>| J\f o # (Department of f? fa 9#a.0\ 14 *5 \ LRY OF "Vol^ 5r Jfoolcs are not to he tahen from the (Library Ifoom 7* The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library L161— 0-1096 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/englandunderangl02lapp A HISTORY OF ENGLAND UNDER THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGS. VOL. II. A HISTORY OF ENGLAND UNDER THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGS, TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF Dr ; J. M. LAPPENBERG, For. F.S.A., / VI KEEPER OF THE ARCHIVES OF THE CITY OF HAMBURG, BY BENJAMIN THORPE, F.S.A., / 7 / ( WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS BY THE AUTHOR AND THE TRANSLATOR. , IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. MDCCCXLV. ftttr LONDON t PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. CONTENTS VOL. II. PART II. FROM THE UNION OF THE ANGLO SAXON STATES UNDER THE SUPREMACY OF WESSEX TO THE ACCESSION OF CNUT. ECGBERHT, 800-836. Page The kingdom of England 2 Tributary subjection of the Britons 4 War with Mercia. — Subjection of the smaller states 5 Subjection of Mercia 6 Subjection of North Wales 8 Landing of the Northmen in Wessex 9 Conquest of North Wales 9 The Danes or Northmen 11 Early expedition of the Northmen against England 18 ^ETHELWULF, 836-857. Wars with the Northmen 20 Burhred of Mercia — Wales. — Rotri Mawr 24 .ZEthelwulf’s sons 24 Consecration of ALlfred. — iEthelwulf’s journey to Rome .... 25 Marriage with Judith 27 Rebellion of iEthelbald 27 Death of ^Ethelwulf, and division of the kingdom . , 27 VOL. II. b 2 . £>" 5 "^ / VI CONTENTS. ATTHELBALD, 857-860. Page Marriage with Judith 28 iETHELBERHT, 860-866. Landing of Weland. — Sacking of Winchester 29 iETHELRED THE FIRST, 866-871. Regnar Lodbrog and his sons, Ingvar and Ubba 30 East Anglian and other traditions concerning Regnar Lodbrog 31 Danes in East Anglia and Northumbria 32 Murder of iElle 34 Danes in Mercia 34 Danish leaders 35 Danes in Lincolnshire. — Algar. — Osgod — Guthrum 36 Destruction of Croyland, Peterborough, etc 37 Martyrdom of Eadmund, king of East Anglia 38 A Danish kingdom established in East Anglia 39 Invasion of Wessex by the Danes. — Battle of Ashdown 40 Battle of Merton 41 iELFRED THE GREAT, 871-901. iElfred’s youth 43 His marriage. — Malady 44 Treaty with the Danes p „ 46 Burhred of Mercia. — His pilgrimage and death 46 Ceolwulf of Mercia. — Danish burghs 47 Invasion of Northumbria. — Destruction of Tynemouth, Lindis- fame and Coldingham 48 War and treaty with Guthrum 49 Alfred at Athelney 53 His victory at Ecglea 54 Baptism of Guthrum 55 Arrival of Hasting ; 55 Ravages of the Northmen in Belgium and France 56 Treaty with Guthrum-iEthelstan 56 Siege of Rochester. — Victory at sea over the Northmen, etc. 59 Rollo comes to the aid of Guthrum-^Ethelstan 60 CONTENTS. vii Page Death of Guthrum-iEthelstan. — Fohric 61 Guthred of Northumbria • • • 61 Bishopric and County-palatine of Durham 61 Death of Guthred. — His sons 62 Dena Lagu. — West Sexena Lagu. — Mercena Lagu 63 iEthelred, eald orman of Mercia 63 Restoration of Wessex 64 Improvements in ship-building 65 Laws and administration. — Frankpledge 66 Encouragement of learning and learned men 69 Alfred’s translations. — Wulfstan. — Ohthere 70 Mission to India 71 Intercourse with Rome. — Saxon school. — Oxford 72 iElfred’s division of his time and revenue 73 Northmen in France and Germany 74 Biorn laernside and Hasting land in England 75 Battle of Farnham 77 Siege of Exeter by the East Anglians and Northumbrians . . 77 Danes in Essex. — At Chester 78 State of Wales. — Sons of Roderick 80 iElfred’s testament 81 Family 85 EADWARD THE ELDER, 901-924. iEthelwold 85 Treaty with Gu thrum II 87 The Jutes of the Isle of Wight 88 Expedition to Northumbria. — Battle of Tettenhall 88 Marriage of Eadward’s daughter with Charles the Simple .... 88 Invasion of Mercia. — Danes defeated at Wodnesfeld 89 Death of iEthelred of Mercia. — ^Ethelflaed 90 Erection of fortresses 91 Invasion of Wales by iEthelflaed 92 Rising of the Danes 92 Reduction of the Danes 93 Lidwiccas of Brittany 94 Death of iEthelflsed 95 Invasion of Mercia by the Danes and Welsh 96 Supremacy of Eadward 97 b 2 via CONTENTS. Page Earls of Northumbria. — Death of Eadward 97 Bishoprics of Wells, Crediton and St. Petroc 98 Eadward’s family 98 jETHELSTAN, 924-941. Traditions respecting his birth 100 Plot of Alfred 101 Marriage of Sihtric with ^Ethelstan’s sister 102 Guthfrith and Anlaf 103 Denmark, Norway and Sweden. — Gorm. — Harald Harfagr. —Eric 104? AEthelstan’s intercourse with Harald Harfagr 104? iEthelstan’s intercourse with France 106 Marriage of Eadhild with Hugh, count of Paris 106 East Anglia. — Subjection of Wales 108 Marriage of Eadgyth with Otto, king of Germany 109 Marriage of Eadgifu with Louis of Aquitaine 110 Mission to Switzerland.— Abbey of St. Gall Ill Death of Eadwine Ill War with Constantine of Scotland 112 Alan of Brittany 113 Invasion by Anlaf 114 Battle of Brunanburh 115 Death and description of AEthelstan. — Legislation 117 Frithgilds. — Tracing of stolen property 119 EADMUND THE FIRST, 941-946. War with Anlaf. — Treason of archbishop Wulfstan 120 Treaty with, and baptism of Anlaf 121 War with the British and Scottish princes 122 Assassination and family of Eadmund. — Laws 123 EADRED, 946-955. Rebellion of Northumbria. — Anlaf. — Eric 124? Eorl Osulf. — Death of Eric 125 The chancellor Thurcytel 126 CONTENTS. IX EADWIG, 955-959. Page Struggle between the secular and spiritual powers 128 Apostasy of the Church 128 Dunstan 129 Coronation of Eadwig. — iElfgifu. — yEthelgifu 132 Banishment of Dunstan 133 Rapacity and imprudence of Eadwig 133 Rebellion of Mercia, etc. — Election of Eadgar. 133 Return and elevation of Dunstan 134 Sufferings and murder of iElfgifu 134 Death of Eadwig 135 EADGAR, 959-975. His education by AClfwyn 136 Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury. — Progress of the Bene- dictines 136 Bishop Oswald 137 Wives and children of Eadgar 138 Murder of iEthelwold 139 Plague and pestilence. — Cathedral of St. Paul burnt 139 Expedition against the Ostmen of Ireland. — Naval force .... 139 Expedition into North Wales 140 Division of Northumbria into two earldoms 141 Lothian granted to king Kenneth. — Edinburgh 141 Corruption of the nation 142 Intercourse with the emperor Otto 142 Eadgar’s coronation at Bath 142 Solemnity on the river Dee 143 Death of Eadgar. — His personal courage 143 Severity of his administration 144 His laws 145 EADWARD THE SECOND, 975-978. Opposition to his election 145 The ealdormen yElfhere, ACthelwine and Byrhtnoth 146 Contentions of the clergy. — Beornhelm. — Council of Caine. . 146 Character of Dunstan 147 Assassination of Eadward 149 X CONTENTS. JETHELRED THE SECOND, 978-1016. Page Death of Dunstan 151 Ravages of the Danes 151 Svein and Palnatoke 152 The ealdorman HSlfric. — Rochester besieged by AEthelred . . 152 Attacks on the south-west of England. — War with Normandy 153 Northmen in E. Anglia and Essex. — Olaf Tryggvason 155 Death of Byrhtnoth — Treaty with Anlaf, Justin and Guth- mund 155 Danegild . 156 Treason of AElfric 156 Landing of Olaf Tryggvason and Svein Tjuguskegg 157 Ravages on the coasts of Kent, Essex, Sussex, etc. — Baptism of Olaf 158 Battle of Svoldr. — Death of Olaf 159 Landing of the Danes in the Severn, — in Devonshire. — De- struction of Tavistock abbey 160 Invasion of Cumberland by iEthelred 161 Landing of the Danes in the west of England 162 HEthelred’s marriages, — with iElfleed, — Emma 163 Massacre of the Danes 164 Landing of Svein in Devonshire 166 New treason of HElfric. — Eadric Streona 167 Defeat of Svein by Ulfcytel 168 Landing of Svein at Sandwich. — Ravages in Wessex 169 Dissensions among the nobles 169 Eadric’s brothers. — Dissensions among them 171 Wulfnoth’s rebellion. — Ship-money 171 Landing of Thorkell. — Jomsvikings 173 Defeat of the East Anglians 174 Destruction of Canterbury and murder of archbishop iElfheah 175 Landing of Svein, Cnut and Olaf of Norway at Sandwich . . 