Читать книгу A History of England: Mediæval Monarchy - J. Franck Bright - Страница 10

Table of Contents

Departure of the Romans.

The dominion of the Romans in Britain had been complete. The country, as far as the Frith of Forth, had been brought under Roman civilization. But in England, as elsewhere, the continuance of that form of civilization had produced weakness; and the unconquered Britons of the North, known by the name of Picts, broke into the Romanized districts, and pushed their incursions far into the centre of the country. On all sides, the nations outside the Empire were breaking through its limits and threatening its existence. The danger which threatened the very heart of the Empire, from the advance of the Goths into Italy, compelled the Romans in 411 to withdraw their legions from Britain, and leave the inhabitants of the island to fight their own battles with the Picts. When these enemies formed an alliance with the pirates of Ireland, known by the name of the Scots, and with the German pirates of the North Sea, known as English or Saxons, the civilized Britons were unable to make head against them, and found it necessary to seek for aid among the invaders themselves They therefore made an arrangement with two Jutish chiefs or Ealdormen, Hengist and Horsa, to come to their assistance. The German rovers consisted of three nations—the Saxons, the inhabitants of Holstein, who had advanced along the coast of Friesland; to the north of them the Angles or English, who inhabited Sleswig; and still further to the north, the Jutes, whose name is still perpetuated in the promontory of Jutland.

The Jutish settlement in Kent. 449.

The Saxons in Sussex. 477-495.

The Angles in East Anglia. 520.

The first landing-place of the Jutish allies of the Britons was in the Isle of Thanet, separated at that time by a considerable inlet from the British mainland. Their aid enabled the Britons to drive back the Pictish invaders. But their success, and the settlement they had formed, enticed many of their brethren to join them, and their numbers were constantly increasing. Increase of numbers implied increased demand in the way of payment and provisions. Quarrels arose between the new-comers and their British allies. War was determined on. The inlet which divided Thanet from the mainland was passed, and at Aylesford, on the Medway, a battle was fought, which, though it cost Horsa his life, put the conquering Barbarians into possession of much of the east of Kent. The victory was followed by the extermination of the inhabitants; against the clergy especially the anger of the conquerors was directed. The country was thus cleared of the inhabitants, and the new-comers settled down, bringing with them their goods and families and national institutions. This process was repeated at every stage of the conquest of the country, which thus became not only a conquest but a re-settlement. The Jutish conquest of Kent was followed, in 477, by an invasion of the Saxons, who, under Ella, overran the south of Sussex, and captured the fortress of Anderida near Pevensey; and in 495, by a fresh Saxon invasion under Cerdic and Cymric, who passed up the Southampton water and established the kingdom of the West Saxons. A momentary check was given to the advance of the conquerors, in 520, at the battle of Mount Badon. But almost immediately fresh hordes of Angles began conquering and settling the East of England, where they established the East Anglian kingdom, with its two great divisions of Northfolk and Southfolk. Between that time and 577, the date of a victory at Deorham, in Gloucestershire, the West Saxons had overrun what are now Hampshire and Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and the valley of the Severn, reaching almost as far as Chester; while the Angles, entering the Humber and working up the rivers, established themselves on the Trent, where they were known as Mercians or Border men, and formed two Northern kingdoms, that of Deira in Yorkshire, and that of Bernicia, extending as far as the Forth. The capital of this last-named kingdom was Bamborough, founded by Ida, and called after his wife Bebba, Bebbanburgh, or Bamborough.

The junction of these two kingdoms under Æthelfrith, about 600, established the Kingdom of Northumbria; thus was begun the process of consolidating the several divided English kingdoms. This tendency to consolidation is marked by the title of Bretwalda, which is given to the chief of the nation dominant for the time being. The name had been applied to Ella of Sussex, to Ceawlin of Wessex, and was held at the time of the establishment of the Northumbrian power by Æthelberht of Kent. There were thus two pre-eminent powers among the English—Northumbria, under its king Æthelfrith, claiming supremacy over the middle districts of England, including the Mercians and Middle English; and Kent, under Æthelberht, paramount over Middlesex, Essex, and East Anglia; while a third kingdom, that of Wessex, though large in extent and destined to become the dominant power, was as yet occupied chiefly in improving its position towards the west. Beyond these lay the district still in the possession of the Britons. The possessions of this people were now divided by the conquest of the English into three—West Wales, or Cornwall; North Wales, which we now call Wales; and Strathclyde, a district stretching from the Clyde along the west of the Pennine chain, and separated from Wales by Chester, in the hands of the Mercians, and a piece of Lancashire in the hands of the Northumbrians.

