Gaul. 13. Next follows a curious entry, which appears to show that some part of Northumbria, at least (probably the northern province Bernicia), now more or less shook off the Danish yoke, and became once more an English under-kingdom.] St. Cuthbert ... in a vision . . . bade tell the Bishop there to buy back Cuthred, whom the Danes had sold as a slave, and to make him their King [i.e. English under-king of Bernicia] . . . and he was crowned in the I3th year of King Alfred. In the year 882 the Bishop's see which was erst at Lindisfarne was transferred to Chester [le Street]. The saint bade also . . . that whosoever should flee to his body in the hour of need should for a month be unharmed. And King Alfred, and eke King Cuthred, doomed this to be so for ever. And the aforesaid Kings gave unto St. Cuthbert, over and above the old see, the whole land between Tees and Tyne. . . . Then the Bishopric of Hagulstad [Hexham] ceased to be, through the outburst of the Heathen. 1 . . . 14. [Here follows the gift of Marinus, the mission to India, the story of John Scotus (from Simeon of Durham, 59) ; the fights at Rochester ; Charles the Fat's vision (from the Chronicle of St. Neots, 10) ; Alfred's 1 The see of the united bishoprics was finally transferred to Durham. Roger of Wendover 187 repair of London ; and a list of all former English Kings. Then we come to the Danish ravages in France under Hasting.] After inflicting on Gaul all this wretchedness . . . Hasting the wicked thief sailed off to Lunis, and thought to storm the city. But the towns- folk . . . flew to arms . . . and, do all he could, he might not win the place. So, at the last, he sent unto the Bishop . . . saying that he was sick unto death, and was humbly fain to be christened. Thereat was the Bishop full glad ; and they made peace with this enemy of peace, and freely let his folk into the city. So this wicked Hasting was borne unto the church, and dipped in the sacred font. And the Bishop and the Mayor upraised him therefrom [/>., stood sponsors] to their own destruction, and he received the Holy Chrism, and to his ship was he borne back again. ;: 15. Thereafter, at dead of night, was he clad in armour, and laid on a bier ; and, under their coats, he bade his men wear shirts of mail ; and so, with feigned lamentation, bare they him to the church, as dead. There, in his sacred vestments, was the Bishop, all ready to sacrifice the Host for the departed when, lo ! up from the bier sprang that son of perdition, Hasting ; down he cut the Bishop and the Count, and fell, raging like a wolf, upon the people . . . old and young were massacred, the city was spoiled, and the walls thereof beaten down. . . . 1 6. [Alfred's abbeys are next recorded, and his method in almsgiving and devotion, also his lantern, his justice, his sister's death, the adventure of the three Irishmen, and the comet of 892, ' which is called in the Saxon tongue Vexed Star!* Alfred's system of ' Hundreds ' follows ; and then the great invasion, of 893, with another story of Hasting.] But the heathen . . . fled ... to Milton, whither the King hotly chased them, and stayed not till he had driven them one and all into the stronghold that Hasting the Cruel had wrought there. Straightway did he beset the place . . . and gave his whole mind to the taking of it. And Hasting the Dane (since of holding out he lost all hope) bethought him how he might, by falsehood, cheat the King into pity. . . . Sureties gave he, and bound him by oath, that, might he but be let go, never more would he vex England. And the more to assure the King, he sent unto him his two sons but boys were they that, if he would, he might give them the Sacraments of the Faith and Baptism. Ever was the pious King more ready to save the souls of the heathen than to slay them . . . and, after the boys were regenerated in the sacred Font, then suffered he their father Hasting, and the rest of the misbelievers, to depart in peace, according to the troth-plight. . . . [The campaigns of 894 are now recorded, with the treason of Hasting and the capture of his wife and children.] Xo harm would the King do unto them, seeing that he had himself upraised the one lad from the Font, and Earl Ethelred the other; there- fore suffered he them to depart, mother and sons. 1 Roger misunderstands the Old English fiexed, i.e., haired, a literal rendering of the Latin cometa. Alfred in the Chroniclers 17. [We now come to the campaigns of 895 and 896 (as in A.S. Chronicle) ; the vision of Rollo, and his invasion of ' the land which was then called Neustria, but now Normandy, from these very North- men.' The sea-fight in Devon is next mentioned (not described), and the hanging of the pirates.] Thereafter did the King hold his realm in peace all the rest of his life ; giving himself wholly to the repair of churches, to almsdeeds, and to law- giving. . . . ? 18. In the year 900, Alfred, the Most Gracious King of the English changed his temporal kingdom for the eternal, on Wednesday the 28th day of October, in the fifth indiction. He was buried at Winchester in the New Monastery, which he himself had founded, clad in the robe of blessed immortality, and awaiting the General Resurrection, when once again shall he be crowned. X. JOHN OF WALLINGFORD. THE chronicle seems to have been written about 1255, as it mentions Catherine, daughter of Henry III. (born 1253, died 1257), among his living progeny. The author was a monk of St. Alban's. It begins with the English Conquest, and ends with the accession of Edward the Confessor. Its materials are handled with marked freedom and confidence ; the writer, in fact, belonged to the band of Higher Critics, as a glance at his pages will promptly show. All mere historical facts are made to bow to the preconceived idea with which he starts in a fashion quite modern. He writes, however, with no little spirit and force, and is well worth reading. His work is to be found in Gale's ' English Historians,' and a translation in ' The Church Historians of England.' There is an MS. in the Cottonian series, with a portrait of the author, seemingly by his own hand. CONTENTS. SECTION 1. Of the Scholar of St. Swithun. 2. Of the Coming of the Danes. 10. Of the birth and pedigree of Alfred. 11. Of his youthful wickedness. 12. Of Rollo. 14. Of Alfred and St. Xeot. 1 6. Of Guthrum and Wessex. 18. Of Alfred in Athelney. 20. Of the English rising. 22. Of Alfred's Laws. 23. Of his death. 190 Alfred in the Chroniclers JOHN OF WALLINGFORD. i. Egbert . . . next began to reign . . . and won for himself by a valiant arms-deed, all the realms that had been under the King of Mercia. For his son Ethelwulf sent he, with a mighty muster, to drive beyond Thames Baldred, King of Kent, . . . nor had Kent a King of her own any more, but yielded obedience unto the Kings of Wessex. . . . Meanwhile in Northumbria reigned Ethelred, and after him Osbert, for thirteen years. Him did the Northumbrians drive from his kingship r and in his stead put they Ella, howbeit not of the blood royal. . . . [Here follows the Danish sack of York, from Asser.J 2. Then did the Danes make Egbert King of such of the North- umbrian folk as were left, and there reigned he five years [see p. 184], Surrey also, and Sussex, and Essex, and East Anglia, yea and the Kings of Mercia came under t him, and he reigned in all thirty years and five. . . r After him came his son Ethelwulf. . . . who left four sons, Ethelbald r Ethelbert, Ethelred, and Alfred. Ethelbald . . . reigned five years, and fought without ceasing against the Danes, as did his brothers after him, Ethelbert and Ethelred, ... all alike giving their lives to free their folk and their fatherland. But amongst these brethren could Alfred get him no honour ; for why, he was as yet but a youth. i 3. Along with all these Kings was St. Swithun . . . far-famed amongst all his fellow-clerks for holy life and conversation. To him did the afore- said King [Egbert] commit for teaching . . . his son Ethelwulf, his only comfort, the one hope of the realm and heir to all of right. . . . Fainer was he to live as a tonsured priest than of worldly worship and kingly power, . . . and in the church of Winchester came he unto the order of sub-deacon, and served it well, with good hope to rise further. 4. But when Egbert . . . died, then did all the land-folk call for Ethelwulf, his only son, to be King, seeing that his alone was the right. Yet, forasmuch as it was a thing unheard of that a sub-deacon should be drawn back to the lay world, much strife arose thereon between the clergy and the laity. Then sought they counsel of the Apostolic See ; . . . and Pope Leo, having called together a council on this petition, assented thereto (as being the people's wish, and for the common weal), that Ethelwulf, by his dispensation, should fall back from his sub-diaconate to the kingship. OF THE COMING OF THE DANES. 5. Now, then, are we entering on the troublous tale of many a war ; wherefore we beg our reader, if he thinketh us all too brief, to look on this at least as a general sketch. In such storm of events who can track the course of each several wave ? . . . 6. On the origin of the Danes . . . historians differ. Seme say they are sprung from the Trojan Antenor, . . . others, with perhaps more John of Wallinvford 191 reason, . . . that they are . . . from the Goths . . . who issuing from . . . the island of Scanza [Scandinavia] set them down by the Maeotid Marsh [the sea of Azof] and after in Denmark [Danubio]. 1 Amongst this folk long was it the wont (until it was checked when they took on the Christian Faith), that the father should drive forth all his sons, save one only to be his heir, ... to seek them new homes, for that their own land might not support them all. Hence were they held as foes by all nations round about them. Let whoso will read their story," and he will find that Rome itself was not safe from these Goths. . . . j 7. And now . . . God, who can turn even evil unto good end, drew forth His sword to cut short the English, and made hordes beyond count to boil over, so to speak, from Denmark. Yea, and they abide even unto this day, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence unto all around them. The first band at this time (for already held they many a place in England), led Ingwarand Hubba, . . . next came Rollo and his gang, then Guthrum. And all these, for twenty years, fulfilled in divers places the chastisement ordained before of God. 8. Ingwar, then, and Hubba, landed first in Northumbria, and utterly wasted all that sea-bord, from the Scottish Sea even unto East Anglia. The shrines of the Saints burnt they ; cities, hamlets and castles laid they even with the ground ; yea, and sold for a slave Cuthred, a man of royal race, whom Hardecnut, one of their chiefs, had taken captive. But him did St. Cuthbert ere long set free in wondrous wise, and exalted him to be King. Moreover they burnt the Abbey of Wearmouth, wherein the holy Bede, the friend of God, tasted of the joys of contemplation, and which, even unto this day, keepeth alive the name and fame of that Venerable Doctor. . . . 9. Thereafter . . . came Ingwar unto East Anglia. This district faceth the North-east, and hath many a ship-harbour. Very safe is it from land attack . . . but without defence against perils from the sea. . . . [There slew they Edmund], . . . the King and martyr, and joining unto them other Danes, froward as themselves, . . . who had, by this, won most part of Mercia, they even stormed and took London. Nor had the men of London any hope of escape, seeing that all the power of the South and West was broken. Only Ethelred reigned yet in West Anglia ; and in the next year did he tot> pay the debt of nature, and Alfred, the last of the sons of Ethelwulf, reigned in his stead. . . . OF ALFRED, FIRST MONARCH OF ALL ENGLAND. 10. In the year 849 from the Incarnation of our Lord was born Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, in that part of England which is called Berk- shire. . . . 1 The confusion between Denmark and the Danube is often in the Chroniclers. The Goths from Scandinavia really did settle first in southern Russia and then by the Danube. 192 Alfred in the Chroniclers [Here follows his pedigree, to Adam. 'I do not put this forward as authentic ; but, should any man compile another, I should be still more fain to call it apocryphal.'] ii. Now Alfred, when first he began to reign, was wholly given 'to serve the old man,' and lived a slave to luxury. Led on by kingly sway, he ' yielded his members servants to uncleanness ' . . . and neither bore about, as a Christian should, nor cared to bear about, any mark of the sufferings of Christ, but on the contrary. . . . 12. About this time it came to pass, according to the Danish law afore- told, Rollo and his mates, being turned out from Denmark, sought them a settlement in other lands ; and on his way raided many an island and alongshore. Like wolves that rush suddenly from the wood, they would bring their keels to land, gather great spoil, and aboard again, in full sail, soon out of sight. Many therefore were the complaints brought before King Alfred, from the ports and sea places. 13. Thereupon called he his Council, and after taking thought along with them, came to this rede, that it were better to make peace with Rollo and his gang ; for how to lead his force against men thus rushing in from sea, he knew not. Howsoever, he got such peace as he would ; and Rollo joined by such Danes as were wandering through England with no certain dwelling-place, set sail, and entered Seine mouth, and, either with consent of the French or without it, gained there the seat and principality which his posterity still hold. . . . 14. King Alfred, being chastened with many stripes from the hand of God and of man, turned from his wonted excess ; and began to repent also for his past. Therefore went he to St. Neot, a man of holy life,, whose name, by God's goodness, was of renown in the Court, to ask his counsel. The saint was then near the end of his days ... at Nedestock, where he had long lived the ascetic life. It is in the furthest parts of Cornwall, and was called from St. Neot, its first in-dweller . . . for it was fit rather for wild beasts than for men, till the Saint with his own hand cut down the thickets and underwood. 15. Sternly did the Saint rebuke him, as was meet, and, having been taught by Holy Writ to temper harshness with gentleness, he poured in oil and wine to the sinner's wounds. Thus he so struck fear into him, that he still gave him hope, and so inspired him with hope that he wavered not long, declaring to him boldly that the fire of hell was grievous, and grievous, too, the penance to be enjoined on him who would escape it. He counselled him, moreover, as he hoped for pardon, to charter the English School [at Rome], and, without delay, to send an embassy thereupon unto our Lord the Pope. All this counsel the King fulfilled. . . . 