178 Submission of the country north of the Watling Street .... 179 Lupus’s sermon. — Misery of the country 179 Flight of AEthelred and his family to Normandy 180 Death of Svein 181 Return of HEthelred 182 Murder of Sigeferth and Morcar by Eadric Streona 183 Landing of Cnut 184 CONTENTS. xi Page Eadmund Ironside. — Treason of Eadric 185 Death of ASthelred 187 EADMUND IRONSIDE, 1016. Cnut chosen king by the bishops, abbots and ealdormen .... 187 Siege of London 188 Battle of Sceorstan. — New treason of Eadric 189 Battle of Brentford 190 Battle of Otford 191 Battle of Assingdon 191 Treaty of Olney 192 Murder of Eadmund 193 Observations on the character of Eadric. — State of the court 193 PART III. THE DANISH DYNASTY. CNUT, 1016-1035. Elected to be king of England 196 Exclusion of the royal family of Wessex 197 Quadripartite division of the country 197 Outlawry and banishment of the royal family 198 Marriage of Cnut with ^Elfgifu-Emma 199 Murder of Eadric Streona and other nobles 200 Danegild. — Legislation 201 Witherlags Ret. — Hus-carlas. — Thingamenn 202 Prohibition of heathenism — Prosperity of the Church 203 Difference with the archbishop of Hamburg 205 War with the Wends. — Godwine 206 Outlawry of Eadwig, ceorla cyning 206 Thorkell jarl Eric jarl. — Eadulf Cudel. — Malcolm of Scot- land 207 Ulf jarl. — Astrith 208 Treaty with the emperor Conrad. — Marriage of Gunhild. . . . 209 Ulf jarl. — Expedition against Norway and Sweden 209 Battle with Ulf and Eylaf 209 xii CONTENTS. Page Murder of Ulf jarl 210 Cnut’s pilgrimage to Rome 211 His letter 212 St. Olaf. 215 Expulsion of St. Olaf, and assumption by Cnut of the crown of Norway 216 Relations with Normandy 216 Subjugation of Scotland and Cumbria. — Macbeth 218 Death of Cnut. — Character. — Anecdotes 219 Family . 220 HAROLD HAREFOOT, 1035-1039. Mercia and Northumbria assigned to Harold 222 Emma. — Godwine 222 Svein of Norway. — Magnus 223 Landing of the aetheling Eadward 224? Murder of Alfred 225 Harold chosen king of all England 226 War with Wales. — Harthacnut. — Death of Harold 227 HARTHACNUT, 1039-1042. Coronation of Harthacnut. — Murder of Eadulf. — Siward . . 228 Disinterment of Harold 229 Disgrace of Harold’s partisans. — Godwine’s reconciliation . . 229 Danegild. — Insurrection at Worcester 230 Degradation of the English 231 Recall of the setheling Eadward . 231 Svend Estrithson 232 Death of Harthacnut 233 PART IV. RESTORATION AND END OF THE ANGLO-SAXON DYNASTY. EADWARD THE CONFESSOR, 1042-1066. Godwine and his sons 235 Eadward’s marriage with Eadgyth 236 CONTENTS. xiii Page Pretensions of Svend Estrithson 236 Eadward’s coronation 237 Emma. — Stigand 237 Banishment of Gunhild and her sons 238 Benefactions of Gunhild. — Bruges 238 Magnus of Norway. — Svend 239 Sandwich, Thanet and Essex plundered by the Norwegians. . 239 Harald Hardrada 240 Misunderstanding with Flanders 240 Sweyn, Godwine’s son 240 Murder of Biorn 241 Expulsion of the Danish chiefs. — Abolition of Danegild .... 242 Introduction of Norman ecclesiastics 243 Erection of Westminster abbey 245 Council of Rheims. — Use of pendent seals 245 Encouragement given to Normans 246 Eustace, count of Boulogne. — Fray at Dover 247 Banishment of the Godwine family 248 Disgrace of queen Eadgyth 250 Visit of William, duke of Normandy 251 Civil war 252 Flight of the Norman favourites 254 Restoration of the Godwine family 255 Death of Godwine 257 Return and death of the aetheling Eadward 259 War with Scotland. — Macbeth. — Siward 260 War with Wales 261 Quarrel between the sons of Godwine and of Leofric 261 Banishment of JElfgar 261 Sack of Hereford by Griffith and .ZElfgar. — Peace 262 Death of Leofric, earl of Coventry. — Godiva 263 iElfgar’s second banishment 264 Tostig’s pilgrimage to Rome Archbishop Ealdred 264 Subjugation of Wales by Harold 265 Murder of Griffith 256 Harold’s visit to Normandy 267 Insurrection in Northumbria 270 Murder of Gospatric and other Northumbrian thanes 270 Morkere and Eadwine. — Outlawry of Tostig 271 Death and character of Eadward 272 VOL. II. C XIV CONTENTS. Page HAROLD THE SECOND, 1066. His coronation 273 Tostig’s intrigues and landing 275 Landing of Harald Hardrada 276 Defeat of Morkere and Eadwine 277 Battle of Stanford-bridge 277 Race of the Welfs 281 William, duke of Normandy, resolves to invade England. . . . 282 Parliament at Lillebonne. — Preparations of the Normans. . . . 284? Pope Alexander II 288 Landing of the Normans 290 Battle of Senlac or Hastings 294 Death of Harold 299 His family 304 PART V. THE SOCIAL STATE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. Components. — Language and its dialects 305 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. King. — jEthelings 307 Queen 310 Followers or companions of the king 311 Court officials 311 Nobility by service 312 Ealdorman. — Eorl 313 Heriots 314 Gesith.— Thane 315 Hold 317 Child (Cild). — Radchenistres. — Drenghs 318 Freemen. — Ceorl. — Bordarii. — Geburas. — Cotsetlas 319 Britons or Wealas 320 The servile or theowas, esnas 320 Lget 321 Clergy 322 CONTENTS. xv Page Witan 322 ^ Folc-land 323 Boc-land. — Allodium 324? Thegn-land. — Gerefa-land 326 Feudality 326 Formation of shires 327 Gerefa 328 Maegth 328 Hundred 329 ' Wapentake. — Lathe. — Rape. — Riding 330 Sac and soc \ 330 Reciprocal responsibility. — Tithing 331 Gilds. — Frith-gilds. — Frith-borh or Frank-pledge 333 PARTICULAR AND PENAL LAWS. The freeman and his wergild 336 The Mund. — Healsfang. — Manbot, etc 337 Guardianship 337 Marriage 338 Rights of things. — Conveyances. — Charters 340 Pledges 341 Law of succession 341 Contracts 343 Crimes and punishments 343 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. Judges ' 344 Judicial procedure 345 ' Oaths and their legal value 345 Ordeals and judicial combats 347 Juries ' 347 Supreme court of the king 348 MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS. Roman institutions. — Heathen gilds 350 Civic and ecclesiastical gilds 351 Ealdormen. — Wic-, Port-, Burgh-reeves. — Lagemen 353 Municipal land-property. — Soca. — Gild protection and aid . . 353 XVI CONTENTS. Page Services of and imposts on the burghers 354- Defensor. — Prseco. — Serjandus 354 Frohnbote 355 London. — Commercial regulations 355 AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE. Rearing of Cattle 357 of Swine, Bees, Horses 358 Agriculture 358 Implements of Agriculture. — Land-measures 359 Gardens. — -Orchards. — Vineyards 359 Forests 360 Hunting 361 Fishing 362 Mining. — Salt works. — Trades 363 Foreign commerce 364 Mints. — Coiners — Money 366 Genealogies 369 A HISTORY OF ENGLAND UNDER THE f/ J ANGLO-SAXON KINGS. PART II. FROM THE UNION OF THE ANGLO-SAXON STATES UNDER THE SUPREMACY OF WESSEX TO THE ACCESSION OF CNUT. ECGBERHT. If Charles the Great ever entertained the thought of ex- tending his power across the Channel by a marriage with Eadburh, the relict of the West Saxon Beorhtric, it must have been but transient. Faithful friends and allies, such as he had found in Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex, would undoubtedly appear to him more useful against the British states and the Northern pirates than ill-disposed subjects, who, in alliance with those powers, as w 7 ell as with the con- tinental Saxons, might have risen and made common cause against him. Hence it does not appear