Conversion of the English. 597.

It was while the kingdoms of Northumbria and Kent were thus in the balance that the conversion of the English to the Christian faith began. Æthelberht of Kent had married Bercta, the daughter of the Frankish King of Paris. She was a Christian; and Gregory the Great at that time occupying the Roman See, which was rapidly rising to the position of supremacy in the Christian Church, took advantage of the opening thus afforded, and despatched a band of missionaries under a monk named Augustine to convert the people. In 597 they landed in Thanet. By the influence of the Queen they were well received, and established themselves at Canterbury, which has ever since retained its position as the seat of the Primacy. The Kings of Essex and East Anglia followed the example of their superior Lord, and became Christians. The Northern kingdom was still heathen. But Eadwine, who succeeded Æthelfrith on the Northumbrian throne, surpassed his predecessor in power. On Æthelberht’s death, he received the submission of the East Anglians and men of Essex, and conquered even the West Saxons. Kent alone remained independent, but was compelled to purchase security by a close alliance with Eadwine, who married a Kentish princess. With her went a priest, Paulinus; and priest and Queen together succeeded in converting Eadwine, and bringing the Northern kingdom to Christianity. Heathenism was however not extinct. It found a champion, Penda, King of the Mercians. In alliance with the Welsh king he attacked and defeated Eadwine, in 633, at the battle of Heathfield, and united under his power those who were properly called Mercians and the other English tribes south of the Humber. He also conquered the West Saxon districts along the Severn, and thus established what is generally known as the Kingdom of Mercia. Paulinus had fled from York after the battle of Heathfield. But the contest between heathen and Christian was renewed by Oswald, Eadwine’s successor; for Paulinus’ place was taken by Bishop Aidan, a missionary from Columba’s Irish monastery in Iona, who had established an Episcopal See in the Island of Lindisfarne. From thence missionaries issued, who continued the work of conversion, to which Oswald chiefly devoted his life. Birinus, sent from Rome, with the support of Oswald, succeeded in converting even Wessex, and establishing a Christian church at Dorchester. Penda still continued in the centre of England to uphold the cause of heathendom. At the battle of Maserfield he conquered and slew Oswald, and re-established his religion for a time in Wessex. But at length, in 655, he succumbed to Oswi, Oswald’s successor, and with him fell the power of heathendom. It seemed as though Irish Christianity, and not Roman, would thus be the religion of England. But Rome did not suffer her conquests to slip from her hand. A struggle arose between the adherents of the two Churches. The matter was brought to an issue in 664 at a Council at Whitby. The Roman Church there proved predominant. And this victory was followed by the appointment of Theodore of Tarsus, an Eastern divine, to the See of Canterbury. Under him the English Church was organized. Fresh sees were added to the old ones, which had usually followed the limits of the old English kingdoms. Canterbury was established as the centre of Church authority. Theodore’s ecclesiastical work tended much both to the growth of national unity and to the close connection of Church and State which existed during the Saxon period. The unity of the people was expressed in the single archiepiscopal See of Canterbury and in the Synods; while the arrangement of bishoprics and parishes according to existing territorial divisions connected them closely with the State.

Supremacy of Mercia. 716-819.

The contest for supremacy between Mercia and Northumbria still continued. After the fall of Penda, the supremacy of the Northern kingdom was for some time unquestioned. But sixty years later, during the reign of three Christian kings, Ethelbald, Offa, and Cenwulf (716-819), Mercia again rose to great power. Offa indeed came nearer to consolidating an empire than any of the preceding kings, although he is not mentioned among the Bretwaldas. It is said that he corresponded on terms of something like equality with Charlemagne; and the great dyke between the Severn and the Wye which bears his name is supposed to mark the limits of his conquests over the Britons.