16. In the year 878 from the Incarnation of our Lord, and the seventh of King Alfred's reign, burst there forth, through the working of Danish law aforetold, a dreadsome plague, King Guthrum. In England landed he with a vast horde, like in cruelty unto their master and leader, debased John of Wallingford 193 by all heathen superstition, and brutal beyond even those who had come before him. For he did not merely, like them, raid the sea-coasts, and the regions roundabout, and bear off his spoil, and re-embark ; but he openly harried inland, and burnt down villages, cities, and towns, walls and all. 17. For in West Anglia and the Midlands the English, from the time they cast out the Britons, had lived at peace, . . . which itself is no small incentive to vice, . . . and gave themselves up to sloth and luxury, . . . eating and drinking, even as the brute beasts. On them therefore came a brute beast in man's shape, King Guthrum to wit, brutal and ferocious toward each and all, who with sword and axe wrought his bestial will. Nay, he spared not even such as threw themselves at his feet. Neither old nor young, boy nor girl, mother nor maiden, spared he. For his eye spared none. And piteous was the slaughter that might be seen. There they lay in each road, and street, and crossway : old men with hoar and reverend locks, butchered at their own doors ; young men headless, handless, footless ; matrons foully dishonoured in the open street, and maidens with them ; children stricken through with spears all exposed to every eye and trodden under every foot. Some, too, there lay half burnt under their half-burnt houses, not having dared to leave them ; for they who were driven from their hiding-places by the fire perished by the sword. 18. Dark forecastings [rumours], moreover, lacked there not . . . such as filled even the stout of heart with terror, and drave them to flight. King Alfred himself, even, was fain the rather to yield to the word of sooth, than meet this ravening foe, while his own folk were so scattered and divided. These woes, full well he thought, had come on his kingdom for his sins, and his people's sins. So he vowed him then to bear humbly, as indeed he needs must, that yoke of Divine discipline which St. Neot had foretold should come upon him. He turned his back therefore, and feared with all wisdom, and fled to good purpose, and came even unto Athelney, in the utmost parts of the West, which the British call the Isle of Peers. It lieth in the midst of salt marshes ; but there is a fair plain within. 19. Hither came he ; and amid the storm of trouble bursting over him, he took on him that patience which rejoiceth in adversities, and thus far at least showed himself stout-hearted. . . . Deeply too did he bear in mind what he had often heard spoken by the saint : ' Mightiest torments await the mightiest ' ; and that word of the Apostle : ' The Lord scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. ... In a swineherd's hut he lay hid . . . and awaited patiently the day of consolation, which also St. Neot had foretold. . . . [Here follows the story of the cakes, with the addition : ' Patiently did the King bear her reproaches, putting all down to the account of his penitence. ... " It is as you say," he replied. " I am dull indeed.'' . . . Then set he himself diligently to the work . . . and gave all his mind to it till the bread was meetly baked.' . . .] 13 194 Alfred in the Chroniclers 20. In the meantime God looked down upon the humble repentance of His King, and stretched forth His Holy Hand to free him. For, being found by a few of his old warriors, they led him to come forth into the open. There, in a few days, wrought he a fortress strong enough for his end, and gathered to him many a brave warrior, good at need. So was he able, through his repentance, to resist the more stoutly. At first, indeed, he hovered around the foe, and by twilight came upon them, when least looked for, out of his woods and fastnesses ; but soon in broad daylight, and openly. When they made any move, well knew he their purpose, and came upon them ere they might fulfil it. And when he had struck his blow, he withdrew him into safety. So first cleared he the path to victory ; then did he make it his own. 21. Those warriors too who had fled the land, when they heard that King Alfred was once more in the field, with all speed crossed again the sea, and came to his leaguer ; so day by day grew he stronger, and closelier harassed the foe. He sent, moreover, messengers to Rollo, who was ever warring upon the French, ... to come to his aid. And he, because of the kindness shown him by Alfred, . . . gave up, for that time, the siege of Paris, whereon he was set, and crossed back to England. . . . So the King's host grew larger daily. And Guthrum also gathered no small force, and, careless of the lives of his men, wished only for the day of battle. But Alfred, though, through the Saint's promise, assured of victory, yet, like a good shepherd, had regard to his flock, and wailed the day foretold by the Saint for fighting . On the top of a hill waited he, which he had heedfully taken first, for that it would have been the very place for the foe, had they but thought of it in time. . . . [Here follows the victory of Ethandune and the baptism of Guthrum.] 22. With all justice ruled King Alfred his realm, even as St. Neot counselled him. For he put in writing the laws and right customs of the Kings before him, and handed them down to them that came after him to be kept. And many of the laws and customs of the old Britons turned he into the English tongue. Among these was the Merchene Leaga [Mercian Law], set up by a wise and noble British Queen, Marcia [!]. Some too added he of his own, so founded upon justice that none may find any fault therein. Hence may it be seen how devout was his life, following the counsel of the Saint and the paths of righteousness. 23. When King Alfred had fulfilled 28 years and a half of his reign, and 51 of his age, then paid he the debt due by corrupt human nature, and died in peace, on the 25th of October in the year from the Incarnation of our Lord 900. XI. JOHN OF BROMPTON. JOHN OF BROMPTON was Abbot of Jorvaulx, in Yorkshire, under Henry VI., and cannot therefore be the writer of this chronicle, which, from internal evidence, is of the thirteenth century. It is called by his name because at the end of the MS. (in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) a footnote states it to be his (i.e., as owner). The chronicle starts from the mission of Augustine, and begins with separate outlines of the histories of Kent, Essex, East Anglia, Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria, and Sussex, consecutively; going on to deal with that of 'the Kings of All England,' to the death of Richard Cceur de Lion. It embodies the Codes of Ina, Alfred (including his treaty with Guthrum), Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmund, Edgar, Ethelred, and Canute. This chronicle makes use of Asser, Malmesbury, and other earlier authorities, but differs so notably in the sequence of events (especially in the Danish campaigns of Alfred) that the writer either had access to some independent source, now lost, or thought himself a historical redactor of the type with which the Higher Criticism of the present day has familiar- ized us equal to rearranging the components of previous histories through the crucible of his own inner consciousness. No third explanation is possible ; for he was evidently very far from a careless writer. His chronicle is printed by Twysden in his ' Decem Scriptores' (1652). 132 196 Alfred in the Chroniclers CONTENTS. SECTION i. Of King Egbert. 3. Of King Ethelwulf; and of the Danes. 4. Of Peter-pence ; and of the children of Ethelwulf. 5. Of the fall of East Anglia. 7. Of the fall of Ely. 8. Of the fall of Northumbria ; and of Nottingham. 9. Of the fall of Carlisle and Lincoln. 10. Of King Ethelred. 11. Of the Danes at Reading. 12. Of the fight at Ashdown. 14. Of the end of Ethelred. 15. Of Alfred ; and how he fought in Sussex. 1 6. Of the Danes at Exeter. 17. Of the fight at Chippenham. 1 8. Of the fight at Ethandune. 20. How the Danes won Mercia. 21. Of St. Werburga : and of Rollo. SECTION 22. Of the dream of Rollo ; and how he won Normandy. 23. How the Danes overran Wessex. 24. How Alfred drave them out. 25. Of the Danes in France, and at Rochester. 26. How Alfred built again London, and sent alms to India. 27. Of Alfred's Abbeys ; and of the Danes at Chester. 28. Of certain Scots ; and of Plegmund. 29. Of the Danish raids. 30. How the Danish host brake up. 31. Of Alfred in youth. 32. Of his learning. 33. Of old learning in this land. 34. How Universities began here. 37. Of Alfred's infirmity ; and of his children. 38. Of his laws. 39. Of his death. John of Brompton 197 JOHN OF BROMPTON. i. Having thus in part, though by no means fully, treated of the Kings and Princes who reigned in British 1 days, and had dominion over diverse provinces (some succeeding by hereditary right, and some coming into possession through conquest), let us now briefly turn our attention to those from whom the Kings of all England had their first be- ginning. And let us go back to the noble and stout warrior Ethel- brict [Egbert], on whom we have already touched, amongst the Kings of Wessex. 2. In Wessex was he born and bred, and was a hero mighty and warlike. But King Brithrich, who then reigned in Wessex, through jealousy of him, brake forth into such mad hatred that he conspired his death. But, when he spied the malice of the monarch, he went off into France, and there dwelt, until the aforesaid King departed this life. After the death of the King, however, the men of Wessex called him back into England, and crowned him for their King. Then, gathering his host, made he no small slaughter amongst the kinglets who stood against him ; staying not his hand from war for 28 years together. 2 These others being at length overthrown, crushed, and subdued, in manly wise gat he him the sway of ail this realm. And after the warfare was ended, nine years reigned he in peace ; closing his days in the 38th year and 6th month of his reign. And his body was brought for burial to Wynton [Winchester]. 3. And thereafter was Ethelwolf, the son of Egbert who, in early life, had been Bishop of Wynton, forced, for lack of other heirs, to take upon himself the crown. In his days did Almighty God bring in folk most cruel, who spared neither age nor sex, Dacians [Danes] to wit, and Goths, Norwegians and Swedes, Vandals and Frisians, who from the beginning of this reign, even unto the coming of William, Duke of Normandy, wasted England. 4. This King Ethelwolf made over to God and Holy Church every tenth hide of land throughout all Wessex, free from all secular service, 3 for feeding and clothing the poor and needy and the sick. Afterwards he went off to Rome, and made over to God and St. Peter, every year, from every house in all England, one penny ; which, at this day, are commonly called Peter-pence. And he himself, of pure and heartfelt devotion to God, offered the first penny. None the less, did he afterwards, every year, make over to the Roman Church 300 talents ; to wit, 100 for the lighting of St. Peter's, 100 for the lighting of St. Paul's, and 100 for 1 This is the earliest example of that loose use of the word ' British,' as equiva- lent to ' Ancient English,' which in popular use continued even into the nineteenth century. - For the real events here travestied, see Introductory Sketch, Chapter II. 8 I.e., rates and taxes. 198 Alfred in the Chroniclers the use of the High Pontiff. And after lingering for a whole year in the Roman Court, as he returned through France, he took to wife Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, of whom he begat five sons, namely, Ethelbald, his firstborn, Ethelbert, the second, Ethelred, the third, Alured [Alfred], the fourth, and Adelstan [Athelstan], the fifth, who died in youth. 1 5. [The chronicle goes on to tell at great length the occasion of the Danish conquest of Northumbria, a tale similar to that concerning the Moorish invasion of Spain (see p. 178) ; and copies from Roger of Wendover (with acknowledgments, for a wonder) his dramatic version of the fall of East Anglia and the martyrdom of St. Edmund ; and continues as follows :] 6. After the slaughter of King Edmund, his brother Edwold, for- saking the delights of this world, for the ill luck that had befallen his brother and himself, took upon him the life of a hermit, on bread and water only, near the monastery of Carnelia [Cerne Abbey] in Dorset, beside that clear well which, of old, St. Augustine by his prayers made to spring forth, that he might baptize the folk therein. 7. And thus was East Anglia brought under the Danes. And Ingwar returned to his brother Hubbe in Northumbria ; and over East Anglia reigned first after Edmund a certain Dane named Godrim [Guthrum]. And on his way back he destroyed the Abbey of the holy maidens of Ely, 2 and the nuns that served God therein did he either cruelly slay or savagely drive forth. But the aforesaid Godrim was that Dane who made and sanctioned laws along with King Alfred. 8. Anno Domini 869. The Danes went further, and brought under all Northumbria, and slew them that dwelt therein. And having there set wardens, they came into the realm of the Mercians, even unto Notyngham (which in Latin is called Domus Speluncarum), and there for a whole year went into winter quarters. And there did Burred, the King, or Duke, of the Mercians, meet them, with the support and aid of his brother in law Ethelred, King of Wessex. And, inasmuch as the heathen, safe within the stronghold, refused battle, and the English could not breach the wall, peace was made on either side, and the Kings departed homeward. And the heathen sought again York, where they remained one whole year. 9. In this year the city Alclud [Carlisle], so renowned of old, which is at the western end of the famous Wall [of Severus], was utterly blotted out by the Danes. And afterwards, leaving Mercia and Northumbria, they came, wasting the country, and destroying churches and monasteries, even unto Lincoln. And having taken and sacked it, and wasted all Holland and all Lindesey, 3 they passed over into East Anglia, and wintered at Thetford. 1 None of these were children of Judith, and Athelstan was the eldest. See Introduction, Chapter IV., 4, 9. 2 Ely was actually destroyed in the great Danish raid of 870. 