that he manifested any opposition, when Ecgberht, who, after his expulsion from England, had spent thirteen years in the Frankish dominions l , where he had acquired both skill in arms as well 1 See Sax. Chron., FI. Wigorn, H. Hunt., who all assign a duration of three years only to the exile of Ecgberht, but which appears to have taken place immediately on the marriage of Beorhtric with the daughter of Offa in 787. By the same authorities we are even told that Offa (who died in 794) was instrumental in his expulsion. The probability seems to be, that a clerical error in the Saxon Chronicle of iii. for xiii. has been servilely VOL. II. B 2 ECGBERHT. as other princely accomplishments, in compliance with the invitation of his friends, took possession of the vacant throne 1 . A victory gained by his countrymen signalized the day of his accession. A body of Mercians from the territory of the Hwiccas, under their ealdorman ^Ethelmund, had crossed the Isis at Cynemaeresford (Kempsford), where they were encountered by the ealdorman Weohstan and the men of Wiltshire. Both leaders fell in the conflict, but the men of Wiltshire gained the victory. Soon after a peace was con- firmed by the oaths of the noblest men of Ecgberht and of the Mercian king Cenwulf 2 . The first memorable act of Ecgberht seems to have been, in a witena-gemot held at Winchester, to bestow, with the consent of his people, on the dominions over which his in- fluence prevailed, the name of England 3 . For a consider- able length of time the preponderance of the northern king- doms had caused the name of the Angles to be considered as the predominant collective appellation of the Germanic popu- lation of the island 4 ; and, when joined with that of the Saxons, it always formed the first part of the compound 5 . Even in cases relating exclusively to the Saxon race, as in the laws of the West Saxon Ine 6 ‘, we find them denominated copied by the Latin chroniclers. Malmesbury (lib. ii. 1), who is more cir- cumstantial than the others respecting the early years of Ecgberht, makes no mention of the three years. 1 Sax. Chron. Asser, a. 800. W. Malm. ii. 1. “ Est enim gens ilia (Francorum scil.) et exercitatione virium et comitate morum cunctarum Occidentalium facile princeps.” 2 See document in Heming, Chart, p. 453, Mon. Angl. t. i. p. 592 [and Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 213, where the charter (dated in 799) is justly marked as spurious, as well as one of Beorhtric, dated in 801. — T.]. 3 a.d. DCCC. “Egbertus rex totius Britannise, in parliamento apud Wintoniam, mutavit nomen regni de consensu populi sui, et jussit illud de caetero vocari Angliam.” Hist. Fundationis Hospit. S. Leonardi, in Mon. Angl. vol. vi. p. 608. Cf. Caradoc, p. 26. 4 Bedse H. E. Praef. Bonifacii Epist. 5 The compound word ‘Anglo-Saxons’ occurs first in Paul Warnefrid, lib.vi.c. 15, “ Cedoaldus rex Anglorum Saxonum;” consequently before the time of Ecgberht. 6 Inae Leges xxiv. ECGBERHT. 3 Engliscmen ; although the Britons and the Gael continued to give to their neighbours the name of Saxons, under which they first became known to them, yet that appellation, which by foreign nations might easily be confounded wfith that of the Old-Saxons — who, through their wars with Charles the Great and their subsequent conversion, had at that time become of importance to the state, the church, and to gene- ral intercourse among nations — might be objectionable, while that on the continent almost forgotten one of the Angles distinctly and not unhistorically designated the island people. If, therefore, a name was to be bestowed on the island suit- able to the greater portion of its inhabitants, one derived from the Angles was undoubtedly the most fitting. Nothing speaks more strongly in favour of the preceding account, than that the name of Anglia is nowhere to be found before the reign of Ecgberht, though it appears shortly after his time 1 . The occasion of this change is the more difficult to be conceived, as no royal title was at that time denominated from the country, but from the race of the subjects 2 . This account has generally been rejected by historians, by whom it has been understood as if Ecgberht had bestowed the name of England only on his kingdom of Wessex, a suppo- sition easily refuted by records both of Ecgberht and of later times. It was manifestly applied to the whole Germanic part of the island, which had been previously united only by the political institution of the Bretwaldaship. The abolition of this title, of which no further mention occurs, and the in- troduction of that of sovereign of England, appears therefore 1 The earliest mention that I have met with of the name of Anglia is in a charter of Wiglaf of Mercia, dated in 833, on the day of S. Augustine, and signed in the presence of Ecgberht : “ coram pontificibus et proceribus majoribus totius Angliae.” See Ingulf, p. 857 ap. Savile. Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 301. In authors I have remarked the name first in the Annal. Xanten. a. 730, the older part of which was compiled in the year 852. 2 In a charter dated, regni sui anno xxxviii. (795), Offa of Mercia also styles himself “ rex Anglorum.” In Evident. Eccles. Cant. ap. Twysden 2219, and Cod. Diplom. i. p. 191, this charter is dated in the year 790, B 2 4 ECGBERHT. to have been the work of Ecgberht. Occasion to this change, so entirely unconnected with the essential interests and rights of the people, and on that account probably unnoticed by the ancient chroniclers, may have been given by Charles the Great, who had just established his sovereignty over the Bretons in France, adopted the imperial title, and jealously striven to remove everything which, even through an un- sought-for ambiguity, might seem to endanger the rights of himself or his successors. The first years of Ecgberht’s reign were passed in happy tranquillity, of which he well availed himself for the consoli- dation of his power. Even the Britons, warned probably by the fate of their brethren on the other side of the Channel, appear to have ceased from warring with the Saxons during a space of twenty years, before and at the beginning of the reign of Ecgberht. Not unconnected, perhaps, with the revolt of the Armoricans, in the year 809, against Charles, during his absence in Saxony, it happened, that from that year a series of wars ensued with Cornwall 1 and the other Welsh states, which, for Ecgberht and his warriors, proved both glorious for the moment, and an instructive school for more formidable contests. A general revolt of the Britons on both sides of the Channel against their Germanic oppressors may at this time have been planned, or the object of Ecgberht may have been to prevent by a diversion the insular Britons from sending succour to their continental kinsmen. Corn- wall now became united with Wessex, the other South Britons acknowledged themselves tributary to Ecgberht ; the refractory Welsh were unmercifully visited with fire and sword, and the episcopal see of St. David’s was laid in ashes 2 . The bonds of the conquered provinces were, nevertheless, far 1 W. Malm. lib. ii. 1 . Matt. Westm. a. 809. 2 Sax. Chron. FI. Wigorn. a. 813. Annal. Camb. a. 810. W. Malm. Matt. Westm. aa. 810, 811. Caradoc, p. 21. Respecting the continental Bretons, see Schubert’s Daru, t. i. p. 56. Einh. Annal. a. 8 1 1 . ECGBERHT. 