Ecgberht. 800-836.

Consolidation under the West Saxons.

With these princes the supremacy of Mercia closed, for a great king had in the year 800 ascended the throne of Wessex. Ecgberht had lived as an exile in his youth at the court of Charlemagne, and there probably imbibed imperial notions. During his reign of thirty-six years he gradually brought under his power all the kingdoms of the English, whether Anglian or Saxon. In 823, at the great battle of Ellandune, he defeated the Mercians so completely that their subject kingdoms passed into his power. Four years later Mercia owned his overlordship, and Northumbria immediately after yielded without a struggle. These great kingdoms retained their own line of sovereigns as subordinate kings. Ecgberht continued the hereditary struggle against the British populations, with the West Welsh or Cornish, and the North Welsh or Welsh, and in each instance succeeded in establishing his supremacy over them. North of the Dee, however, his power over the British population did not spread. Thus the kingdom of the West Saxons absorbed all its rivals, and established a permanent superiority in England.

Period of Danish invasion. 790-1013.

Already, however, a new enemy, before which the rising kingdom was finally to succumb, had made its appearance; a year before his death, Ecgberht was called upon to defend his country from the Danes. This people, issuing from the Scandinavian kingdoms in the North of Europe, had begun to land in England, to harry the country, and to carry off their spoil. At first as robbers, then as settlers, and finally as conquerors, for two centuries they occupy English history. Their first appearance in this reign was at Charmouth in Dorsetshire. Subsequently, in junction with the British, they advanced westward from Cornwall. This led to the great battle of Hengestesdun, or Hengston, where the invaders were defeated (835). It seems not unnatural to trace the appearance of the Northern rovers in England to the state of the Continent. Driven from their own country by want of room, obliged to seek new settlements, they found themselves checked by the organized power of Charlemagne’s empire. They were thus compelled to find their new home in countries they had not yet visited. The reign closed with the capture of Chester, the capital of Gwynedd, the British kingdom of North Wales.

Æthelwulf. 836-857.

The reign of Æthelwulf, the successor of Ecgberht, was chiefly occupied in constant war with the Danes. Various success attended his efforts. The great battle at Ockley (851), where they were heavily defeated, for a time kept them in check; but, on the whole, the invaders constantly gained ground, and at last, in 855, for the first time so far changed their predatory habits as to winter in the Isle of Thanet. Another characteristic of Æthelwulf’s reign is the connection with Rome which he established. When his youngest son Alfred was still a child, he sent him to Rome, where the young prince was anointed; and two years afterwards he himself took the same journey, was received on the road by Charles the Bald, King of France, and spent a whole year in Italy. He there re-established the Saxon College, and by his engagement to supply funds for its support seems to have originated the well-known Peter’s Pence. His connection with Charles the Bald was further cemented by his marriage with Judith, daughter of that king. After Æthelwulf’s death she married her stepson Æthelbald, was divorced by him, returned to France, married Baldwin of Flanders, and was the ancestress of Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. These connections show the rising importance of England, and the entrance of the country into the general politics of Europe. Something in Æthelwulf’s government, perhaps his lengthened absence abroad, or the step he had taken in getting Alfred anointed, excited discontent. His eldest surviving son, Æthelbald, conspired with other nobles to exclude him from the country, and he was forced to consent to a compromise, accepting as his own kingdom, Kent and the Eastern dependencies of Wessex, while his son ruled over the rest of the kingdom.

Æthelbald. 858-860.

Æthelberht. 860-866.

On his death he bequeathed his own dominions to Æthelberht, his second son, while Wessex was, upon the death of Æthelbald, to pass in succession to his two sons, Æthelred and Alfred. In spite of this will, on the death of Æthelbald five years later, Æthelberht of Kent succeeded in making good his claims to Wessex also, and upon Æthelberht’s death, after a reign of five years, marked only by renewed attacks of the Danes, both kingdoms passed without question to Æthelred.

Æthelred. 866-871.

Danish conquest of East Anglia. 870.