3 These are the southern and northern districts of Lincolnshire. John of Brompton 199 10. Meanwhile the aforesaid Ethelbert, King of the West Saxons, who less than five years had worn the crown of the whole realm and reigned, ended this life, and is buried at Winchester. . . . And there- upon did Ethelred, a man devoted to God and dear to all around, succeed to the kingdom. II. Meanwhile the heathen host of the Dacians from Thetford, leaving East Anglia, under the leadership of Ingwar and Hubbe, as aforesaid, laying waste all towns and monasteries as they went, and harrying the country far and wide along their path, came into Wessex, even unto Reading. And there, on the third day of their coming, two of their chiefs, sallying forth after booty, were cut to pieces at Engelfelde. And, four days after, the West Saxons fell upon them, and made of the Danes no little slaughter. Yet did the Danes burst forth from their stronghold, and slew Ethelwulf, the Chieftain of Berkshire, and forced the English to fall back. 12. Stirred by this shame, the English, after four days again, with their King, Ethelred, made them ready to battle against the Dacian King, Oseg [Bacgseg] by name, at Asschedon, which, being interpreted, signifies Ass Hill, or else Ash Hill. Now the King of Dacia had come with two Kings from overseas, and five Earls, and very many warriors. And he parted his host in twain ; and the one part kept he for himself and the other Kings, and the other part gave he to the Earls. Likewise did King Ethelred part his host in two equal bands ; half kept he for himself, and the other left he to Alfred his brother. And when evening drew on, both sides laid them down to rest. 13. But, when the morning was come, while King Ethelred heard his Mass, Alfred his brother was needs driven to bring up his host into battle. And so furiously did the Danes charge him, that little lacked there but that he was put to shame and flight. Then sent he in all haste for King Ethelred, who was yet hearing his Mass ; and much did his prayer avail with God. But he, for his part, said Nay, never would he come while his Mass was unfinished. But when the Mass was duly celebrated, then hasted the aforesaid King, with all speed, unto the battle. And, albeit the Danes had seized the higher ground, he, with his Christians, charging up from beneath, brake his enemies. And with his own hand and spear slew he King Oseg, like a man, and with the sword girded on his thigh did he to death yet another King. And on that same day, in that fight, did the English cut to pieces five Danish earls, with many a thousand foemen ; and the rest, all that day and all that night, they chased even unto Reading. 14. Yet, after 15 days, fought they at Basing, and the Danes had the victory. And thereafter, when two months were run, came they again together in battle at Merton ; and the English had the worse, and the Danes the better. And then a certain Danish tyrant, Somerled by name, 1 1 A curious misunderstanding of the A.S. Chronicle. 'There came no small summer-lead to Reading.' See pp. 10, 123, 180. 2oo Alfred in the Chroniclers drawing back from that place to Reading, laid waste there the town and whatsoever he might find there. Thereafter did Ethelred, King of the West Saxons, do battle with him ; and, being mortally wounded, died, after great agony, the gth Kal. May [April 22] in the fifth year of his reign. And to Wymbornewas he brought for burial. 15. When King Ethelred was dead, Alfred, his brother, who, up to this time, while his brothers yet lived, held but secondary rank, suc- ceeded to the whole monarchy of the West Saxons, in the year A.D. 873. And, as it is written, he, first of all the Kings of England, was anointed at Rome, by Pope Leo. In this year, when he was but newly raised to the kingship, did the Danes follow hard upon him, even unto Walton in Sussex, and there came up to him. And there fought they, and Alfred left them the field, and fled away to the greenwood. Yet thence did he pass into Wessex, and there gathered he the whole folk of his own realm, great and small. And, in short time, so great a force had he, what of his own men and what of others, that the Danes dared not to meet him in arms. So came he unto London, where they had sat them down ; and there they besought of him peace ; and, that they might barely get back to their own abode, without any betterment, offered they hostages, such as the English might choose them. 16. Nevertheless, the self-same day that the hostages were taken, did the Danes depart from London, and ride all night long. And never drew they rein till they were come even so far as unto Exeter ; and there took they the city, and abode therein. But when this was noised abroad, King Alfred hanged first the hostages, and hied him fast unto Exeter with his host. But the Danes, on hearing of his approach, left the town, and betook them to Chippenham in Wessex. And there did they many an evil deed ; for so harried they the land, and so straitened they the folk, that they drave many a man from his own home. 17. But King Alfred came there upon them, and right stoutly did he do battle with them. And in that fray was there slain Hubbe, the brother of Inguar, and Bruern Bocard 1 (who first, as has been said, brought in the Danes from Dacia). And many, on both sides, were there slain, and, at the last, had the Danes the better ; for King Alfred had over-hastily made at them, and but small was his strength, and few his following. So from that field drew he off as best he might. And the Danes, when they found the corpse of Hubbe amongst the slain, buried it with mighty wailing, and heaped over it a mound, which they called Hubbelowe. Whence, to this day, that place is so called ; and it is in the county of Devon. 1 This name is a corruption of Buzcarl or Butcarl (i.e., boatman), which we find in Gaimar. The legend was that Bruern, having treacherously murdered a Danish guest named Lodbroc in East Anglia, was sent adrift in an open boat by King Edmund. He got safe across the North Sea, and there persuaded the sons of Lodbroc, Ingwar and Hubba, that Edmund himself was their father's murderer, afterwards piloting them on their errand of vengeance. Another variant of the tale will be found on p. 178. John of Brompton 201 1 8. But after that the barons of the county of Somerset, and of Wilts, and of Dorset, heard of the ill-luck of Alfred their King, they came together, one and all, to the place where the King was, with a very great power. And when they saw the King, whom they thought slain by their foes, in life and safety, they joyed and rejoiced with him ; and took counsel together to follow up the Danes on the spot. So the King and the barons, with a very great host, rode after them all that night ; and, on the morrow, at the ninth hour, came they upon those same Danes, who, as then, had taken post at Ethandune. And King Alfred and his men charged them full hotly, and stayed not. but set on ; and harder was that fray than ought they had known erewhile. But so manfully did the Danes keep their stand against the English, that no man could judge on which side was indeed the greater slaughter. And thus the English (though not without great loss to their foes) were grievously brought low by 8 battles in one year, and waxed few in number. 19. In this year the English made peace with the Danes, on this troth, that the Danes should depart from them. Which also they did ; swearing, moreover, that never would they wage fight or war \bellum aut guerrani\ against him [Alfred] in his own land. And that year wintered they in London, and the next in Lyndseye ; and the Mercians made peace with them. 20. But in the third year the Danes brake the peace made with the Mercians, and passed from Lyndseye to Ripendon [Repton], and drave out Burred, King of the Mercians. And his kingdom gave they to one Colwolf, a thane of Burred's, to hold under them ; on this troth, that, whensoever they would, they should have it again. Thus, three years after, they divided that realm among them ; and part they gave to Colwolf (who was also the last of the Mercian Kings). And, after his death, Alfred, King of the West Saxons, added, first London, and after- wards all Colwolf's part, to his own kingdom. 21. In the year of the Lord 875, in which the aforesaid Burred, King of Mercia, was driven out by the Danes, the men of Hambury [Hanbury], about five miles from Ripendon [Repton], moved by fear, translated unto Cestria [Chester], 1 as unto a place of safety, the body of the holy virgin Wereburga, which had long been buried there. And in this year did Rollo, a Dane or Norwegian by race (who, afterwards, conquered Normandy, and was the first duke there), come to England with his mates, and started to harry the land. And in battle with the English were many of his men slain, and the rest ran away. 22. And, at night, as Rollo slept, there seemed him that a swarm of bees flew quickly over him and his host, and hummed off south ward, and 1 Chester was at this time waste (see pp. 43, 129), so that this translation cannot have taken place at this date. But it is an actual fact that St. Werburga was so translated, and buried in the south transept of Chester Cathedral, which is still dedicated to her. She was daughter of Ermenilda, the first Christian Queen of Mercia, and thus niece to St. Etheldred of Ely. 202 Alfred in the Chroniclers flew over the mid-sea, and so came to land. And there drew they together, and settled on the leaves of divers trees, and, in short time, filled they all that land, and began to bring together unto one place flowrets of many a hue. Here woke Rollo, and thought on that dream, and the interpretation thereof. And when he had diligently considered the thing, he guessed that he might find rest from his toil in those parts where the bees had settled. So crossed he the sea, and put to shore in Normandy ; where Franco, Archbishop of Rothomagus [Rouen], having small faith in his power to resist, besought peace. Having thus gained the sway, he came to Rouen, and repaired the walls, and built him castles all about, and gat under him the land of Neustria, which now is called Normandy, and was made the first Duke there. And afterwards the aforesaid Archbishop Franco baptized him [see p. 225]. 23. King Alfred entered into treaty with the Danes, and hostages were given. But the Danes, thinking nought of their oaths, one night slew all the King's horsemen. This stirred the King, and he chased them even unto Exeter, where again hostages were given, and troth plighted ; and there stayed they a whole year. But the Danes from Wareham, in sailing to their friends at Exeter, lost their ships by a storm at sea. Yet did part of them take the royal town of Chippenham, with the land thereby ; and many thereabout did they enthral, or else exile. 24. And in this stress, in the year of our Lord 877, the fifth of his reign, did this same King Alfred, with but few beside him, lead, in the parts of Somerset, a homeless, restless, life, insomuch that he had nought whereon to live, save what he might get by raiding, or hunting, or fishing. . . . [Here follows the tale of St. Cuthbert (p. 31).] He built him a stronghold at Ethelynghey [Athelney], which, by interpretation, is The Isle of Peers. Oft warred he on his foes, and specially about Selewode (which, being interpreted, is the Great Wood) ; insomuch that at last he took their noblest as hostages. And Godrim [Guthrum], the Dacian King, with many another high and mighty chieftain, did Alfred uplift from the sacred font, giving him the name of Athelstan, and making unbounded peace with him. So that afterwards ... he and King Alfred stablished laws together. . . . This same King Alfred, when Tunbert, Bishop of Winchester, died, set over the see Denewolf, whom, when he was in hiding, he had found in the woods, a cowherd and layman ; but perceiving his good wit. he made him, old as he was, to be instructed in letters. 25. In the year 879 (the 7th of Alfred's reign), did the Dacian host as they had promised him, leave the cities of Chippenham and Ciren- cester, which are to the south of the Hwiccas, 1 and betook themselves to East Anglia. And with the rest of that host there banded them a great Dacian host from foreign parts, chased out of France by King Charles, at 1 The Hwiccas were the Saxon sept dwelling in Worcestershire and Gloucester- shire. Tewkesbury is named from them. John of Brompton 203 Fullenham [Fulham]. And, in that same year, King Alfred repaired the city of Sepronia, that is Shaftesbury, as witnesseth the great stone which is yet in the Chapterhouse of the nuns, with its inscription. And the Danes who returned from France laid siege to Rochester, and built them a work over against the gate. But the townsfolk withstood them, until Alfred came upon them, and took the horses of the Danes, and put them to flight, so that at once they sought again France. Yea, and the King sent his fleet, all filled with warriors, from Kent to East Anglia, and took the Danish ships there. Yet in the way back was the royal fleet worsted. But the Danes, oaring up the water of Seine, laid siege to Paris. ... 26. In the 1 5th year of his reign, this same Alfred, after the many burnings of the city and massacres of the townsfolk, repaired London, that men might dwell therein, and made it over to one Ethelred, Chieftain of the Mercians, along with Elfleda his own daughter. And at that time all the English that were scattered abroad came, and, with one accord, did homage to King Alfred. . . . About the same time did the Earl of Wilton bear to Rome the alms of King Alfred ; and Swithelm, Bishop of Schireburn [SherborneJ bare the same to St. Thomas in India. And they came back home unhurt. 27. In the i8th year of his reign, this King Alfred built two famous monasteries, one at Athelney for monks, and the other at Shaftesbury for nuns, over which he set his own daughter Elgiva as Abbess. In the same year the aforesaid King Guthrum, also called Athelstan, died. And in this year came there against King Alfred four several hosts ; one in North- umbria, another in East Anglia, a third at Exeter, and a fourth at Leicester [Chester]. And so straitly were they besieged, that they devoured their very horses for hunger. 28. In the 2 ist year of King Alfred three men of Scotland, 1 Dublan, Malicon, and Malinuryn, minding to lead, for Christ's sake, a pilgrim life, took with them victual for one week, and made them a boat of two hides and a half, and entered therein. And, in wondrous wise, without sail or gear, after seven days, came they to shore in Cornwall, and afterwards went up to King Alfred. And Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, a right noble man of letters, received his pall from Pope Formosus, and, in the 22nd year of King Alfred, consecrated he seven bishops in one day. 29. In this year King Alfred, leaving half his host in divers strong- holds, and with the other half going forth to battle, drave out the Danes first from Kent, then from Exeter, and, thirdly, from Chichester. Thence did the Danes come unto the City of the Legions, which in English is called Chester, where, after three days' siege, by force of hunger they left the city, and harried North Wales, and thus fetched a compass through Northumbria to Mersey, an island in Essex, and got back to East Anglia, where were their wives and their ships. And afterwards, in the winter, they towed their ships through the Thames into the river of Lea. But 1 I.e., Ireland, the original home of the Scots. 