5 from firmly riveted, for in the year 823 the Cornish Britons fought a great battle with the people of Devonshire (Defn- saetas) at Gafulford 1 , and so little were the Anglo-Saxons able to spread themselves beyond the Tamar, that that river for some centuries continued to form one of the most remark- able boundaries between two nations and two languages in all Europe. Ecgberht had possessed the throne nearly a quarter of a century : in the west his kingdom was fully secured against his humbled hereditary enemies ; his powerful friend, Charle- magne, was withdrawn from earthly fellowship, to shine, more brightly reflected in the mirror of memory and history, an unrivalled model to future rulers, when he deliberately and boldly seized the moment, in which the power of the hitherto predominant state of Mercia was enfeebled by anarchy caused by the usurper Beornwulf and his kindred, to destroy the assumed supremacy of that kingdom over the other southern Anglo-Saxon states. The opportunity of engaging in a struggle for the chief power in England was supplied by the East Angles, who, with their king, whose name is un- known to us, sent ambassadors to Ecgberht, imploring his protection and succour against the hostility and tyranny of the Mercians. The beginning of the war seems, however, to have been unfavourable to Ecgberht, the Mercians having penetrated as far as the territory of the Wilsaetas ; but the bloody victory at Ellandun 2 , though purchased with the loss of Hun, the ealdorman of the Sumorsaetas 3 , and many other valiant leaders, proved decisive for the dragon of Wessex. 1 Sax. Chron. Ethelw. iii. 2. FI. Wigorn. a. 823. Caradoc, p. 25. 2 Sax. Chron. Ethelw. FI. Wigorn. a. 823. “ In Ellandune, id est in Monte Eallse.” H. Hunt., evidently quoting an old poem, says, “ Ellen- dune rivus cruore rubuit, ruina restitit foetore tabuit.” According to the lines in Robert of Brunne, Beornwulf fell in the battle : Ellendoune, Ellendoune, ]>i lond is fulle rede Of ]>e blode of Bernewolf, J>er he toke his dede. 3 Ethel werd, iii. 2. 6 ECGBERHT. The victor now followed up his long-cherished plans. The southern states had by the Mercian princes been withdrawn from the long-established supremacy of Wessex and the government of the mediate kings of the race of Cerdic 1 , such in Kent we have seen Eadberht Praen, and Ealhmund, the father of Ecgberht. A like relation to Sussex was of still earlier date, and we have probably in Sigeberht before men- tioned discovered an under-king of the East Saxons of the royal house of Wessex. Suthrice (Surrey) is also mentioned as one of the earlier appanages of the West Saxon kingdom. Ecgberht sent his son JEthelwulf with Ealhstan, the warlike bishop of Shireburne, and the ealdorman Wulfheard into Kent, where they drove the king Baldred northwards over the Thames. Kent, Surrey, Essex and Sussex now sub- mitted to the sovereignty of Ecgberht, who appointed his son iEthelwulf king of Kent, which kingdom, as well as the other smaller states, were from this time generally granted, with the kingly title, to the eldest sons of the West Saxon monarchs. At this time the great synod was held at Clovesho, after which it appears that Beornwulf led a powerful army against the East Angles, with the design of punishing them for their submission to Ecgberht, and replacing them under the supre- macy of Mercia. Beornwulf was defeated and fell in a battle between the two nations. A similar fate attended his kins- man and successor Ludeca 2 , who, to avenge the death of his predecessor, had invaded the territory of the East Angles. He fell with five ealdormen, when the ealdorman Wiglaf 3 * 5 , a 1 Sax. Chron. FI. Wigorn. H. Hunt. a. 823. 2 Ethelw, a. 825. Beornwulf’s death is in the Chronicle and Florence placed under the year 823, where the, synod of Clovesho is assigned to 822, instead of 824. See Wilkins, Cone. t. i. p. 175, 6, Smith’s Beda, p. 768, where a brother of the king’s named Bynna is mentioned, but who did not succeed him on the throne. 5 Ingulf, to judge from his language, appears to have regarded Wiglaf as the lawful king : “ Omnium consensu Witlafius dux Merciorum, cujus ECGBERHT. 1 relation of the royal house of Mercia, was, with the general consent of the nation, called to the vacant throne, but from which, before he could assemble an army, he was driven by the power of Ecgberht. After various wanderings, he at length, through the friendship of the abbot Siward, found, during four months, a sanctuary in the cell of iEthelthryth, the daughter of Offa and betrothed of his victim, the young ^Ethelberht of East Anglia, until, through the mediation of Siward, he was reconciled with Ecgberht, by whom, on the condition of an annual tribute, he was, after three years passed in exile, restored to his kingdom, under the suzerainty of the West Saxon monarch 1 . Having reduced to subjection the whole country to the south of the Humber, Ecgberht turned his arms against the Northumbrians, who, deeming submission the wiser course, met him peacably at Dore on the northern side of the river, and having given hostages, placed themselves under his au- thority 2 . Ecgberht being now acknowledged as sovereign of all En- gland, which in the north extended far beyond its present limits, was with greater justice than any of the seven kings, who before him had borne the title, acknowledged as the eighth Bretwalda. Wiglaf, as we have seen, was his tribu- tary ; Swithraed, the refractory king of Essex, was subdued and expelled, when the country of the East Saxons, ceasing filius Wimundus Alfledam, filiam Celwolphi quondam regis, et fratris Kenulphi quondam regis nobilissimi, duxerat in uxorem, in regem levatus est.” Wiglaf also in a charter dated 833, inserted in Ingulf, calls iEthel- thryth “ cognata mea.” See Flor. Geneal., where his queen is called Cynethryth ; in Ingulf, Celfreda. 1 Sax. Chron. FI. Wigorn. a. 828. In a charter a. 833, in Ingulf, Wiglaf says, “per dominum meum Egbertum, regem Westsaxonise, et Athelwolphum filium ejus illud obtinui confirmari.” And, “ In prsesentia dominorum meorum Egberti et Athelwulphi.” 2 Sax. Chron. FI. Wigorn. a. 828. Matthew of Westminster is the only writer who on this occasion speaks of great devastations in Northum- bria. 8 ECGBERHT. to exist as a separate kingdom, became a part of the state assigned to the West Saxon crown-princes. Ecgberht also directed his victorious army against the North Welsh, who were unable to offer any effectual resis- tance. He devastated the country as far as Snowdon, entered the territory of Roweynauc in Denbighshire l , and thence pene- trated to Mona 2 , not deeming the conquest of the country complete until he had reduced that isle to subjection. The kings of Cumberland and Strathclyde alone were not com- prised in the number of Ecgberht’s vassals. For their inde- pendence they were apparently indebted to the pacific footing on which they had prudently continued towards their power- ful neighbour. The sovereignty of Ecgberht was of a character widely different from that of the old Bretwaldaship, though in prin- ciple immediately based on it, and the change from an elec- tive emperor to a suzerain lord had been prepared by prece- ding events. Those small states established for, and by cir- cumstances attending conquest, and not yet connected by in- ternal wants and organization, must cease to exist as soon as the sword became rusty, and the mind of the rugged warrior was no longer animated by constant hopes of booty. The influence of the church, though it might gradually dissolve such encampments, could not transform them into powerful governments, affording security to religion, peace, and rising industry. Those states, moreover, lost nothing in comparison with what they gained through the centralization of power : the old races sprung from Woden were extinct; nobles and people continued in all respects in the enjoyment of their old rights and institutions. But the natural course of things, as 1 Annal. Cambrise, a. 816. Cf. aa. 818, 822 for the conquest of Powis by the Saxons, and Brut y Tyw. aa. 816, 818, 822, and Sax. Chron. a. 828. 