It was during the reign of Æthelred that the Danes first established themselves permanently in the country. In 867 Ingvar and Hubba, said to be the sons of Ragner Lodbrog, a great Scandinavian hero, invaded England. Legend says that this invasion was intended to exact vengeance for the death of their father, who had been cruelly put to death by Ella of Northumberland. There are chronological difficulties in the way of accepting this story, which are increased by the fact that the Danish landing was really in East Anglia. Thence, in 867, they advanced into Northumbria and took York. The anarchy in which Northumbria lay, caused by the rival claims of Osberht and Ella to the throne, rendered its conquest easy. In 868, they marched towards Mercia, and took Nottingham. Burhred, the King of Mercia, then implored the aid of Æthelred and his brother Alfred, who so far succeeded that they drove the Danes back to Northumbria. From thence, in 870, an invasion, under many leaders, whose connection is not very clear, was directed against East Anglia. They were there joined by Guthrum, another Danish leader, and their combined forces pressed victoriously onwards through Croyland, to Peterborough, Huntingdon, and Ely. After defeating the English at Thetford, they took Edmund, the Saxon King of East Anglia, prisoner, and, upon his refusal to accept the pagan religion, put him to death. For his constancy he was honoured with the title of Saint Edmund. East Anglia was thus completely in possession of the Danes, and Guthrum took to himself the title of king. East Anglia became henceforward for some time the principal point of Danish settlement in England. From thence the invaders passed into Wessex, under the command of Bagsecg and Halfdene. They were vigorously met by Æthelred. They pushed on, however, as far up the Thames as Reading, near which town a series of battles was fought,—at Englefield, where the Danes were beaten; at Reading, where the fortune of the day was changed; and subsequently at the great battle of Ashdown, where the victory of the English was regarded as being due to Alfred, who, being in command of half the army, attacked and defeated the enemy, while his brother was losing the precious moments in prayer for success. Though the victory of Ashdown was complete, it did not close the war. Almost immediately afterwards we hear of battles at Basing and at Merton, in which the Danes were again successful. These battles took place just before the death of Æthelred.

Alfred. 871-901.

Treaty of Wedmore.

He was succeeded at once by his brother Alfred. Another victory of the Danes at Wilton compelled Alfred to make peace. For a time the Danes withdrew from Wessex, and employed their energy in subjugating Mercia. Burhred, who had married Alfred’s sister, was driven from the throne, and retired to Rome to die. A Danish agent, named Ceolwulf, was put in his place, and the country laid under heavy contribution. But Ceolwulf in his turn was displaced, and the Danes took possession of much of the country themselves, conquering among other places the five great towns, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Stamford, known as the five Danish Burghs, or, with the addition of York and Chester, the seven Burghs. They also carried their invasions northward, and Cumberland and part of Strathclyde were overrun and peopled by them, under the command of Halfdene. Nor was the treaty with the East Anglian Danes permanent. Guthrum sailed round the coast and captured Wareham and Exeter. To oppose them on their own element, Alfred introduced a new form of ship, of greater size and length than had hitherto been used, and succeeded in winning a great naval victory in Swanage Bay. But the Danish forces were gradually closing round him. London and Essex had been taken, and a colony of Danes had conquered South Wales. At length, attacked in all directions, his kingdom of Wessex was practically limited to the country of the Somersœtas; and, unable to make head against his enemies, the King took refuge among the impassable morasses of the river Parret. It is during this time of his exile that the well-known story of the burnt cakes is told. But while apparently completely beaten, Alfred succeeded in gathering a new army, issued from his seclusion, and attacking the Danes at Edington (878), near Westbury, completely defeated them. The consequence of this battle was the Treaty of Wedmore. By this treaty the kingdom of East Anglia was surrendered to the Danes, and a line was drawn to separate their kingdom from that of Wessex. This line from the Thames ran along the Lea to Bedford, then along the Ouse till it struck Watling Street, and then followed Watling Street to the Welsh Border. The greater part of Mercia was thus restored to Wessex. In exchange, Anglia and Mercia beyond this line were ceded to the Danes, who were to hold them as vassals of the West Saxon king, and who were to become Christians. The limits of their occupation are still to be traced by the occurrence of the termination “by” in the names of the towns; it was in many instances appended to the name of the Danish holder of the manor. Guthrum, on his baptism, took the name of Æthelstan, and many difficulties in the chronology of the legends of the time may be solved by supposing that the Æthelstan mentioned in them is Guthrum, and not the Æthelstan who reigned in the year 925. This treaty, although it curtailed the supremacy of Wessex, made the kingdom in fact stronger, and secured a temporary rest for the whole of England. Mercia, that part of it at least which remained English, was governed by its Alderman Æthelred, and by the King’s daughter Æthelflæd, known as the Lady of the Mercians. On the death of Gutred, the Danish King of Northumbria, Alfred re-established his power there, and the peace and prosperity of England were further increased by the fact that the energy of the Danes was for the present chiefly directed against France and Belgium. Guthrum died in 890, and though the treaty was confirmed by his successors, the defeat of the Danes in Belgium threw fresh invaders into the kingdom. In 893, Hasting, a well-known sea-rover, in alliance with the Anglians and Northumbrians, committed fresh ravages in all directions; but at last, having ventured up the Lea, Alfred hit upon the expedient of draining the river, and leaving their ships aground. After this they were glad to retreat, but lesser expeditions were constantly vexing the coast. The reign of Alfred is thus divided into two periods of Danish war, between which, and at the close of his life, there occurred intervals of peace.