204 Alfred in the Chroniclers that host which had besieged Exeter was caught harrying near Chichester, whereby they lost many of their men, and several ships. 30. But, in the next year, the host which was on the Lea wrought them a stronghold, 20 miles from London. But'the Londoners, by the aid of Alfred, brake it down, and slew four of their leaders, and divided the river Lea into three branches, so that their ships could not be brought out. And when the Danes saw that, they left there their ships ; and strengthening a certain hold near Brugges [Bridgenorth] on the Severn, therein wintered. And while King Alfred pursued them with his army, the Londoners brought round some of the ships forsaken in the Lea to London, and some they burnt to ashes. So in these three aforesaid years, since the Danes came in by the harbour of Lymnemouth, the English underwent no small distress, not only through being infested by these Dacians, but also by mortality amongst men, and plague amongst cattle. But, after this, in the fourth year, the Danish host brake up, partly to Northumbria, partly to East Anglia ; and part crossed the Channel to Seine-mouth. . . . [Here follows the naval battle of 897 from the A.S. Chronicle (p. 131).] 31. And here think I it worth while to insert somewhat concerning this famous King Alfred, with his winsome presence ; of his beginning, his progress, and his end. Beloved was he by both father and mother beyond all his brethren; whence he abode in his father's court, up to 12 years of age, without knowing his letters ; though the boy learnt by heart many a Saxon song. Ever was he foremost in the hunt ; and wrote up his psalms and prayers in a little book which he ever bare about with him. Yet but little knew he of Grammar, seeing that in all the West, as at that time, not one teacher of Grammar could be found. 32. Therefore, by counsel of the blessed Abbot, St. Neot, whom he oftentimes visited, he founded at Oxford 1 public schools of divers Arts, and granted unto them many privileges. For the same cause also, did this same great King, the Giver of alms, the Hearer of Masses, the Seeker into things unknown, call to him Grimbald, a monk of Gaul, well skilled in letters and in song, and John [Scotus], and Asser, a monk of the Abbey of St. David in Menevia, in the utmost parts of Wales, that from them he might learn the more of Letters. His nobles, moreover, so provoked he to Letters, that, of themselves, did they in turn give over to this study each man his son, or, if he had no son, then, at least, his thrall. And he made Werfrith, the Bishop of Worcester, to translate into the Saxon tongue the book of Boecius De Consolatione Philosophies, and the Dialogues of the Blessed Gregory. Most carefully, moreover, did he look into the doings of his thanes, and, more especially, his judges ; insomuch that those whom he found to err through avarice or ignorance, them he put away from their post. 33. Now, although it has been said above that, in the time of this King Alfred, in all Wessex was there none who taught Letters, yet, before 1 See Introduction, IX., 5, p. 47. John of Brompton 205 his time, in other parts of the realm (in the City of Legions, to wit, in South Wales, now called Karleonn), were there astrologers and philo- sophers of universal erudition ; as Walter of Monmouth, in his book, The Coming of King Arthur, has shown clearly enough. Afterwards also, in the time of King Egbert, of Kent, the island was the very home of philo- sophy. 34. Whence, about that time (as some hold, and as is the common tale both of ancients and moderns), it is believed that a University 1 was founded, by the Venerable Bede, at Grantecestre near Cambridge. 2 And this may be very likely, because and because [pro eo et ex eo\ that after- wards, in the time of Charlemagne, King of France, Alcuin of England, a disciple of Bede, well skilled in all Letters, is said to have translated a University from Rome even unto Paris. 3 . . . Also Erpwald, 4 King of East Anglia, son of King Redwald, set up, with the help of St. Felix, schools for boys, such as he had seen in Gaul, when in exile there before he became King. 35. But some there are who say that already, before this time, there were two Universities in England, one for Latin and the other for Greek : of which the Grecians founded one at Greek-lade (which is now called Cricklade), and there for a while taught they the Greek tongue. But the Latins founded the other at Latin-lade (which is now Lechlade), near Oxford, and there they taught Latin. . . . 36- [The writer here traces the origin of Universities, through Rome and Athens, to Egypt, 'where Abraham was the first to teach the Quadrivium ' (the higher fourfold course of (i) Arithmetic, (2) Geometry, (3) Harmony, and (4) Astronomy, which succeeded the ' trivial ' study of Latin Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, in the thirteenth century curriculum). 4 Under so great a Doctor they made rapid progress in Mathematics,' and handed on their knowledge to ' Pythagoras, Plato, and the other philosophers.' He then returns to his subject.] 37. Of this King Alfred it is written, that, when he was a youth, and would fain stablish his heart in the Commandments of God, but could not because of the infirmity of his flesh ... he was ever seeking the temples of the Saints, morning, noon, and night, beseeching God to scourge him with some thorn in the flesh, which, while not disabling him for earthly duties, might yet dispose him the more diligently to serve Him. The Lord granted him ; and such a thorn ... he bare for many years, wherefrom he endured such misery that he went to Cornwall, and visited the Church of St. Gueryr, where St. Neot now rests, and prayed God to assuage, or at least change, his plague. Some, however, say that 1 Studium, the oldest term for University, which latter name came up in the fourteenth century. This passage must therefore be of the thirteenth century, early in which Cambridge was founded. - Bede mentions that Cambridge (which he calls Grantchester) was lying waste in his day ('Eccles. Hist.,' iv. 19). 8 The University of Paris was actually founded early in the twelfth century. 4 A mistake for Sigbert, who reigned 631-637. 206 Alfred in the Chroniclers he was cured \curatus\ by St. Modwenna^an Irish virgin. Yet when his wish was gained, a yet more grievous disease affected him, from his 2oth even to his 45th year. Thus were there born unto him, by Elswitha his Queen, two sons, Edward, surnamed the Elder, and Ethelward, and three daughters, Elfleda [Ethelfled], Lady of the Mercians, Elgiva, a nun, and Elfrida, all of whom he had well taught in the Liberal Arts. [Here follows Asser's account of Alfred's management of his property and time.] 38. And, howbeit ' amid arms laws be still,' King Alfred, amid all the clash of weapons, was a law-giver. And he instituted the Centuries, which men call Hundreds, and the Decuries, which they call Tithings ; and kept the peace amongst his folk ; and so put down thieves, that, in the cross ways, he bade hang golden bracelets, to mock the greed of wayfarers, for none dare lay hand on them. 39. Now when this King Alfred had brought all his designs to happy issue, and for 28^ years had reigned over all England (save those parts which were under the Danes), he felt the sting of death at Winchester, and died ; and there, in the New Monastery, is he buried. 1 St. Modwenna probably lived about A.D. 700. Alfred may possibly have visited her shrine at Killevy in Armagh. But it is more likely that the tale arose through a confusion of his name with that of her friend Aldfrid of Northumbria. (See Arnold-Foster, ' Church Dedications,' vol. ii., pp. 157, 385, 415-) XII. THE CHRONICLE OF CROWLAND. COMMONLY KNOWN AS ' INGULF.' THIS chronicle was for long believed to be the actual work of the author in whose name it is written, Ingulf, the famous Abbot of Crowland, or Croy- land, under William the Conqueror. Various anachronisms (e.g., references to Philip Augustus of France, and to the University of Oxford) have convinced modern critics that it is a fourteenth-century production. But it is certainly no mere invention of that century, the writer having used earlier material. He has, for example, embodied the notice of Crowland found in Ordericus Vitalis (1112) ; and his account of the sack of the abbey by the Danes bears every mark of being also from some contemporary source. No ancient MS. of this chronicle has survived, though such are mentioned by the historians of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries. It was edited by Saville, 1596, and by Gale a century later. A translation is given in ' The Church Historians of England.' The following are the extracts given : 1. Of Bertulf, King of Mercia. 2. Of Ethelwulf, King of Wessex. 3. Of Ethelbald his son. 4. Of the Danes at Nottingham. 5. Of the Danes in Lindesey. 6. How Earl Algar fought with Danes. the II. How the Danes sacked Crowland and Peterborough. 21. How the Danes sacked Ely. 22. Of Burghred, King of Mercia. 23. Of King Alfred in Athelney. 24. Of Ceolwulf, King of Mercia. 25. Of the goodness of King Alfred, and of his death. 208 Alfred in the Chroniclers THE CHRONICLE OF CROWLAND. i. [A.D. 838] Bertulf succeeded to the kingship [of Mercia], and reigned 13 years. ... A wicked man he was, and, as he passed through Crowland, laid hands on all the many jewels wherewith . . . other Kings of Mercia had adorned that holy church yea, and on all the money he could find in the monastery. Therewith raised he a force to war against the Danes, who, as then, were ravening around London. And by these Heathen was he worsted and put to flight. [A.D. 850. See p. 86.] . . . [Here follows a spurious charter of King Bertwulf's.] 2. [A.D. 855] God wrought a signal miracle to the glory of His holy Confessor, St. Guthlac [the founder of Crowland, A.D. 714] ... so that the Abbot Siward . . . having been tried, like the blessed Job, by deepest poverty, and despoiled of his whole Abbey treasure, even unto the uttermost farthing . . . received the double for all his loss. . . . His old age, moreover, became still more prosperous by yet another means. For Ethelwulf, the far-famed King of the West Saxons, being but newly come back from Rome (whither he had gone, in deep devotion, along with Alfred, his youngest son, to visit the threshold of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and His Holiness Pope Leo) . . . then first endowed the whole Church of England with the tithes of all the land . . . by charter. [Here follows the charter, again spurious.] And this charter did King Ethel- wulf, for the more surety, offer upon the altar of Peter the Apostle. And the Bishops . . . sent it to every church in each diocese to be published. 3. This year Bertulf King of the Mercians, after a reign of thirteen years, died, and after him Burghred took the kingdom. ... At this time Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons, likewise died, and his sons, Ethelbald and Ethelbert, shared the kingdom between them. The first of these . . . took to wife his own stepmother, Judith . . . wherethrough all folk were overcome with abhorrence at such enormity of wicked- ness. After two years thus wallowing in the mire he died, and Ethel- bert . . . undauntedly, for five years, held the kingdom. Then was Ethelred, the third brother, raised to the throne. 4. In his days waxed the woes of warfare utterly unbearable. On every side the Heathen burst in. Northumbria had they raided, had taken York, had harried East Anglia, had fallen upon Mercia ; and at Nottingham were they now wintering, in the year of our Lord 866 [868]. Against them did King Burghred raise a great force, and, being strengthened also by that of Ethelred, King of the West Saxons, and his brother Alfred (for he had wedded their sister), he made the Heathen to quit Nottingham and go back unto York. In this campaign did Earl Algar the Younger show himself a mighty man of valour, and thereby was held in high honour of King Burghred and his brethren of Wessex. Good friend, moreover, was he to our Abbey of Crowland. . . . The Chronicle of Crow land 209 5. But in the next year after [869], as soon as winter was gone, the Heathen host crossed over by ship into Lindesey [Northern Lincolnshire] . . . and laid waste all that land. Now harried they the monastery of Bardney, of old renown, and slew every monk there in the church, without pity. All that summer consumed they the land to ashes ; and, about Michaelmas, entered Kesteven [South-western Lincolnshire]; and wasted, and slew, and gave unto the flames all that was therein. 6. At length, in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 870, in the month of September . . . there gathered together unto Earl Algar the whole youth of Holland [South-eastern Lincolnshire], along with a band from Crowland Abbey, 200 sturdy warriors, . . . led on by Tolius, a lay brother of that House, who, before his conversion, had been a champion of fame throughout all Mercia. . . . Beside these there gathered also, from Deeping, Langtoft, and Boston, some 300 valiant men, and, over all, Morcar, Lord of Bourn, with his household, many and brave. The Sheriff of Lincoln, also, Osgot by name, came in with the men of Lincoln, 500 strong. All these gat them together unto Kesteven ; and, on the Feast of St. Maurice the Martyr [September 22], waged battle against the Heathen. And, by the gift of God, theirs was the victory. Three Kings of the foemen were there slain, and of the Host an untold number, and the Christians chased and cut down the savages even to the doors of their tents. There did the Danes make a desperate stand ; and nightfall put an end to the fight, and the victorious Earl drew off his army. 7. Throughout that night came there into the Heathen camp from the country round (whither they had raided forth, each in his allotted share) all the rest of their Kings Guthrum, to wit, and Baseg, and Oskytel. and Halfdene, and Hammond ; and the like number of Earls Frena, to wit, and Ingwar, and Hubba, and the two Sidrocs, elder and younger ; along with their hosts, and untold spoil, and many a [captive] woman and many a child. No sooner was their coming known, than the most of the Christians fled away, panic-stricken, that same night, and of 8,000 men there abode with Earl Algar but 2,000. Yet were all of these ready to die for Christ and Country ; they heard Divine Service, they received the Holy Viaticum ; and, at dawn, went they forth into the field. 