2 Caradoc, p. 24. Caradoc’s chronology is extremely faulty ; he places this expedition about the year 826, and yet in the time of Cenwulf of Mercia, who died in 819, and whose war with Dimetia is mentioned in Annal. Camb. a. 818. See also p. 240. ECGBERHT. 9 history has so frequently shown us, here provided for the people, as well as if they, with all sagacity and foresight, could themselves have guided coming events. While desire of strife and anarchy seemed to contribute only to bring all the other states under subjection to the strongest and most uncorrupted, the possibility was at the same time acquired of protecting the realm against the more and more dangerous, and at length irresistible attacks of the Danes and Northmen, or to render their expulsion practicable, and so to confirm the leading features of the English character and institutions, that, after a lapse of ten centuries, they have not only pre- served themselves, but appear as a chief element in the cha- racter of the greater part of the old and of the new world. Ecgberht had enjoyed his extended sway but a few years, when he received intelligence that Danish pirates had landed and plundered on the Isle of Shepey. In the following year they landed from a fleet of thirty-five ships at Carrum (Char- mouth) in Dorsetshire, whither Ecgberht in person having marched to encounter them, was defeated with great loss by those ferocious sons of the North. Hereupon Ecgberht im- mediately summoned his prelates and nobles to assemble at London, for the purpose of adopting measures against the Danish pirates. In a charter of Wiglaf, the tributary king of Mercia 1 , published at the time, we find the names of the archbishop of York, and of the East Anglian bishops, but not those of their kings, whose delegates they were. The next landing of this formidable foe was on the coast of Cornwall, where being joined by the British natives, their united forces proceeded to ravage the West Saxon frontier. Ecgberht, now better prepared for the conflict, met them with his forces at Hengestes-dun (Hengstone), where he defeated them with great slaughter, and put the rest to flight 2 . But the audacity of the Britons was to be expiated by a severer punishment. 1 Ingulf. Cod. Diplom. t. i. p. 301. 2 Sax. Chron. FI. Wigorn. a. 835. 10 ECGBERHT. Ecgberht took Chester, the metropolis of Gwynedd (Caer Leon ar Dhyfrdwy), and, besides other humiliations imposed on the inhabitants, ordered the brazen statue of their ancient king Cadwalhon to be destroyed, and never to be restored. All the Welsh and their posterity he commanded to quit his kingdom within six months, on pain of death ; a measure of mistaken policy, by which they were made to appear more formidable than they in reality could be, and at a time when the civilization of the Anglo-Saxons could more easily have rendered the nationality of the Welsh harmless, than their arms could annihilate or totally subdue them. The Welsh ascribed this decree to the inveterate hatred entertained towards them by Roedburh, the consort of Ecgberht 1 . This is the last act known to us of the fortunate reign of this great prince, who in the following year ended his glorious life 2 . Ecgberht founded an Anglo-Saxon kingdom such as for extent and power had never previously existed, and which, through unity and internal tranquillity, was essentially favour- able both to moral cultivation and the development of national and judicial institutions. His acts were the seed whence sprang the golden fruit which his successors brought to matu- rity, and the memory of which posterity has been accustomed to combine with the great name of Alfred. But a grand plan has seldom been realized unaccompanied by the germ of its destruction. Those sons of misery and barbarism, the Danes or Northmen, who for half a century had afflicted by their attacks the several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, begun at this time to excite the attention, and call into activity the full power of the united state, nor ceased their ravages but with the annihi- lation of the Anglo-Saxon sovereignty and the supremacy of the Norman race. The history of the immediate successor of Ecgberht being little else than a struggle with the Northmen, the new race, therefore, which now r entered England calls already for a closer consideration. 1 Caradoc, p. 2 7- 3 Sax. Chron. a. 836. THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. 11 The obscurity which shrouds the descent of those formi- dable freebooters, the ignorance of the cause of their wander- ings and settlements from Iceland to Sicily, from Apulia to Ireland, the number, less perhaps of their hordes than of their deeds on the wide theatre of almost the whole of our portion of the globe, of which not only every city on the sea- shore or on the great rivers, with its minsters and churches, but even the smallest inland villages, preserved an appalling remembrance — these and similar indubitable historic evi- dences excite our attention not less than the splendour and beauty for which in later times the Normans have been cele- brated as models of pagan native energy, as the founders of institutions and legislations yet in vigorous operation, as the creators and fosterers of a new poetic culture, as examples of a triumphant faith rewarded with crowns both of martyrdom and of worldly sway ; in short, as the prototype of that state of civilization in Christian Europe which is distinguished by the name of chivalry ; though the praise implied in this pic- ture is bestowed as arbitrarily as nature permits a decoration of flowers to spring forth alike on the grave of the robber of the desert and on that of the holy patriarch. The name of Northmen or Normans, which first occurs in the Geographer of Ravenna, had originally no reference to any particular country, but was adopted merely to designate the relative position of the native home of those rovers with reference to the Christian states, and more especially to France. The Anglo-Saxons were accustomed to call them Danes 1 , under which appellation the Frank Eginhard 2 , a contemporary of Ecgberht, comprised both Danes and Swedes ; but ^Elfred, the grandson of Ecgberht, who had had personal intercourse with the leaders of the Northmen, ex- 1 So Sax. Chron., but Asser, Vita ^Elfr., " pagani, Normanni sive Dani.” 2 Vita Caroli, cc. xiii.,xv. Adam Brem. lib.i. c. 13 and c. 220, copies Eginhard, while c. 238. he speaks from the knowledge of his time, the eleventh century. 12 THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. eludes the Swedes from that denomination 1 . To limit the home of the Northmen to Norway is an error of historic in- quirers, who have overlooked the fact, that the name of Nor- way dates only from the eleventh century 2 , and was applied with immediate reference to those Normans, whose name, through their settlement in the French Normandy, has ac- quired a narrower signification; though from the shores of that country, the inexhaustible cradle of bold seamen, there proceeded, it is true, men who, like those of the Danish islands and the Jutish peninsula, attacked the English and Scottish isles, the Orkneys and Hebrides, as well as Ireland ; the pirates, too, who in the reign of Beorhtric landed in Wessex, are called Northmen from Haeretha-land, by which denomination we are probably to understand Hordeland in Norway 3 , famed for its sea-kings, and which at a later period sent forth the unyielding discoverers of Iceland. The cause of the emigrations of the Northmen is not to be immediately looked for in the peculiar habits of that people. The poverty of those regions, where, even in the summer months, the encumbrance of rocks and their numberless frag- ments, which gave to every field the aspect of a recent Titanic battle-place, permits neither seed nor cattle to thrive, and the disproportionate population, appeared as embarrassing to the rugged contemporaries a thousand years ago, as the sub- ject of over-population is to the acute inquirer of the present 1 JElfred’s Germany in Dahlmann’s Forschungen, p.421. 