Appreciation of Alfred’s character.

It has been usual to attribute to Alfred most of the marked peculiarities of English civilization, the formation of shires, the establishment of juries, and so on. Such assertions will not bear examination. As a lawgiver, he collected the laws of the three principal states over which he ruled—Kent, Mercia, and Wessex—which had been already recorded by the Kings Æthelberht, Offa, and Ine. As a warrior he was on the whole victorious, and understood the necessity of establishing a fleet, which he appears to have constructed on a different principle from that of the Danes, the ships being longer, and serving less as mere stages on which to fight. As a governor he was impartial and strict; his police was severe, the system of mutual responsibility became universal, and under him the idea of morality began to mingle with the idea of injury to the commonwealth, which had been the Saxon notion of crime. His son Eadward, who succeeded him, was probably as great as his father, but he had not the love of literature which forms the marked characteristic of Alfred’s public life. It has been questioned whether Alfred could himself read; however this may have been, he was so conscious of the necessity of literature for the people that he set himself to work to make translations for them. “The History of the World on Christian Principles,” by Orosius, Bede’s “History of the Anglo-Saxon Church,” and Boethius’ “Consolation of Philosophy,” were the works he translated. Besides his own literary work, he established conventual schools at Shaftesbury and Athelney, and probably a more general one at Oxford. The love of the people, whom his indefatigable energy saved from their barbarous and pagan invaders, has attributed to their hero an original genius of which there are no distinct proofs. What is really known of him is, that he was an able, honest, persevering governor, gifted with that power and habit of method and organization which is perhaps more useful in advancing early civilization than greater and more splendid gifts. Upon Alfred’s death, though England, as a whole, had suffered by the loss of the country granted to the Danes, or, as it was called, the Danelagu, Wessex had assumed a position of superiority, and was regarded as the representative state of the English. This position it fully vindicated during the reigns of Eadward, Alfred’s son, who succeeded him, and of the four next kings, till the kingdom of Wessex grew to be the kingdom of England, and exerted an imperial supremacy over the whole island.

Supremacy of Wessex.

Eadward the Elder. 901-925.