8. The dauntless Earl, seeing his army in evil case, placed brother Tolius and his 500 on the right, as before . . . giving him also . . . Morcar of Bourn with his followers. Osgot, the renowned Sheriff of Lincoln, placed he on the left, . . . with Harding of Ryhall, and all the men of Stamford ; and a brave and warrior youth they were. Mad were the Danes at the slaughter of their men ; and very early in the morning they buried their three Kings in the town which of yore was called Laundon, but now, from these same three Kings, is called Threekingham [between Sleaford and Bourn]. 9. So few were the Christians that they drew together and formed one troop, in shape like unto a wedge, and all day long stood they firm and still, holding their firm wall of shields against the foemen's arrow- 14 2io Alfred in the Chroniclers flight, and their dense line of spears against the wild charges of the horse. So stood they unbroken even until nightfall ; spent were the foemen's shafts ; worn out were their horsemen with long toils. Then, at an afore-planned signal, made they as though to flee, and turned them from the field. Whereon the Christians, at this sight, despite of the word of command, and all that their leaders could do or say, broke line, and scattered all over the field, chasing the Heathen, in unordered throng, and leaderless. jo. Then did the savages turn again, and fell upon them, even as raging lions upon sheep. . . . But, when the valiant Earl Algar and the above-named leaders saw that the best of their army were fallen, then made they one dash all together to where the Christian corpses lay heaped up the thickest. And there to the uttermost of their strength avenged they their blood on all who drew nigh ; till at length, pierced with countless wounds, upon the bodies of their brethren fell they, one and all. Hardly did a few young men of Sutton and of Gedney make off, casting away their arms, to a neighbouring wood, and in the following night came unto the monastery of Crowland. There found they Theodore the Abbot and his convent at Mattins, 1 and even while the office was saying, entered they the church door, and with weeping and wailing told their tidings how that the Christians were slaughtered, and brother Tolius with them, and ail his whole band utterly cut off. n. At this news all was confusion. And the Abbot, keeping with himself the oldest of the monks, and a few of the children [of the Abbey School] . . . bade all those in their prime to take along with them the sacred relics of the monastery (namely the holy body of St. Guthlac, his scourge, and his psalter), and the other chief treasures, . . . and thus to flee into the neighbouring fens. . . . With sorrow of heart did they his bidding, and, having laden a boat with the aforesaid relics and the charters of the Kings, they cast into the cloister well the frontal of the High Altar (which was covered with plates of gold), along with ten chalices . . . and other vessels. But the end of the frontal, so long was it, always showed above the water ; whereupon they drew it out and left it with the Abbot ; for ever could they see the flames of the towns in Kesteven draw nigher and nigher, and feared lest the Heathen should on a sudden burst in upon them. So took they boat, and came unto the wood of Ancarig [Thorney], on the southern march of their islet. And here abode they with Brother Toretus, an anchorite, and other brethren, then dwelling there, four days, thirty in all, of whom ten were priests. But the Abbot, and two old men with him, hid the aforesaid frontal outside the church, to the north ; and afterwards he and all the rest, clad in their sacred vestments, met in choir, and kept the Hours of Divine Service according to their Rule. And the whole of the Psalms of David went they through from end to end. After this sang they High Mass, the Abbot himself being Celebrant. . . . 1 The Midnight Service of the Breviary. The Chronicle of Crowland 2 1 1 12. Now, when the Mass was drawing to an end, and the Abbot and his deacon and subdeacon and the taper-bearers had already communi- cated in the Holy Mysteries, came the Heathen bursting into the church. And upon the very Altar, by the cruel hand of King Oscytel, was the venerable Abbot himself sacrified, a true martyr and victim of Christ. All they who stood round and ministered with him were beheaded by the savages ; and the aged men and children, as they fled from the choir, were taken and questioned under the bitterest tortures, to make them show the treasures of the church. Dom 1 Asker, the Prior, was slain in the vestry, and Dom Lethwyn, Sub-prior, in the refectory. Behind him there followed close Brother Turgar, 2 a ten year child, shapely, and of a fair countenance ; who, when he saw his superior slain, besought earnestly that he too might be slain with him. But Earl Sidroc the Younger, touched with pity for the lad, stripped him of his cowl, and gave him a Danish cloak \collobio\ bidding him follow everywhere his steps. And thus, out of all who abode in the monastery, old and young, he alone was saved ; coming and going amongst the Danes throughout all his sojourn amongst them, even as one of themselves, through this Earl's favour and protection. 13. Now when all the monks had been done to death by the torturers, and no whit of the Abbey treasures shown thereby, the Danes, with spades and ploughshares, brake open right and left all the sepulchres of the Saints round about that of St. Guthlac. On the right was that of St. Cissa, priest and anchorite, and of St. Bettelin, a man of God, erst an attendant on St. Guthlac, and of Dom Siward [the Abbot] of blessed memory. And on the left was that of St. Egbert, St. Guthlac's scribe and confessor, and of St. Tatwin, the pilot who guided St. Guthlac to Crowland. . . . All these did the savages burst open, looking to find treasure therein. And finding none, they were filled with indignation ; and piling up all these holy bodies on an heap, in piteous wise, they set fire to them, and, on the third day after their coming, that is to say, on the 7th of the Kalends of October [September 25], they utterly consumed them, church and monastery and all. 14. But on the fourth day off they went, with countless droves of beasts and pack-horses, to Medehampstead [Peterborough]. And there, dashing at the outer precinct [prtmam collectani\ of the monastery, with its barred gates, they assailed the walls on every side with arrows and machines. At the second assault the Heathen brake in, and in the very breach Tubba, the brother of Earl Hubba, fell grievously wounded by a stone-cast. By the hands of his guards he was borne into the tent of Hubba his brother, and despaired even of life. Then did Hubba's rage boil over, and he was altogether wild against the monks, so that he slew with his own hand every soul clad in the religious habit ; the rest sprang upon the rest ; not one in the whole monastery was saved ; both the 1 Dominus is thus abbreviated amongst Benedictines. 5 This name appears in Thurgar-ton, Northamptonshire. 142 212 Alfred in the Chroniclers venerable Abbot Hedda, and all his monks, and all the lay-brethren \comprimoti~\ were massacred ; and Brother Turgar was warned by his master Earl Sidroc never anywhere to cross the path of Earl Hubba. Every altar was uprooted \suffossd\ every monument broken in pieces, the great library of holy books burnt, the plenteous store of monastic papers scattered to the winds ; the precious relics [pignora] of the holy virgins Kineburgh, Kinswith, and Tibba, 1 trodden under foot ; the walls utterly overthrown ; the buildings burnt up, church and all, blazing with a bright flame for five whole days after. 15. Then on the fourth day the Host drew together, with spoil beyond tale from all the country round, and set off towards Huntingdon. The two Sidroc Earls, at the crossing of the rivers, ever came last, to guard the rear \caudam~\ of the whole army. Now all their host had passed over the river Nene safely ; but as they were themselves crossing they had the bad luck to lose two carts, laden with untold wealth and plenishing, which sank in a deep eddy of the stream to the left of the stone bridge, so that horses and all were drowned before they could be got out. And while the whole household of Earl Sidroc the younger was busied in drawing out these same carts, and in transferring the spoil to other waggons and carriages, Brother Turgar slipped away and fled to the neighbouring forest. All night did he walk, and, with the earliest dawn, came into Crowland. There he found his fellow monks, who had got back from Thorney the day before, and were hard at work putting out the fires which still had the mastery in many of the ruins of the monastery. 16. And when they saw him safe and sound they were somewhat comforted ; but on hearing from him where their Abbot and the other Superiors and Brethren lay slain, and how all the sepulchres of the Saints were broken down, and all the monuments, and all their holy books and all the sacred bodies burnt up, all were stricken with grief un- speakable ; and long was the lamentation and mourning that was made. Satiated at length with weeping they turned again to putting out the con- flagration. And when they raised the ruins of the church roof about the High Altar, they found the body of their venerable father and abbot Theodore, beheaded, stripped, half-burnt, and bruised and crushed into the earth by the fallen timbers. This was on the eighth day after his murder, and a little away from the spot where he was slaughtered. And the other ministers, who fell with him, found they in like manner, crushed into the ground by the weight of the beams all save Wulfric the taper-bearer. 17. But not all at once. For the bodies of some of the Brethren were not found till half a year after their martyrdom, and not in the places where they were slain. For Dom Paulinus and Dom Herbert, very 1 Kineburgh and Kinswith were sisters of Wulfhere, the first Christian King of Mercia. Tibba is usually identified with St. Ebba of Coldingham, but more probably was a local saint. The Chronicle of Crow land 213 old men, and decrepit, whose hands were cut off and themselves tortured to death in the Choir, were found, after diligent search, not there but in the Chapterhouse. In like manner Dom Grimketyl and Dom Egmund, both some hundred years old, who had been thrust through with swords in the Cloister, were found in the Parlour [tocutort'um]. And the rest too, both children and old men, were sought for in divers places, even as Brother Turgar told just how each had been slain ; and at last were all found, with many a doleful plaint and many a tear, save Wulfric only. And Dom Brickstan, once the Precentor of the monastery, a most skilful musician and poet, who was amongst the survivors, wrote on the ashes of Crowland that Lament, which is so well known, and begins thus : ' Desolate how dost thou sit, who late wast Queen among Houses ; Church so noble of old ; erst so beloved of God.' [Quomodo sola sedes, dudum regina domorum Nobilis ecclesia, et nuper arnica Dei. ] 18. Now when the monastery, after long and hard work, was cleared out, and cleansed, so far as was then possible, from filth and ashes, they took counsel on choosing them a Pastor ; and when the election was held, the venerable Father Godric, though much against his will, was made Abbot. To him came that venerable old man Toretus, the Prior of Thorney, and his Subprior, Dom Tissa, both anchorites of the utmost sanctity. And devoutly they prayed him that he would deign to take with him certain Brethren and come to Peterborough, and give, of his charity, Christian burial to the bodies of their Abbot and the other Brethren, which yet remained unburied and exposed to beasts and birds. The Abbot gave heed unto their prayer, and with many of the brethren (amongst them Brother Turgar) came unto Peterborough, where all the Brethren of Thorney met him. And with much labour the bodies of all the monks of that monastery were got together, 84 by tale, and buried in one wide grave in the midst of the Abbey cemetery, over against what was once the East End of the Church. This was on St. Cecilia's day [November 22]. 19. And over the body of the Abbot, as he lay amid his children, he placed a three-sided stone, three feet high, and three long, and one broad, bearing carved likenesses of the Abbot, and his monks standing around him. And this stone, in memory of the ruined abbey, bade he thenceforward be called Medehampstead. And once in every year, while he lived, did he visit it ; and, pitching his tent above the stone, said Mass for two days with instant devotion for the souls of those there buried. 20. Through the midst of that cemetery there ran the King's high- way [via regia] ; and this stone was on the right thereof, as one comes up from the aforesaid stone bridge towards Holland ; and on the left stood a stone cross bearing a carven image of the Saviour ; which our Abbot Godric then set there, to the intent that travellers who passed by 214 Alfred in the Chroniclers might be mindful of that holy Abbey, and pray to the Lord for the souls of the Faithful who lay in that cemetery. . . . 21. Meanwhile the Heathen harried the whole district, even unto Cambridge, and gave to the flames the far-famed Abbey of nuns in the island of Ely, after cruelly slaying all they found therein, both maidens and men, and sharing amongst their savage hordes the cattle and the untold wealth brought in thither for safety from all the country round. . . . [Here follows a short notice of the fall of East Anglia and the death of St. Edmund ; also of the invasion of Wessex and the Battle of Ashdown.] 22. Meanwhile Burghred, King of Mercia was engaged with the Britons, who were harrying the West of his realm by raid after raid. But when he heard of the cruel mischief the Danes had wrought him in the East, then came he soon to London, and gathered a mighty host, and passing through the eastern part of his kingdom, seized for his privy purse the whole Isle of Ely . . . and all the lands of Peterborough Abbey. And the outlying portions he gave to his mercenaries. And so did he with the lands of the Abbey of St. Pega at Peakirk, and even those of St. Guthlac at Crowland ; some gave he to his mercenaries, and some confiscated he for himself. . . . And passing with his army into Lindesey, he did the like with the wide tract lately belonging to Bardney Abbey. . . . 