2 Adam Brera.c. 238. “Nordmannia a modernis dicitur Nor- wegia after whom Ordericus Vitalis (Du Chesne, p. 541) has Norregavia, though not as a synonyme of Dacia, as Depping (t. ii. p. 257) seems to take it, whose ' Histoire des expeditions maritimes des Normands et de leur etablissement en France * contains much relative to the landings of the Northmen in England. In the present work I have made occasional use of my review in the Halle Literatur-Zeitung for 1832 of M. Depping’s ex- cellent publication. 3 Theodoricus de Regibus Norvegiae, ap. Langebek, t. v. p. 315. In the battle in Hafursfiord (circa 885) Erik king of Hordaland was slain. See Snorre, Haralds saga ens Harfagra, c. xix. Halfe, another king- of this territory, is mentioned at an earlier period. THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. 13 age 1 . But in those days, when there were people only, not established states, a remedy was soon found ; and we perceive, even after the cessation of the great migration of nations and the fall of the Western empire, an incessant outpouring of Northlanders over the North and Baltic seas, in quest of booty and a home. While in the sixth century Britain admitted of no more great bodies of immigrants, the Longobards were making room in other tracts, a circumstance which rendered favour- able the advance of remoter tribes in the North. Of the greatest influence, however, on those nations were the con- quests of Charles the Great in Germany, and the barrier which he thereby, as well as by the introduction of Christi- anity, set to their onward march. It can, indeed, hardly be attributed to accident, that a few years after the baptism of Wittekind, the first Northmen appeared in England ; also, that with the gradual strengthening of the Frankish domi- nion, their hordes passed over in ever-increasing numbers. The course followed by the emigrants was similar to that adopted by the German leaders (Recken) with their followers. We find generally, when the names of the leaders are given, two or three at the head of several tribes or clans, combined for a short period and for a specific object 2 . Thus Ingvar and Ubba, Oskytel and Guthrum, Biorn and Hasting, appear in brotherly union in their expeditions. As little as in this instance, so in general, the Northmen brought into England few new usages and influential principles. If, in the duke- dom which they acquired in France, they in a short time adopted the language of that country and almost forgot their own; if they there, where they held free and unbounded sway, introduced no legal institute, no usage which can be exclu- 1 See Othther's Voyage, and Malthus on Population. 2 So Prudent. Trecensis, a. 850, ap. Pertz, t. i. Hincraar. Rhemens. a. 861 “ eorum societate junguntur se secundum sodalitates suas dividunt.” 14 THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. sivety attributed to them, much less can any great inno- vations, caused by the Northmen, be looked for in England, which had for ages been inhabited not only by Saxons, but by their neighbours the Angles and the Jutes. The circum- stance that the latter had not abandoned but rather cultivated their old native tongue, may have been among the causes which prompted the Danes and other Northmen to seek the shores of England, where at a later period they settled chiefly in the districts peopled by the Angles. If this remark offer any explanation of the success which attended the Danes on the east coasts of Middle England, it, on the other hand, renders it the more difficult to ascertain what new element they may have introduced, what lasting institute they may there have left behind them. The history of the Danes or Northmen in England has yet found no deep investigator, hence too much has been ascribed to their influence on the institutions and language of the country. Even if we unhesi- tatingly grant, that by the term Normans we are in most cases to understand, not original Scandinavians, but the Gallo-Normans of a later day, to these can certainly not be attributed the influence which the Danes are supposed to have exercised over the dialect of the northern parts of En- gland. But every inquiry into the history of the English language has hitherto, from an insufficiency of materials, been unattended with any important consequences with re- ference to the undoubted difference of dialect prevailing in the Saxon and Anglian provinces of Britain; for the pre- sent, therefore, it is from general observations only that a judgement can be formed, and the result of these is decidedly adverse to those who would ascribe what is native, though now perhaps inexplicable, to the influence of the pirates of the North. The result of these observations is — that the in- fluence of the Northmen in England is to be regarded only as repressive and destructive, but, that they attached them- selves to existing political institutions, with which in principle THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. 15 they were familiar, as well as to the church, which was new to them. The pen has ever triumphed over the sword, the olive over the laurel, mental culture over barbarian violence; written language always prevails over unwritten, and even the home of the Northmen is indebted for its alphabetic writing to the Anglo-Saxons. With the exception, therefore, of the isles and of parts of Britain which were not previously inhabited by Anglo-Saxons, we nowhere perceive in the language any essential elements which are not either Old-Saxon or Anglian, and believe that those variations of dialect which appear in later times are to be regarded only as a continuation of the old language negatively promoted by the Danes in the north- ern provinces, and the slight intermixture with the Norman French. This observation we believe to be particularly ap- plicable to the northern parts of Northumbria, the present Scottish Lowlands, where the origin of the local dialect is ascribed to Scandinavian or, as it is most usually termed, Gothic influence, at some unknown period of time; that dialect which the Gael of the present day calls Sassenach, and which, in the lays of Allan Ramsay and Robert Burns, strikes on the German ear in familiar Saxon sounds. A difficulty similar to that attending the Anglo-Saxon and Norse languages, exists with regard to the legendary lore received and cultivated in England. Of this much that was new to the English settlers must have been introduced by the later Northmen, and much also revived, which Christianity and Roman civilization had banished from the memory of the sons of Woden. Of some other traces, real or supposed, of the manners and customs of the Danes existing in England, occasional men- tion will be made hereafter; here we shall merely remark, that, in the history of a state destined one day to rule the ocean, it ought not to be passed unnoticed, that England may have learned the art of ship-building from an enemy ; though at the same time we must be careful not to overrate 16 THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. this benefit, even if it admitted