Eadward’s first difficulty was with his cousin Æthelwulf, the son of Alfred’s elder brother Æthelred. This prince claimed the throne. He landed in England, was driven to Northumbria, where he was chosen king, and then, in company with Eohric, the King of East Anglia, marched up the Thames to Cricklade. He was however defeated, and with his ally killed by a portion of the English army near the Ouse. The consequence was the renewal of the acknowledgment of the supremacy of Wessex by Guthrum II. of East Anglia. In conjunction with his sister, the Lady of the Mercians, Eadward attempted to secure himself from further molestation by the erection of numerous stone castles. These castles, which seem to have been built on a new and better plan than any before erected, became also in many instances the origin from which towns sprang; for laws were passed creating them into markets, and forbidding bargains to be made without the walls. Some sort of monopoly of trade was thus secured for fortified posts. On the death of Æthelflæd, Mercia, both Anglian and Danish, submitted to Eadward’s authority. He continued the active government of his sister, and went on with her work of fortress-building. An invasion by the Danes of Northumbria in conjunction with the Welsh, who hoped to find Mercia unguarded, was signally defeated. The Welsh kings swore alliance to Eadward, and the Danes of Northumbria, and even the Kings of Scotland and Strathclyde, acknowledged him as their “father and lord.” Eadward was thus in fact master of the whole of England, and had completed more thoroughly the work of Ecgberht. The greatness of his position is clearly marked by the marriages of his children with the greatest Princes of the Continent. One married Charles the Simple of France, a second Hugh the Great, Count of Paris, a third Otto I., Emperor of Germany.

Æthelstan. 925-940.

Battle of Brunanburh. 943.

The greatness Eadward had thus secured descended to his son Æthelstan, with whom the grandeur of the Saxon monarchy reached its highest point. He married one of his sisters to a Northumbrian prince, Cytric, receiving his allegiance for Benicia from the Tees to Edinburgh, and, on the death of Cytric, incorporated the country with his own dominions. Cytric’s two sons fled, the one to Ireland, where the Danes received him willingly, the other (Guthrith) to Constantine, King of Scotland. The consequence of the escape of these princes became evident in after years. In 934, Constantine and his heir Eorca, Owen or Eugenius, King of Cumberland, made war upon England, but were defeated and compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of Æthelstan. The attention of the English King was subsequently drawn abroad, where he upheld the cause of his nephew, Louis de Outre-Mer, son of Charles the Simple, against the attacks of his brothers-in-law, the German Otto and Hugh of Paris. It was while thus employed that the Scotch kingdoms again rose in insurrection. A great conspiracy against Æthelstan appears to have been formed, at the head of which were Anlath, son of that Guthrith who had fled to Scotland, Constantine, Owen, and several princes of the Danes from Ireland. Their object was the re-establishment of the Danish power in Northumbria. The attempt was completely thwarted by the great battle of Brunanburh, near Beverley, in Yorkshire. Not long after this decisive victory Æthelstan died. His splendid reign is further marked by legislation of a more original description than that of his predecessors. He ordered, among other things, that every man should have a lord who should be answerable for him to justice, and rendered more systematic the arrangement of mutual responsibility, which appears to have been one of the principles of Saxon police.

Eadmund. 940-946.

Eadred. 946-955.

His younger brothers, Eadmund and Eadred, followed in his footsteps, defeating the Northumbrian rebels, who from time to time elected kings of their own, but were completely conquered by Eadred. He so thoroughly incorporated the country with his own, that its ruler could no longer claim the title of king. Both Bernicia and Deira were bestowed as an earldom on Osulf, who had assisted in the conquest of the rebels, and remained in the hands of his family till the Norman Conquest. Eadmund also maintained his supremacy over Scotland, with which country his relations were of a very friendly nature, as he granted a part of the kingdom of Strathclyde, consisting of Cumberland and Galloway, to King Malcolm, to be held by military service.

Rise of Dunstan.

The policy of Eadred and of his successors seems so closely connected with the rise of Dunstan, that it may be justly attributed to him. The monkish historians, to whom we owe our knowledge of this great man, have overlaid his history with mythical stories, and have given him a character and policy to suit their own purposes. In their eagerness to secure the name of the greatest statesman of the age in support of their pretensions against the secular clergy, they have drawn him as a youth of miraculous gifts, of severe monkish asceticism, whose claim to greatness consisted in the establishment of the Benedictine rule. In the same way they have painted his opponent King Edwy [Eadwig] in the blackest colours. The common story tells us that, after a childhood passed in learning, so deep as to excite a suspicion of magic, illness drove Dunstan to the cloister at Glastonbury; that he there established the Benedictine rule, entering with such vehemence into its spirit that his asceticism almost turned his brain. On the accession of Edwy, the young king, it is said, deserted the assembly of the nobles, to pass his time in the company of the beautiful Ælfgyfu [Elgiva], his mistress. Dunstan is represented as violently dragging the unworthy king back to his proper place, as securing the banishment of Ælfgyfu, and with his partisans cruelly putting her to death upon her return. Edwy is then described as raging fiercely against all the monks in his kingdom. In truth, it is in politics rather than in ecclesiastical discipline that Dunstan’s greatness must be sought, and he must take his place in history rather as a conciliatory and patriotic governor than as an ascetic and violent churchman.