23. [The death of Ethelred is here mentioned, and the accession of Alfred,] the youngest brother, who had erst gone to Rome with his father, and was there anointed by Pope Leo. . . . For nine years on end warred he against the Danes . . . and at length was brought to such a strait that he fled to a certain islet in Somerset. . . . Here was he once left alone at home (having sent forth his whole household to fish in the neighbouring fens), engaged (as was ever his wont) either in holy reading, or in recording deeds of fame or the annals of his forefathers, when he heard a poor man knocking at the door and asking aid for God's pity. Then called he to his mother, 1 who was then staying with him and chanced to be at hand, and bade her go to the cellar, and, for Christ's love, get some- thing for this poor Christian soul. And when she went about to do this bidding, she found in the cellar but one loaf, and told him that was not nearly enough for his own household on their return from fishing. But when the King heard this, devoutly thanked he God, and bade the half be at once given to Christ's poor ; adding : ' Blessed be the Lord in His gifts. He is able, if He will, to multiply this half loaf without measure ; for, when He would, he could feed with five loaves and two fishes five thousand men.' . . . [The vision of St. Cuthbert follows, with the story of Alfred, as a minstrel, spying on the Danes ; the victory of Ethandune ; and the baptism of Guthrum, ' to whom the King, as his Godfather, gave East 1 I.e., his wife's mother (see Asser, 32). His own mother had been dead for years. The Chronicle of Crowland 215 Anglia, that is, Norfolk.' Next we read of the destruction by the Danes of the Abbey of Repton, ' that far-famed burial-place of all the Kings of Mercia ' ; and of the exile and death of Burghred.] 24. Him there followed in the kingship one of his thanes, Ceolwulf set up by the Danes, of English blood, but impious as any savage. For he had sworn to the Danes that he would truly pay such tribute as they laid on him, and would give up quiet and peaceable possession of the kingdom whensoever they demanded it. Therefore all about the land did he flay the few surviving rustics, swallow up the tradesmen, oppress widows and orphans, and torture in divers manners the religious, if perchance they knew of treasure. . . . Even on the venerable Abbot Godric of Crowland and his miserable brethren did he lay a tax of ,1,000, and all but brought the monastery to nothing. . . . For the Abbot, unable to support his monks, dispersed most of them abroad, to their relatives and other friends of the Abbey ; and the few who abode with him dragged on their lives in the utmost need. Then were all the chalices of the Abbey, save three, and all the silver vessels (save the Crucibolum of King Withlaf), 1 and the other precious jewels \jocalid\ either melted down into money or sold for money. And even so, scarce did it stay the ravenous glut of this petty kinglet Ceolwulf. He, however, at the last was deposed by his Danish masters (who herein for once did justice), and stripped stark naked, thus coming to a wretched end. 25. [Alfred's defensive measures are next spoken of, his rule of life, apd his literary work. After this we read of his political system, with its Hundreds, etc. ; ' and the chief officers of the provinces, who were of old called Lord-Lieutenants \vicedomini\ he made into two, namely Judges (whom we call Justices), and Sheriffs, who still bear that name.' The threefold division of his household is said to be, ' after the wit of David and Solomon.' His final victories of 894 are barely touched upon.] Thus King Alfred the Alms-doer, who ever set his feet in all good ways, died, and was buried at Winchester.' 1 King of Mercia, 826. What his crucible can have been is quite unknown. The word is connected not with cross but crock. I XIIL 'THE BOOK OF HYDE.' THIS book is a conglomerate of materials of various dates, put together in its present form probably towards the end of the fourteenth century, by some monk of Hyde Abbey (founded by Alfred). Some of these materials, e.g., the letter of Fulco, Archbishop of Rheims, to Alfred, may well be genuine ; and the floating traditions of the House concerning its Founder, here given, are interesting. The work begins with the Saxon conquest of Britain, and ends with the death of Edward the Elder. No ancient MS. is known, nor has it ever been printed in full ; but copious extracts are given by Griffith in his ' Annals of the Anglican Church ' (1663) ; and a translation may be found in ' The Church Historians of England.' The extracts here given are as follows : I. Of King Ethelwulf the Monk. 3. Of Ethelwulf and Alfred at Rome. 5. Of St. Modwenna. 6. Of King Alfred. 8. How Alfred sent for Grimbald. 9. What Archbishop Fulco wrote to Alfred SECTION 13. How Grimbald came to England, and of his discourse. 16. Of Alfred's schools. 17. Of his laws. 1 8. Of his valiancy. 20. Of his death and burial. 21. Of his son Edward. ' The Book of Hyde' 217 'THE BOOK OF HYDE.' i. The illustrious Prince Egbert made over his son Athulf or Ethel- wulf to be educated by Helmstane, the venerable prelate of the royal city of Winchester, by whose precepts his kingly heart was so bent that he gave up earthly royalty to win him a crown everlasting. Then was he advanced to the subdiaconate, and at Winchester received the monastic tonsure, and was placed under St. Swithun, then Provost of the Old Monastery there. Thus when the glorious Prince Egbert . . . rested in the Lord, in a good old age, ... he left the kingdom without an heir, save for this son Ethelwulf, the humble and devoted monk, vowed unto the Lord. 2. England . . . thus lacking a ruler, the Lords and Bishops of the realm strove, with all their wit, to find him whom they might choose over them. And He who aideth His servants who call upon Him in their need, put it into their heart to set up as King, with the Apostolic dis- pensation, this very Ethelwulf, monk and subdeacon as he was. Instantly was an envoy sent to the Blessed Pope Leo, 1 to ask that . . . he might be crowned. And the Supreme Pontiff, considering how great and rueful would be the peril of England, if the Royal lineage were broken off, . . . bade them take Ethelwulf to King, dispensing him, under his own hand, from the subdiaconate, and from his vow of Religion. 3. Being thus raised to the throne, he took Alstan, Bishop of Sherborne, as his chief counsellor in affairs of state ; but, in Church matters, St. Swithun ; by whose counsel he made over to the Anglican Church a tenth of all his land for ever. . . . [Here follows a laudation of the miracles worked by St. Swithun.] 4. This same Ethelwulf had, by his wife Osburga, four famous sons, all, in turn, to reign after him ; Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred, and Alfred, whom he loved beyond all the rest, and sent unto Pope Leo . . . to be anointed King of the English. . . . And this Ethelwulf repaired, at great cost, the Saxon School, which Ina, King of the West Saxons, had endowed. There also, seeing certain exiles doing public penance in chains, he obtained from the Pope that no English pilgrim should ever so do penance. And for this granted he a penny to St. Peter, year by year, from every dwelling house in his realm ; besides three hundred marks yearly as Rome-scot. [Here follows the marriage of Judith, and the rebellion of Ethelbald, abridged from Asser.] 5. Ethelwulf also sent his most Christian and best-beloved son, then sick of an incurable disease, to be healed by St. Modwenna, in Ireland. Later, when her church in Ireland was laid waste, Ethelwulf gave unto Modwenna ... a convent at Polesworth, which flourisheth even to this 1 Gregory IV. was really Pope at Egbert's death. 218 Alfred in the Chroniclers day. And here abode St. Osyth, . . . and St. Edith, sister of King Ethelwulf. 1 . . . [The reign of Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred, ' whom Alfred, for his goodness, loved beyond all his brethren,' are next touched upon, and thus we reach the accession of Alfred.] 6. King Alfred, that devoted, faithful, and pious Christian, now succeeded to the West Saxon kingship. Comely was he in presence, and . . . one of a thousand ; sprung of British stock, and of noble Trojan blood. 2 . . . [This assertion is founded on a long pedigree, not wholly the same as that in Asser, tracing Alfred to Woden, ' from whom the fourth day of the week is in the vulgar tongue \barbare\ called Wodennsday, and his wife Free, from whom the sixth day is called Freeday.' Nine generations earlier we come to ' Ebranc,' who built the city of York.] . . . Foremost was he in the hunt ; peerless as an architect ; and ever bare he with him a volume which he called his Manual or Hand-book, wherein he had brought together Psalms and Prayers. 7. Oft sought he to Neot the Abbot, and, by his counsel, set up public Schools of Arts. . . . Also called he to his court Grimbald, a monk skilled in Letters and Music, from France . . . and John [Scotus] . . . and Asser . . . from the ends of Wales ... to ' teach his Senators wisdom' (Ps. civ. 22). 8. For in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 886 . . . the renowned King Alfred, having miraculously routed the Danes . . . gat the whole sway over all England. Then did it weigh upon his heart how Holy Church lay waste ; priests murdered, monks cast forth, nuns dis- honoured, ministers driven out ; so that soon would the Christian Faith itself perish, and none be left to partake of the Sacred Mysteries. So thought he on that spiritual bond of friendship wherein he had entered, as a boy, with St. Grimbald ... of the Monastery of St. Bertin, where [on his way to Rome in 853] ... he had daily sat at the feet of this best of teachers. . . . Thus came it to pass that ... he spake of this holy man to Ethelred, Archbishop of Canterbury, . . . and both King and Bishop . . . sent over-sea ... to pray the Abbot of St. Bertin he would send them Grimbald ... to found a new monastery in the City of Winchester. . . . Messengers also did they send to Fulco, Archbishop of Rheims . . . who sent back this letter : 9. ' Fulco, Archbishop of Rheims, Primate of the Franks, Legatus Natus of the Apostolic See, servant of the servants of God, to Alfred the Most Christian King of the English, wisheth ever both sway and triumph here, and the eternal joys of the Heavenly Kingdom. ' Since from our See, over which presideth St. Remigius, 3 the Apostle 1 St. Modwenna and her pupil St. Osyth of Sussex seem to have dwelt for awhile at Polesworth, but in the seventh century (see p. 206) St. Edith, sister to King Athelstan, was there in the tenth century. 2 See John of Wallingford, 6 (p. 190). 3 Archbishop of Rheims circa 530, for seventy years. ' The Book of Hyde ' 219 of the Franks, ye ask for counsel . . . this is not done without Divine impulse. And as of old the Frankish race learnt from St. Remigius . . . to worship the one true God, ... so now doth the English nation seek to obtain from his See . . . one by whom they may be taught to avoid superstition . . . and violation of custom, . . . and may learn, in the Garden of the Lord, to pluck the flowers and to watch against the snake. 10. ' For St. Augustine, the first Bishop of your race, sent forth by your Apostle, St. Gregory . . . thought not well to burden a barbarous folk with new and strange doctrines, for he knew how to say with the Apostle, / have given you milk to drink, and not meat, seeing ye are babes in Christ (\ Cor. ii. 2). ... But, as time went on, Holy Church felt it neither her wish nor her duty to be content with this, . . . nor deemed it needless more thoroughly to edify the faithful, . . . whether she were stimulated by adversity or fostered by prosperity. . . . 'Hence the frequent calling of Councils, . . . hence sacred Canons, framed and hallowed by the Holy Ghost, ... to be ignorant of which is, in cleric and priest above all, nothing short of wicked. Seeing this, . . . it hath seemed fit to Your Majesty ... to consult our insignificance, and to seek to the See of St. Remigius, which . . . hath ever excelled all the Churches of Gaul ... in doctrine. ii. 'And since ye would not appear before us ... empty-handed, ... ye have sent us a gift of well-bred dogs, ... to drive away the wolves wherewith . . . our land aboundeth ; asking of us in return to send you certain watch-dogs, . . . not Dumb dogs, unable to bark [Is. Ivi. 10], but such as the Psalmist speaketh of, That the tongue of thy dogs may be red [Ps. Ixviii. 23], who . . . may drive away those fell wolves, the unclean spirits, who devour souls. And, in especial, ye ask Grimbald, ... to whom the whole church beareth witness from his child- hood. . . . Not without deep sorrow (forgive us for the word) ... do we suffer him to be torn from us. 12. 'But as Charity knoweth nought of loss, nor Faith of harm, and no distance can indeed part those whom unfeigned love bindeth in one, . . . we grudge him not to you. . . . For we know that . . . the Catholic and Apostolic Church is One, whether it be at Rome, or beyond the sea.' 13. Thus did Grimbald, after the example of the patriarch Abraham, depart from his country and his father's house, and come into England, where he became a great nation ... of many spiritual children. And they received him ... as an angel of God. And King Alfred . . . called together at London, which is the metropolis of the whole island, a Council of the Bishops and Abbots and the best of all England. And when they met there, old and young, then sang they anthems to Christ, and took sweet counsel together. And with grave dignity did the holy Grimbald speak unto them thus : 14. [Here follows Grimbald's sermon on ' the eight prime sources of pollution' (Pride, Gluttony, Drunkenness, Impurity, Robbery, Murder, 220 Alfred in the Chroniclers Lying, and Avarice), and the ' eight chief virtues contrary to them.' His exordium dwells on the creation by God of all things, visible and invisible, ' such as angels, who, if we live well, shall be our fellow-citizens. . . . And us He made after His own image and similitude ; wherefore we ourselves are not able to comprehend ourselves. ... If we discern not this excellence of our nature, then shall we be lower than the beasts. For in each one of us are these two things, Will and Power.' . . .] 15. When the folk heard these words . . . then hasted they to penance, and that with good will, . . . in confessing their sins, in correct- ing what they had done amiss, ... in temperance, and in abstaining from dainties, . . . resolved to trample down all bodily vanities, and to embrace the joys of Paradise. Then did they alms, which is the glory of the pitiful, and in patience possessed they their souls, and prayed, saying, 'Forgive us our debts,' . . . dedicating themselves to Christ the Lord. . . . 