of proof. The history of the following centuries does not indeed show that the English at an early period were great navigators or traders to foreign parts, but, at the same time, the vessels of the Northmen appear from all accounts, and even from the specimens that have been discovered, to have been of small dimensions, and very inartificially constructed. A piratical band sometimes required four or five hundred such vessels, in which they navigated the smallest rivers ; and if a shallow ford, or want of water impeded their course, the crews would spring on shore, draw the vessel to land, and bear it further on their shoulders. The circumstance that the greater number of nautical terms are alike in English and Norse ought not to be here objected, as the Saxons had of old been known as bold mariners, and as the same objection might be applied with regard to the Southern tongues, most particularly to the Spanish, and is therefore to be answered only by the suppo- sition of an earlier influence of the Germanic nations in mat- ters of navigation. The moral impression made by the Northmen in England was that of fear, astonishment, stupifying terror. The cruel- ties by which the invasions of these pagans were accompanied, defy all description ; and of all the ills with which the oft- afflicted country was visited, the calamities caused by the Danes are by the old chroniclers described as the most dread- ful b Even victory over these barbarians was productive of little joy, which, dearly bought, relieved merely the spot where they had landed, while other murderous hordes with 1 H. Hunt. lib. v. Procem. “■ (Plaga) per Dacos facta longe immanior, longe crudelior caeteris fuit. Daci terram undique creberrime diutissime insilientes et assilientes, earn non obtinere sed praedari studebant, et omnia destruere, non dominari cupiebant. Qui si quandoque vincerentur, nihil proficiebant victores, cum alibi classis et exercitus major insurgeret Domos combusserunt, res asportarunt, pueros sursum jactatos lancearum acumine susceperunt, conjuges quasdam vi oppresserunt, quasdam secum abduxerunt.” THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. 17 the greater security were landing on other points, thus ren- dering the vast extent of coast, in which England in after ages, through the wooden bulwark of her fleets, found her best defence and the capability of the most varied and boundless commerce, at that period her greatest affliction. Dense as the obscurity is in which the cause of the wander- ings and ravages of the Scandinavian vikings is enveloped 1 , an attentive consideration of their expeditions to England will, nevertheless, yield some results tending greatly to facilitate our inquiries ; this leads us first to regard them as a conse- quence of the conquests of Charles the Great in the north of Germany, and secondly to the observation, that they did not at first overrun the country in any vast swarms, like locusts, but that it was only gradually that they became formidable. In the time to which we have already alluded, and in that immediately following, we find long intervals, during which no mention is made of the Northmen ; and some of their first attacks were made with such small forces, and sometimes such trifling results, that only the loss of some noble or official, and the mischief, which they afterwards perpetrated over the whole country, procured for those beginnings of evil any attention on the part of the chroniclers. The attacks of the Northmen were at first less directed against England itself than against its islands, and the opposite shores of Flanders and Holland, also Ireland, where they acquired several strong settlements, from which they sailed on their piratical expedi- tions. Small islands at the mouths of large rivers were to them especial objects of selection, whence they could easily 1 The pernicious law of primogeniture was a chief cause of the miseries endured by this and other countries of Europe from the pirates of Scan- dinavia. The eldest son of an aristocratic house inherited the family pro- perty ; the younger ones were not indeed quartered on their own country, but were sent forth in ships, for the purpose of plundering the happier lands of the South. From these expeditions the idea first sprang of making permanent conquests, which ended in the establishment of Scan- dinavian dynasties in England, and in the Frankish province of Neustria, and in the south of Italy. — T. VOL. II. C 18 THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. watch and intercept the trading vessels, and where they could deposit their booty in safety. Hence we find them at the mouths of the Scheldt, the Seine, the Loire and the Thames. The want of naval knowledge at that period, for which daring and energy are no equivalent, prevented them from making the greater number of their expeditions hither direct from the North, but induced them, with their small ships, at that time as at a later period, to prefer coasting voyages, and conse- quently to seek winter stations and settlements. Under the hypothesis, therefore, that the attacks of the Northmen on England were not directed from remote points, it will perhaps be possible, when the history of the islands and coasts of the German ocean as well as of the Atlantic west of England shall be investigated, to show, that they were conducted with more system and connexion than has hitherto been supposed. Adopting the above view, we shall be enabled to derive some unexpected light from the Frankish chroniclers with respect to the attacks of the Northmen on the eastern shore of En- gland; and in general it seems that on this coast more defined individuals, and names more known appear on the field of action, while of the assailants on the coast of Wessex we are seldom informed of more than the number of their ships, although it may reasonably be supposed that for the most part they crossed over from the Scandinavian settlements at Dublin and on the east coast of Ireland (where they were called Ostmen), and also from their insular state, the Ork- neys and Hebrides. If any reliance may be placed on some legends, and more particularly on the older Danish royal sagas, the Danes had made several attacks on England long before that already mentioned under the reign of Beorhtric, on the coast of Dorsetshire, and those in 793 and 794 at Lindisfarne and Ecgferthes-Mynster 1 , though the most authentic English chroniclers speak of the first-mentioned of these as the first 1 See vol. i. pp. 217, 218, 273. THE DANES OR NORTHMEN. 19 appearance of the Danish pirates on the coast of England ; and from all that has hitherto been stated, it is probable that it was only in the following times that their attacks became frequent and formidable. Some deviating accounts given in the English chronicles may not, however, be wholly groundless : the most remarkable of which makes mention of an attack on the monastery of Lindisfarne, about the year 687* which is ascribed to the Scaldings or Northmen ; though there is great reason for believing that the northern enemies at that time were Piets 1 , who, as we have seen, after the death of Ecgfrith, had humbled and driven back the Northumbrians. It is not improbable that these were the northern enemies who, through their ravages in North- umbria, caused Ticta, who was abbot of Glastonbury in 754, to flee from that kingdom 2 . Attention has been drawn to a landing which is said to have been made in Thanet in the year 753, but which may possibly be identical with one which took place a century later, although unimportant land- ings and interruptions of navigation by these pirates at an earlier period may be proved, but which do not appear to have excited the attention of the princes 3 . That after the year 795 the landings of the Northmen became more frequent, though the chronicles in wdiich they are recorded be lost, is not to be doubted. The obstinacy of the battles fought in the years 832 and 833, forbids us longer to ascribe to the 1 Beda, Vita S. Cuthb. c. xl., where it merely says, “ ecclesiam illam ten- tationis aura concussit.” In the metrical Life, c. xxxvii., it is said, “ Insistens aquilo, niveis confisus in armis, Hinc atque hinc adeo Lindisfarnea perosis Tecta quatit flabris ” Sim. Dunelm, Hist. Cuthb. p. 69, mentions an invasion of the ' Scaldings/ who also destroyed York. See vol. i. p. 218. 2 Vita S. Patricii ap. Alford, Annal. Eccl. Anglo-Saxon, t. ii. 3 Bregowini Epist. ad Lullum (ap. Bonifacii Epist. Nr. 103) : “Crebris infestationibus improborum hominum in provincias Anglorum seu Gallise regiones. Nunc vero pace ac tuitione nobis a principibus indubitanter undique promissa.” Lullus died in 786 : Bregowine was probably the archbishop of Canterbury from 759—762. c 2 20 iETHELWULF. invading Northmen mere objects of piracy and plunder along the coasts, but compels us to infer the adoption of a plan for a permanent establishment, where either by sea or by land, by war or by industry, they might gain wherewithal to supply the wants of life, or indulge in the insolence of brute strength in contempt of social order. This inference appears the more probable, as shortly afterwards a numerous army of Danes, in alliance with the West-Britons, attacked king Ecgberht, but by whom they were, as we have seen, totally defeated at Hen- gestes-dun. Such an alliance between two nations so uncon- nected by descent and language implies some previous inter- course, and leads to the supposition, that these Danes belonged to those who were already settled in Ireland or the Hebrides. From such a cause only it seems explicable that, during a long period, to the end of the ninth century, no hostile landings of the Danes are recorded on any of the British coasts, which could hardly have been protected either by artificial fastnesses or the poverty of the mountain inhabi- tants against the hordes of the North. Similar alliances with the Danes were also formed by the Bretons in France against the Franks 1 . iETHELWULF. Ecgberht w r as succeeded in the kingdom of Wessex by his eldest son ^Ethelwulf. Under this prince the Northmen in- defatigably continued their ravages on the same coasts. At Southampton they landed from a fleet of thirty-four sail, but were met by the ealdorman Wulf heard, and overcome with great slaughter. Less fortunate was the ealdorman ^Ethel- helm, w^ho with the men of Dorsetshire encountered a Danish army on Portland, w’here, though victory at first seemed to declare in his favour, he w T as defeated and slain 2 . These 1 Hincmar Rhemens. Annal. a. 8 66 . 2 Sax. Chron. a. 837. iETHELWULF. 21 piratical swarms had now so greatly increased that they en- compassed the island as with a net. In the following year Herebryht the ealdorman with many inhabitants of the marshes was slain by the Northmen, as were also many of the people of Lindsey, East Anglia and Kent. At London, Canterbury and Rochester they also made great slaughter, and JEthelwulf himself was shortly after defeated at Carrum (Charmouth), by a Danish force from thirty-five vessels 1 . A few years later a body of Danes landed in Northumbria, which, since the death of Ecgberht, had been torn by the struggles of competitors for the vacant throne. ^Ethelred, the son and successor of Eanred, had been expelled by Red- wulf, who had taken possession of the government. With the ealdorman Alfred, Redwulf led his forces against the in- vaders, but was defeated and slain by them at f Alvethesleie 2 / when ^Ethelred regained possession of his kingdom. More fortunate were the ealdorman Eanulf with the men of Somer- setshire and the warlike bishop Ealhstan, and the ealdorman Osric with those of Dorsetshire, who defeated with great slaughter a Danish army that had landed at the mouth of the Parret in the Bristol Channel 3 . Six years later another vic- tory, attended with great slaughter of the enemy, was gained at Wicganbeorh in Devonshire by the ealdorman Ceorl ; and the same year ^Ethelstan, the king of Kent, and the ealdorman Ealhhere, defeated them in a sea-fight off Sandwich, and took nine of their ships. A swarm of Northmen now for the first time passed the winter in the isle of Thanet 4 . Immediately 1 Sax. Chron. aa. 838, 840. 2 Matt. Westmon. a. 844. 3 Sax. Chron. FI. Wigorn. a. 845. For a landing of the Northmen in England in 844, and the defeat of the Saxons, after a battle which lasted three days, see Prudent. Trecens. Annal., and an extract therefrom in Chron. de Gestis Normannorum. 4 Sax. Chron. Ethelw.a.851,while Asser and FI. Wigorn. for “ Thanet” read “ Shepey ” ; but in the Chronicle a. 855, it is said that “ the heathen men then for the first time remained over winter in Shepey.” — T. 22 A ETHELWULF. following these events a fleet of Northmen, consisting of no less than three hundred and fifty sail, arrived at the mouth of the Thames, whence they penetrated to Canterbury and even to London, both of which they took and plundered, having put to flight the army of Beorhtwulf, the tributary king of the Mercians, who had endeavoured to impede their progress. They then crossed the Thames into Surrey, where they were met by king iEthelwulf and his son iEthelbald, by whom, in a great battle fought at Aclea (Ockley), they were totally defeated. In this conflict a greater slaughter is said to have been made among the pagans than they had ever suffered in a single day in any country 1 . This fleet was a part of that of Rorik, a nephew of the Danish prince Harald Klak, which latter, having in the year 826 received bap- tism at Ingelheim, had by Lewis the Debonair been in- vested with the territory of Rustringen and the town of Dorstadt in Friesland 2 . Such enfeoffments had for object the buying off of some of the most formidable leaders among the Northmen, and consequent security against their follow- ers and countrymen, a policy first adopted by the Romans towards the Germanic tribes, which was shortly after prac- tised by the Anglo-Saxons, and with the same unlooked-for result, since the formidable foe, neither by the accepted feudal relationship, nor by the common bond of Christianity, could be brought to an observance of peace towards the Christian states. On the contrary, the countless swarms of their countrymen who followed in their track found in these feudal chieftains the surest and ablest leaders, while the latter constantly gained auxiliaries in the new-comers. This in- exhaustibleness of the enemy was particularly felt by En- 1 Sax. Chron. FI. Wigorn. a. 851. 2 I owe this valuable account to Prudent. Trecens. a. 850. “ Roric, nepos Herioldi assumptis Nortmannorum exercitibus, cum multitudine navium Fresiam devastat ceterorum vero pars Britanniam insulam Anglosque impetentes, ab eis auxilio Domini nostri Jesu Christi superan- tur.” Rudolf. Fuldens. a. 850. calls him the brother of the younger Harald. jETHELWULF. 23 gland. Two years after the above-mentioned defeat at Ockley, a battle was fought between the Northmen who had wintered in Thanet, and the men of Kent and Surrey, under the ealdormen Ealhhere and Huda, in which, though the English at first had the advantage, the Northmen were ultimately vic- torious, both ealdormen being slain 1 . As for some years to come no further mention of the Northmen is made by the chroniclers, we will revert to the internal affairs of the Anglo-Saxons. -