16. [Alfred's objurgation of illiterate magistrates is here given, from Asser, and his fabulous schools at Oxford, whither he is made to decree that his nobles should send their sons, ' or even their thralls, such as show promise of talent. And if so, let them be free.' (This last clause may possibly enshrine a historical truth.) ' The University of Oxford was of old outside the North Gate of the city, and the Church of St. Giles- without-the-Gate was that of the clerks. But now it is within the walls, and its church is that of St. Mary. And this change was made in the 28th year of the reign of King Edward, the third after the Conquest, 1 in 1354.'] 17. After this the Most Christian King Alfred issued an ordinance to be observed throughout his whole realm, which was called West- Saxona-Laga. 2 And he parted it all into Shires, and the Shires into Hundreds. And these Laws St. Edward [the Confessor], the son of Ethelred and Emma, ratified . . . And to this day be they called the Laws of St. Edward. . . . 1 8. [Here follows a list of early English law terms, with interpreta- tions in Latin and French. The book goes on to touch on Alfred's literary work, his almsgiving, his devotion, and his lantern. Thence it passes to a very inaccurate account of his early Danish wars, dwelling upon his vision of St. Cuthbert at Athelney, up to the baptism of Guthrum 'whom some call Gordon.'] 19. And here must we observe that all the kingdoms in England having been united by Egbert, grandfather of Alfred, . . . stood firm together till the fourth year of Ethelred son of Ethelwulf. In that year did the Mercians, the Northumbrians, the East Angles, and the East Saxons choose to support the enemy. . . . But Alfred, like a second Mattathias, Judas Maccabasus, and Jonathan, fought, for the Faith and 1 Our current numeration of the Edward's came up in the fourteenth century. In earlier times the three before the Conquest were included, 'the Elder' being Edward I., ' the Martyr' being Edward II., and 'the Confessor' Edward III. 2 This interesting phrase probably refers not to Alfred's Code, but to the popular designation of his immediate kingdom ; in opposition to the Danelagh, which comprised all the rest of England. See Introduction, p. 37. ' The Book of Hyde' 221 his brethren, nine battles in one year against the Danes, who, as yet, were heathen. And, at the last, by God's aid, his was the victory, and he ... brought under again all those kingdoms. . . . And Alfred was the first King of England who would suffer no other King in the land save himself alone. Egbert . . . brought under the other kingdoms, yet suffered he their Kings to reign over them. Tribute he made them pay him, but not to lay down their crowns, as ... Alfred the Conqueror would have them do. . . . 20. [Here comes the appointment of the swineherd Denewulf to the bishopric of Winchester, the Danish raid on Rochester, the restoration of London, the mission to India, the campaigns of 894, Alfred's infirmity, his death, and his Will (in Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and fourteenth-century English).] 1 All things being thus set in order, the Most Christian King Alfred, who had fought so many a battle with the Danes; who had bravely and stoutly undergone, for the freedom of his country, so many a danger ; . . . who feared not the Prince [of this World] ; Alfred, the heroic chieftain, Alfred the rampart of the nation, Alfred the strength of his people, . . . yielded unto death. Illustrious was he, and the dread of all his foes; for on his goings shone the Light of God. 21. His royal corpse was first entombed ... in the cathedral of Winchester. But afterwards (through the folly of the Canons . . . who gave out that his ghost wandered at night through their dwellings) . . . his son Edward removed his bones and laid them in the New Minster. This was, at that time, hard by the Old Minster. But in the days of that glorious prince, Henry the Elder [i.e., the First], it was moved unto Hyde, beyond the northern gate of Winchester. And there now lieth Alfred, of blessed memory . . . having died in the Year of Grace 901. 22. In the same year the aforesaid Edward . . . was crowned King of England at Kingston. Less than his father was he in Letters, but greater in renown, ... for he brought under the Kings of Scotland, Cumberland and Wales to his sway. . . . This King had his sons instructed in Letters ; but his daughters, when their schooling was done, set he to ply the spindle-whorl 2 and the needle. 1 This document is generally admitted to be genuine, and is printed by Kemble (Cod. Diplom. cccxiv.). Alfred, after reciting his title to his lands, leaves them amongst his children and kin, those at Guildford and Godalming going to his nephew Ethelbald Clito (see p. 15). To his sons he gives also ^500 apiece (equivalent to about ^15,000 now), to his daughters ,100, and to his widow, Elswitha, who likewise gets Wantage, Lambourne, and Ethandune. Various bequests follow to servants and friends ; four Bishops (Asser amongst them) getting loo mancuses (see p. 147) to give in alms ' for me and for my father.' For ' 50 Mass-priests ' are left 100 shillings, and as much between the poor and 'the church of my burial.' Any bondsmen to whom he may have granted freedom [cyrelif] are to remain free churls. ' And let all men seek, with a lively Sacrifice [on civicum ceape], for the health of my soui.' 2 The spindle-whorl was a small round object, of stone or bone, pierced with a hole, and used by the Anglo-Saxon women as a flywheel for their spindles. It continued in use till the sixteenth century. XIV. THE CHRONICLE OF ST. NEOT'S. [COMMONLY CALLED ' THE ANNALS OF ASSER.'] THIS chronicle, its authorship, and its value, have long been a standing crux in Alfredian literature. As- signed to Asser by its earliest editor, Gale, it has been commonly known as his 'Annals ' (from Julius Caesar to A.D. 914). Asser's, however, it assuredly is not, if internal evidence is to count for anything. Much, indeed, is copied, and more abridged, from his ' Deeds of Alfred '; but the chronicler is a far better writer, less wordy, and much more spirited and picturesque. To him we owe some of the best- known legendary scenes in English history that of the cakes, for example, and the touching story of Bede's last hours. And he is by no means the late and worthless authority that most modern writers on Alfred are apt to hold him. His style, and his tendency to air Greek learning, e.g., his descrip- tion of the Danish slaughter of infants as ' achemenia rabies,' and specially his use of ' Theoplianial for the ' Twelfth-night ' of the A.S. Chronicle (878), would seem to point to the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century as his most pro- bable date. This period is also suggested by the panegyric on Norman sanctity ( 7), Normandy having this reputation specially under Duke Richard the Good (997-1028), at whose Court Edward the Confessor received his education. Gale's edition is from a MS. of the twelfth or thirteenth The Chronicle of St. Neots 223 century in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, bearing (in a sixteenth-century hand) the title 'Asserii Annales.' Leland mentions finding the work in the Church of St. Neot's (Hunts), and calls it ' Chronicon Fani Neoti.' The following extracts are given : SECTION I SECTION 2. Of Edmund, King of East Anglia. 10. Alfred's vision of St. Neot. 4. Of Ingwar and Hubba. i II. The vision of Charles the Emperor. 6. Edmund's answer to Ingwar. 13. Alfred's death. 224 Alfred in the Chroniclers THE CHRONICLE OF ST. NEOT'S. I. The chronicler's first entry during Alfred's lifetime is of the Danish invasion of 851 ; the Battle of Wembury ' against the Heathen Norsemen [Nordimannos] or Danes'; their wintering 'in the Isle called Sheppey '; their sack of London, ' a city on the march of Essex and Middlesex, but in very truth pertaining to Essex'; and their crushing defeat at Ockley. All is from Asser, as is also the notice, which follows, of Alfred's journey to Rome, his father's wedding, and the story of Edburga. From Asser, too, come the transactions of the reigns of Ethelbald and Ethelbert, the Danish conquest of Northumbria, and the siege of Notting- ham. 2. 'In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 870, there suffered St. Edmund, King of the East Angles, most holy and acceptable unto God. Edmund, sprung from the high-born stock of the ancient Saxons, was, from his earliest years, the truest of Christians. Offspring of the Kings of old \atavis editus regibus\ he showed himself of such promise that, by the unanimous goodwill of all his fellow-countrymen, he was not so much chosen by right of birth, as rushed into supreme power and king- ship over them. For his very look was worthy of this high estate ; so bright was it with the calm beauty of holiness, and of a conscience like the sea at rest. Kind he was of speech and courteous to all ; the grace of humility came natural to him ; and amongst his own comrades he kept his place \residebat\ as their Lord, with wondrous meekness, and no touch of pride. For already the Saint bare in his face that which he was afterwards, by God's will, to show forth ; seeing that as a boy he had pressed, with all his might, into the Way of Righteousness, which, as God's pity foreknew, would end for him in the Way of Martyrdom. 3. ' And when the Blessed Edmund reached the kingship, such was his goodness to his subjects, such his strict justice towards evil-doers, that we may not declare it, for it is far beyond any words of ours. For so did he temper the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove, that no deceit of the Old Enemy might blind him ; nor would he accept the unjust sentences of wicked men ; for that which he knew not, with all diligence sought he out. And walking in the King's Highway [ Via Regid\, he turned aside neither to the right hand, by being puffed up with his own merits, nor to the left, by yielding to the faults of human weakness. To the needy, moreover, was he a cheerful giver, to widows and orphans the kindest of Patrons ; ever keeping before his eyes the saying of the Wise Man, " Behold, they have made thee Prince ; be not up-lifted ; but be thou amongst them even as one of themselves." 4. ' And seeing that he shone out, in Christ and His Church, with such brightness of good deeds, the Enemy of mankind (who, being himself void of goodwill, grudgeth, all the more, at the good) drew nigh to make trial of his patience as of the holy Job. Therefore raised he up one of The Chronicle of St. Neofs 225 his [Satan's] members as an adversary against him, to strip him bare on every side, if perchance he might provoke him to break out into impa- tience, and, in his despair, to curse God to His face. And this same adversary was by name Ingwar [Hinguar] ; who, with another, called Hubba, a fellow of like perversity, strove (had not God's mercy hindered) utterly to exterminate every province in Britain. . . . Neither could any man in any province stop or stay their misdeeds, for by the well-deserved wrath of God grew they and multiplied, and Hubba was the minister of His justice. . . . Craftily would he steal into a city, and. ere the towns- folk knew it, give all to the flames. Boys and men, old and young, did this cut-throat hew down in the open street, and of the honour of matron and maiden made he mock. There lay husband and wife, dead or dying, together on their own threshold ; and, to heighten the horror, the babe snatched from the mother's bosom was slaughtered before the mother's eyes. 5. ' And when now by multitudinous massacre he had, not indeed satiated his achtemenian 1 ravening, but deferred it, through fatigue, to the morrow, he called certain plebeians, whom he thought unworthy of his sword, and diligently inquired of them where their King might, as then, be living. 1 Here follows the account of the message of Ingwar told by Roger of Wendover ( 7), Edmund's answer being somewhat expanded as follows: 6. ' The Almighty Judge of all things is my witness, that, whether in death or life, none shall separate me from the love of Christ. The troth- plight [annuhoii] of His Faith took I on in the confession of Baptism, to renounce the Devil and all his pomps. And thereby was I found worthy to be hallowed to the praise and glory of the Eternal Trinity, and that in three-fold wise, being anointed with Holy Chrism unto everlasting life. First when at the Font I received the garment of Salvation ; secondly in the yet higher sealing \inajusculo signaculo\ of the Bishop at Confirmation ; thirdly when, by the common acclaim of all my people, I took up the duties of my Kingship. And, thus triply bedewed with the unction of mystic hallowing, have I vowed rather to serve than sway \_prodesse quant pr Z 35' I 5' I 7> 178, 184, 201 871. Englefield, 20, 93, 122, 136, 150, 179, 199 ,, Reading, 20, 93, 122, 136, 150, 179, 199 ,, Ashdown, 20, 94, 122, 136, 151, 163, 199 ,, Basing, 21, 95, 123, 152, 199 ,, Merton, 21, 123, 136, 199 ,, Wilton, 21, 95, 123, 136, 153, 180, 200 876. Swanage, 26, 97, 124 878. Kinwith, 33, 99, 124, 154, 180 ,, Ethandune, 34, 100, 124, 139, 154, 180, 194, 224 885. Stourmouth, 101, 125, 140, 156, 171 890. St. Lo, 127, 140, 181 894. Farnham, 42, 128, 142 ,, Beamfleet, 128 ,, Buttington, 42, 129, 142 895. Chichester, 43, 129 896. Coatbridge, 44, 130 Bavarians, 127, 141 Beadorices-wirth, 135 Beamfleet, 128, 139, 142 Bede, 4, 5, 53, 80, 165, 184, 191, 205 Bedford, 37 Bensington, 47 Beocca, 126 Beorngar, no Beorhtric, 88, 197 Beornhelm, 126, 140 Beornwulf (also spelt Beorthulf and Bert- wulf), 7, 86, 121, 169, 208 Berkshire, 85, 90, 93, 121, 135, 141, 147, 150, 169 Benin, St., 218 Bessin, 29 Bettelin, St., 211 Bideford, 33 Boadicea, 12 Bocard, 200 Boethius, 24, 51, 158, 166, 204 Boston, 209 Boulogne, 40, 127, 141 Bourn, 209 Bracteate, 26 Brecon, 107 Bretons, 127 Bretwaldas, 3, 7, 8 Breviary, 16, 105, 166 Brickstane, 213 Bridgnorth, 130, 204 Bristol Channel, 33 Britain, 2, 8, 97, 101 Britain ( = Wales), 106, 107, 142 Britanny, 116, 127, 140, 181 British Empire, 7, 78 Britons, 4, 105, 123, 162 Brixton, 34 Brocmail, 107 Bruern, 178, 200 Bures, 183 Burglary, 68 Burghred (King of Mercia), 21, 86, 92, 96, 121, 122, 123, 126, 134, 135. 137. 146, 149, l62, 170, 179, 198, 2OI, 2O8 Buttington, 129, 142 Caerceri, 100 Caerleon, 205 Caerwisc, 97 Caesar, 8, 67 Cakes, 98 Cambridge, 12, 25, 47, 96, 123, 131, 138, 153, 154, 180, 205 Canterbury, ir, 85, 121, 146, 169 Canute, 8, 132 Carisbrooke, 85 Carlisle, 198 Carloman, 102, 126 Carnelia, 198 Carthage, 126 Cealwin, 85 Cecilia, St., 213 Ceolnoth, 93 Ceolwulf (or Colwulf), 96, 123, 124, 137, 153, 170, 201, 215 Ceorl, 85, 169 Cerdic, 85, 163 Cerne Abbey, 198 Charlemagne, 6, 8, 88, 102, 126, 140, 205 Charles the Bald, 15, 87, 102, 121, 126, 134, 140, 147, 158, 162, 198, 226 Charles the Fat, 102, no, 126, 140, 203 Charnwood, 142 Chester, 43, 129, 201, 203 Chester-le-Street, 155, 186 Ch6zy, no, 126, 140, 181 Chichester, 43, 130, 139, 203 Chippenham, 29, 35, 36, 97, too, 125, !3 8 . J 39. J 54. 155. J 7. 2 o, 202 Chrism-loosing, 36, 100, 125 Chronology, 80 Church of England, 4 Church-friih, 69, 70 230 Alfred in the Chroniclers Church-scot, 70 Churl, 68 Cirencester, 36, 100, 101, 125, 139, 155, 202 Cissa, 211 Clergy, status of, 47 Clifford, Bishop, 119 Coat bridge, 44, 130 Codes, 63 Ccit-mawr, 34, 99 Coldingham, 184 College, English, at Rome, 79 Colne, River, 128, 142 Combwich, itg Comet, 127 Commandments, 64 Conde\ 101, 125, 139 Conversion of England, 3 Coran Colbe, 179 Cornwall, 6, 17, 103, 116, 127, 142. 192 Coutances, 29 Cricklade, 205 Crowland, 184, 208-215 Cumbria, 78, 137, 221 Cuthbert, 31, 153, 154, 163, 186, 191 Cuthred (or Guthfrid), 186, 191 Cynnic, 85 Dacia, 200 Dacians, 197, 204 Danes : first coming, 5 early invasions, 10, 162, 168, 190, 197, 203 first winter, 10, 85, 169 sack London, n, 85, 121 sack Winchester, 86, 121, 134, 147, 169 harry Kent, 90, 121, 135 invade East Anglia, 12, 90, 122, 148, 170, 178 invade Northumbria, 91, 122, 134, 148, 178, 184, 208 invade Mercia, u, 92, 122, 149, 170, 179, 208 conquer East Anglia, 93, 122, 150, 170, 179, 184, 191, 225 invade Wessex, u, 93, 122, 135, 150, 163, 179, 199 conquer Mercia, 21, 96, 123, 137, I 53> I 7' *&, I 9 I > 2OI > 2I 5 conquer Northumbria, 25, 96, 123, 137. 153. 170, 191 sack Crowland. 212 take Cambridge, 25, 96, 123, 138, 153, 180 take Wareham, 26, 96, 124, 138, 154 take Exeter, 26, 97, 124, 138, 154 take Chippenham, 29, 97, 124, 138, 154, 170, 202 take Gloucester, 138 overrun Wessex, 29, 97, 124, 138, 192 lose at Ethandune, 34, 100, 124, 139, 154, 194, 201 Danes (continued) : invade France, 40, 101, 125, 139, 155, 181, 187, 202 attack Rochester, 101, 125, 139, 156, 203 return to England, 40, 127, 141, 164, 181, 187 lose at Farnham, 42, 128, 142 ,, Buttington, 129, 142 ,, Chester, 43, 129, 203 ,, Coatbridge, 44, 130, 204 break up, 44, 130, 204 Danelagh, 37, 220 David, 45 Dean, 106 Decuries, 206 Dee, River, 88 Deeping, 209 Demetia, 99, 107, 154 Denewulf, 47, 175, 202 Denmark, 5, 90, 148, 170 Derby, 21, 77, 136 Deva, 43 Devil's Dyke, 12 Devon, 33, 42, 43, 85, 97, 99, 124, 128, 129, 138, 154, 169, 180 Dionysius, St., 160 Dionysius Exiguus, 80 Dog-bite, 68 Dorchester, 47 Dorset, 96, 201 Dorubernia, 85, 93 Dublin Review, 79 Dubslane, 127, 141 Dunwich, 185 Eadburgh (of Mercia), 92 Eadburgh, Queen, 88 Ealdseaxum, 102 Ealhere (Alderman of Kent), 86, 121 Ealhstan, or Alstan (Bishop of Sher- borne), 87, 92, 147, 162, 184, 217 Eanwulf (Alderman of Somerset), 87 Eardulf, Bishop, 153 East Anglia, 6, 7, 12, 21, 44, 90, 91, 93, lor, 122, 125, 127, 129, 130. 131, 135, 137, 139, 140, 141, 142, 148, 150, 1.70, 178, 191, 198, 203, 204 Easter, 4 East Kent, 127 Ebrauc, 218 Eclipse, 101 Edgar, King, 6, 28 Edington, 34, 100, 119, 124 Edith, St., 218 Edmund Etheling, 104 Edmund Ironside, 132 Edmund, St., 12, 93, 122, 135, 142, 150, 174, 179, 183-185, 191, 198, 200, 224 Edred, Abbot, 153 Edward the Confessor, 220 Edward the Elder, 6, 28, 37, 42, 46, 77, 104, 131, 132, i}2, 156, 159, 181, 206, 221 Edward the Martyr, 220 Index 231 Edward III., 220 Edwold, 198 Egbert, King, 6-9. n, 39, 85, 134, 137, 178, 183, t8(, 190, 197, 217, 220 Egbert, St. (of Crowland), 211 Egbert (of Kent), 205 Egbert (of Xorthumbria), i8\. Egbert's stone, 3^, 99, 124, 151. Kginhard, 8 Egmund, 213 Elbe, 126 Elfrida (or Ealfthrid), 104, 156, 206 Elgiva (or Ethelgifu), 104, 115, 156, 158, 203 Ella, 92, 122, 148, 178, 190 Ella Cross, 179 Ellandune, 7, 137 Ellingham, 7 Klmham, 183-185 E'switha (Queen of England), 206, 221 Elswitha (Queen of Mercia), 126, I \o Ely, 12. 39, 184, 198, 214 Emma, 220 Empire, British, 7, 78 Empire, Roman, 6, 7 Encheiridion, in England, name of 5, 7-9 Englefield, Battle of, 20, 93, 122, 150, 179, 199 English School at Rome, ID, 79, 96, 102, 123, 126, 137, 140, 156, 162, 192, 217 English College, 79 Ermenilda, St., 201 Erpwald, 205 Esks, 44, 130 Essex, 6, 42, 43, 86, 128, 129, 134, 170, 178, 190 Ethandune, 34, 100, 119, 124, 139, 154, 180, 201, 221 Ethelbald, King, 16, 17, 86-90, 121, 134, 135, 146, 147, 162, 168, 169, 178, 183, 184, 193, 198, 208, 217 Ethelbert, King, 90, 91, 134, 135, 147, 148, 169, 178, 190, 198, 199, 208, 217 Ethelbert (of Kent), 63 Etheldred, 39 Ethelfled (or Elfleda), 77, 104, 156, 203, 206 Ethelfrith (of Norihumbria), 43 Ethelhelm (or Athelm), no, 126, 129, 140, 142 Etheling, 87 Ethelnoth (of Somerset), 129, 138, 139, 142, 143 Ethelred, King, 12, 20, 21, 90-95, 121- 123, 135-137, 142. 148-152. J 63. l6 9. 170, 179, 190, 191, 198, 199, 200, 208, 217, 220 Ethelred (of Mercia), 77, 107-109, 128, 129, 140, 142, 156, 171, 203 Ethelred Muckle, 92, 149 Ethelred (of Northumbna), 190 Ethelred the Unready, 44, 70, 220 Ethelwald, 15, 132, 221 Ethelward, 104, 156, 206 Ethelwulf, King (or Adulf), n, 15, 16, 85-89, 121, 126, 134, 136, 140, 146, 147, 162, 163, 168, 169, 178, 183, 184, 190, 197, 208, 217 Ethelwulf (of Berks), 90, 93, 121, 122. 136, 147, 150, 151, 169, 179, 199 Ethelwulfing, 123, 180 Exe, River, 97 Exeter, 26, 28, 29, 48, 97, 108, 124, 128, 130, 138, 15 \, 200, 202, 203 Exmoor, 30 Farnham, Battle of, 42, 128, 142 Fee-boot, 67 Felix, St., 205 Fernmail, 107 Flanders, 17, 40 Fleam Dyke, 12 Formosus, Pope, 203 Forth, River, 4, 6 France, 6, 40, 101, 141, 181 Franco, Archbishop, 202 Frankland, 125 Franks, 101, 105, 139 Franks, East, 102. 141 Franks, West, 108 Frena, 94, 122, 152 Friday, 218 Frisians, 44, 79, 102, 105, 131, 168 Frome, River, 96 Fulco, Archbishop, 218 Fulham, 40, 100, 125, 139, 203 Gaimar, 55 Gaini, 92, 149 Gainsborough, 92 Galloway, 4, 180 Gang-days, 69 Gaul, 106, 116, 138-140 Gauls, 102, 105 Gedney, 210 Genevieve, 40 Germans, 102 Germanus, St., 109 Germany, 41, 102 Ghent, 101, 125, 139 Gildas, 109 Glastonbury, 17, 30, 119 Gleguising, 107 Gloucester, 138, 139 Godalming, 221 Godric, 213 Gordon, 220 Goths, 85, 163, 191, 197 Grantchester, 205 Gregory, St., 3, 55, 69, 106, 157, 165 Grimbald, 106, 109, 204, 218 Grimketyl, 213 Grimsby, 178 Gueryr, St., 103, 205 Guildford, 221 Guthfrid. See Cuthred Guthlac, St., 208-211 Guthrum (or Godrim), 36, 37, 40, 96, 100, 123, 125, 126, 138, 140, 153, 155, 180, 186, 192, 198, 203, 209 232 Alfred in the Chroniclers Guy, no Gwent, 107 Hadrian, Pope, 4 Haerethi-land, 5 Hailesdon Wood, 185 Haitheby, 163 Halfdene (or Healfdene), 96, 97, 99, 122 124, 137, 138, 153, 154, 170, 180, 209 Hammond, 209 Hampshire, 7, 34, 90, 99, 121, 124, 134, 141, 147, 154, 169 Hanbury, 201 Handbook, Alfred's, 17, 50, 91, 110, in, 166 Hardecnut, 191 Harding, 209 Harold, 94, 122, 152 Hasting, 41, 44, 127, 128, 141, 142, 181, 187 Heahmund, 123 Hedda, 212 Hedgehog, 179 Helised, 107 Helmstan, 217 Hemid, 107 Henry I. (' the Elder'), 221 Henry V., 86 Heptarchy, 4, 6 Herbert, 213 Hexham, 186 Hibernia, 141 Hide, 68 Hide-gild, 67 Hilda, St., 184 Hildebrand, 16 Hind, 68 Holidays, 69 Holland, 209, 213 Holy Thursday, 69 Howel, 107 Hubba (or Ubba), 33, 99, 122, 124. 169, 180, 191, 198-200, 209, 211, 212,225 Hubba-stone (or Ubbelaw), 33, 180, 200 Humber, 6, 7, 25, 91, 122, 135, 178 Humbert, Bishop, 183, 184 Hundreds, 68, 165, 206 Hunting-field, 23, 91 Hwiccas, 100, 202 Hyde, 216, 221 Iceland, 26 Iceni, 12 Icknield Street, 12 Iglea, 124 Imperialism, 7 Ina, King, 63, 79, 85, 217 Incense, 48, 108 India, 59, 125, 165 Indiction, 160, 176 Ingulf, 207 Ingwar (or Hinguar, or Iwar), 99, 122, 138, 154, 169, 170, 180, 184, 191, 198, 199, 209, 225 Innocent III., Pope, 79 Ireland, 4, 112, 116, 127 Italy, 15, 126 Jarrow, 184 Jerome, St., 53 Jerusalem, 59, 112 Jewel, Alfred's, 32 John, King, 28 John Scot (Krigena), 106, 114, 159, 165, 204, 218 John, St., Knights of, 79 Jornandes, 163 Judas Maccabseus, 20, 151 Judith, 15-17, 87-89, 102, 126, 147, 162. 181, 183, 198, 208 Julius Caesar, 45 Jutes, 6, 8 Kennet, River, 93, 150 Kent, 6, 7, 17, 37, 41, 85, 90, 101, 121, 169, 171, 184, 190, 203 Kentigern, 109 Kesteven, 209, 210 Killevy, 206 Kineburgh, St., 212 Kingston, 6, 2ji Kinswith, St., 212 Kinwith (or Cynuit, or Cynwith), 33, 99, "9. 154 Lambourne, 221 Langtoft, 209 Latin, 46, 104, 106, 143, 205 Laws, 63, 165, 194, 206, 220 Lea, River, 37, 43, 130, 204 Lechlade, 205 Leicester, 77 Leigh, 100 Lent, 69 Leo IV., Pope, 15, 16, 79, 86, 121, 134, 146, 162, 174, 183, 190, 214, 217 Leonine City, 15, 79 Lethwyn, 211 Lid-wiccas, 126, 140 Limne, River, 41 Limne-mouth, 127,128, 130, 142, 181,204 Limne ( = Lynn), 142 Lincoln, 47, 198, 209 Lindisfarne, 5, 153, 184 Lindsey, 96, 123, 137, 198, 201, 209 Linford, 108 Liskeard, 103 Lodbroc, 33. 99, 184, 200 Lombardy, no London : stormed by Danes, n, 85, 121, 169, 174, 191, 203 occupied, 21, 25, 59,96, 123, 125, 153, 170, 180, 200, 201 rebuilt by Alfred, 37, 38, 109, 126, 140, 171 in later wars, 128, 130, 137, 142, 204 Lord's Day, 69 Lorraine, 41 Lothaire, 41 Index 233 Louis I., 102, 126, 140 Louis II., 102, 126, 140 Louis III., 102, 125 Louvain, 139 Lynn, 142, 143 Macbeth, 127, 141 Maccabees, 20, 151 Maclean, 127, 140 Maese, River, 125, 139 Mseotid Marsh, 191 Malmesbury, 160 Mancus, 89, 147, 221 Marinus, Pope, 59, 79, 102, 126, 140, 156, 165 Marks, 3 Marne River, 126, 140 Matilda, 132, 136 Maurice, 107, 209 Medehampstead, 211, 213 Mediterranean, 15, 102, 126 Medway, River, 101 Melkin, 109 Menevia, 204 Mercia, 6-8, 21, 37, 93, 96. 97, 121-123, 135-138, 142, 150, 153, 170, 190 Mercian law, 63, 194 Mersey, 129, 130, 142, 203 Merton, 21, 123, 136, 199 Meuse, River, 101 Middlesex, 86, 134, 174 Midlands, 193 Milton (or Middleton), 41, 42, 127, 141, 187 Minster, 85 Modwenna, St., 206, 217 Morcar, 209 Navy, 26, 28, 130 Nedestock, 192 Nene, River, 212 Nennius, 109 Neot, St., 17, 27,29, 35, 86, 98, 103, 192, 193, 204, 205, 218, 226 Neustria, 202 New Year's Day, 80 Newmarket, 12 New Minster, 221 Nicolas I., Pope, 160 Nile. Battle of, 28 Norfolk, 6 Normandy, 40, 97, 124, 140, 154, 202 Norsemen, 168, 224 Northumbria, 6-8, 21, 92, 93, 96, 107, 122-124, I2 7> I2 9- I 37> T 4 2 > X 4^' J 49> 153, 170, 198, 208 North Angles, 140 Norway, 5 Norwegians, 197 Nottingham, 12, 77, 92, 122, 135, 149, 170, 179, 198, 208 Obizzo, 132 Ockley, n, 15, 86, 121, 137, 146, 169 Oda, no Offa, King, 8, 10, 63, 86, 88, 162 Offa's Dyke, 88 Orosius, 53, 165 Osbern, 94, 122 Osbert, 92, 94, 122, 135, 148, 178, 190 Osburga, 16, 85, 146, 217 Oscytel, 96, 123, 138, 153, 209 Oseg, 199 Osgot, 209 Oslac, 85, 146 Osmund. See Asmund Osric (or Oswald), Alderman of Hants, 90, I2i, 134, 147. 169 Oswy, 7 O?yth, St., 218 Othere, 53 Otho, 132 Oxford, 47, 109, 204, 220 Ouse, 18, 37 Padua, 89, 126 Pancras, St., 160 Pantaleone, St., 79 Paris, 38, 108, 109, 126, 140, 171, 194, 203, 205 Parker, Archbishop, 120 Parret, River, 31, 129 Paschal I., Pope, 79 Paulinus, 213 Pedredan, 137 Pen Forest, 180 Pennine Hills, 6 Pepin, 102, 126, 140 Peterborough, 12, 184, 211, 213, 214 Peter-pence, 197 Picts, 4, 123, 137, 180 Plato, 205 Plegmund, Archbishop, 106, 127, 156, 203 Poldre, 141 Polesworth, 218 Psalms, 166 Psalter (Alfred's), 166 Pythagoras, 205 Quadrivium, 205 Ramsey, 184 Raphael, 79 Raven flag, 33, 99, 124, 180 Ravenna, 53 Reading, 12, 20, 21, 93, 122, 123, 135-137, 150, 170, 179, 180, 199 Redwald, 205 Remigius, 218 Repton, 25, 96, 123, 137, 138, 153, 201 Rheims, 218 Rhine, 40, no, 119 Rhone, 40 Ricsy, 185 Rochester, 101, 125, 128, 139, 156, 203 Rodri, 107 Rollo, 40, 97, 124, 153, 191, 192, 194, 201, 202, 225 Roman era, 80 234 Alfred in the Chroniclers Roman Empire, 6-8 Rome, 6, 7, 15-17, 21, 58, 59, 85, 87, 89, 96, 121, 126, 134, 137, 140, 146, 153, 156, 162, 163, 165, 183, 184, 203, 205, 208 Rorne-scot, 217 Rouen, 202 Royal titles, 8 Rudolf, no Ruim, 86 Ryhall, 209 Sacrilege, 69 St. Benet's (Cambridge), 131 St. David's, 48, 107, 204 St. Ives, 78 St. Lo, 127, 140, 181 St. Neot's, 18, 78 St. Paul's (Rome), 147, 198 St. Peter's (Rome), ?6, 89, 147, 198 Salamis, 33 Sanctuary, 69 Sandwich, 121 Saracens, 15 ' Sarauara,' 139 Sassenach, 8 Saxon name, 7 Saxons, 2, 140 old, 102, 119, 126, 127, 140 East, 121 South, 121 West, 124 Saxony, 106 Scasita, 70 Scanzia, 163, 191 Sceaf, 163 Scheldt, River, 101, 125, 139 Scotland, 25, 221 Scots, 4, 78, 96, 105 Seaford, 73 Seals, 87 Seine, River, 44, io8,'i26, 140, 171, 192, 203, 204 Selwood, 34, 99, 124, 129, 154, 202 Severn, 42, 44, 106, 129, 130, 142, 204 Severn Sea, 78 Shaftestmry, 115, 158, 203 Sheppey, 12, 85, 87, 134, 146 Sherborne, 87, 90, 92, 121, 135, 147, 163, 165, 169. 178, 184, 203, 217 Shield-wall, 150, 152 Shires, 220 Shoebury, 129 Sidroc, 94, 122, 152, 179, 209, 211, 212 Sigbert, 205 Sigelin, 165 Sighelm, 125 Si ward, 208, 211 Sleswick, 163 Somerset, 34, 97, 99, 124, 138, 154, 201, 202, 214 Somerled (or Summerlede), 180, 199 Somme, River, 125, 139 South Wales, 33, 107 Spindle-whorl, 221 Stamford, 77, 142, 209 Stane Street, n Strathclyde, 78, 96, 153 Streph, 163 Succession, 15 Suffolk, 6 Summer-lead, 10, 123, 180 Sunday, 69 Surrey, 7, u, 86, 121, 146, 147, 169, 190 Sussex, 6, 7, n, 37, 131, 134, 147, 169, 178, 190 Sutton, 210 Swanage, 26, 28, 97, 124, 138, 180 Swedes, 168, 197 Swithun, St., 121, 162, 183, 190, 217 Tat win, 211 Tees, River, 186 Tewkeshury, 202 Thames, 6, 11-13, 21, 38, 40-42, 85, 93, ico, 121, 127-130, 139, 142, 150, 169, 175, 181, 204 Thanes, 48, 68 Thanet, n, 85, 86, oo, 121, 134 Theodore (of Tarsus), 4 Theodore (of Crowland), 210, 212 Theodoric, 53 Theophania, 226 Theow, 69 Thetford, 93, 122, 135, 150, 170, 184, 199 Thomas, St., 59, 125, 165 Thorney Island, 142 Thorney Abbey, 184, 210, 212, 213 Threekingham, 209 Tibba, 212 Tissa, 213 Tithes, 115, 208 Tithings, 206 Tolius, 209, 210 Tone, River, 31 Toretus, 210, 213 Torksey, 123, 137 Transvaal, 71 Trent, River, 96 Trojans, 190 Tunbert, 202 Turgar, 211-213 Tubba, 211 Tyne, River, 96, 123, 137, 153, 186 Tynemouth Abbey, 184 Tyrrhenian Sea, 59, 102, 112, 140 Twyford, 179 University, 205 Universal Church, 220 Universal Pontiff, 89 Vandals, 126, 168, 197 Vatican, 15, 79 Verus Annus, 80 Vikings, 171 Wales, 39, 86, 116, 221 Wallingford, 38, 47 Walter of Monmouth, 205 Wantage, 14, 85, 146, 221 Ware, 43 Index 235 Wareham, 25, 26, 96, 124, 138, 180, 202 Watling Street, 37 Weald, ii Wearmouth, 184, 191 Wedmore, 40, 100, 125, 139 Welland, River, 142 Welsh, 4 Wembury, 85, 169, 224 Wendel Sea, 126 Werburga, St., 201 Werfrith, 106, 157, 204 Wer-gild, 37 Werwulf, 106, 157 Wessex, 6-8, 12, 20-22, 25. 28, 116, 122, 134, 150, 199 West Angles, 134, 193 West Saxons, 135 West-Saxona-Laga, 220 Westbury, 34, 100 Western empire, 40 Whitby, 21, 184 Wight, 85 William J., 38, 197 Wilton, Battle of, 21, 95, 123, 153, 180, 200, 202 Wiltshire, 34, 97, 99, no, 124, 154, 201 Wily, River, 95 Wimborne, 21, 95, 123, 180, 200 Winchester (or Winton), 12, 47, 90, 107, 109, I2i, 131, 134, 143, 147, 159, 166, 169, 178. 199, 2O6, 215, 221 Wirral, 43, 129 Wistley Green, 179 Witan, 64 Woden, 163, 218 Wodensday, 218 Worcester, 106 Yarmouth, 181 Yonne, River, no, 126 York, 12, 122, 135, 142, 148, 170, 178, 198, 208, 218 Yorkshire, 184 Yule, 69 THE END. Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London, E.G.