Born at the beginning of King Æthelstan’s reign, and trained partly at Glastonbury, where he found and studied books left by wandering Irish scholars, and partly at the King’s Court like other young nobles of the time, an illness induced him to devote himself to the Church. His interest secured him the Abbey of Glastonbury at the early age of seventeen. He shortly returned to the Court, became the King’s treasurer, and as an influential minister joined himself to the party which he found pre-eminent during the reign of Eadred. That king was a constant invalid, the influence of the Queen Mother was paramount, and she was supported by the chiefs of East Anglia and those whose views were national rather than provincial. The kingdom of Northumbria was in a state of ceaseless confusion. Again and again the Danes and Ostmen raised insurrections there. Wulstan, the Archbishop of York, with constantly shifting policy, at one time supported the insurgents, at another persuaded the Northern Witan to submit to Eadred. At length, in a final insurrection, he was overcome and imprisoned. The affairs in Northumbria had to be settled. It is here that the national policy of the dominant party made itself felt. Contrary to the views of the Wessex nobles, who would have wished for active interference of the government, the kingdom was reduced to the condition of an earldom under Osulf. But English supremacy being thus established, Wulstan was released, and self-government both in Church and State permitted. This conciliatory policy was interrupted by the death of Eadred.

Edwy. 955-957.

Eadgar. 957-975.

The new King Edwy, nephew of Eadred, was a mere child, and a palace intrigue, headed by Æthelgyfu and her daughter Ælfgyfu, who had obtained influence over the lad, drove the Queen Mother Eadgyfu from the Court, and established the power of the Wessex party. Unpopular among the Wessex nobles and in his own monastery, Dunstan was driven abroad, and took refuge in Ghent. But his party was still strong in England. Indignant probably at a violent resumption of grants from the Folkland, the nobles of England, with the exception of Wessex, set up Edwy’s younger brother Eadgar as a rival king, and were sufficiently powerful to oblige Edwy to divide the kingdom and content himself with the territories of Wessex south of the Thames. Dunstan was recalled by his partisans. He received from King Eadgar the sees of Rochester and of London; and when, on the death of Edwy, Eadgar succeeded to the undivided sovereignty of the kingdom, Dunstan rose with him, and became his chief minister and Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dunstan’s government.

Division of Northumbria.

As minister, Dunstan had both Church and State to reform. In both, decay had made great progress. The increased importance of the English King had raised him to a position very different from that of the tribal monarch. Along with the King had risen his dependants, the old members of the Comitatus. His Thegns or servants, rendered rich by grants of the public land, had gradually succeeded the old nobility by birth, of the German races. The troubled situation of the country had driven the freeholders more and more to seek safety by placing themselves and their land in a state of dependence on the Thegns. Even as early as Alfred every man was obliged to have a lord. At the same time the spirit of provincialism was strong, each district which had been a separate kingdom wishing to maintain its own independence. Dunstan seems to have understood that a change in the character of the monarchy was inevitable, and that national unity could only be secured by upholding that change, placing the monarch in what may be regarded as an imperial position over the subject kingdoms, and allowing the separate districts as much self-government as possible. Within the kingdom of Wessex itself, and perhaps of Mercia also, he established a strict police, and suppressed disorder with a strong hand. Beyond that, the largest freedom was permitted. Thus, the subordination of Northumbria was further secured by its division into three parts. The district between the Tees and the Humber was intrusted to Oslac. From the Tees to the Tweed remained in the hands of Osulf, while the Lothians between the Tweed and the Forth were given out on military service to the King of Scotland; and in subsequent history it was this district, peopled with English and Danes, which formed the civilized centre of the Scottish kingdom. But, when the supremacy of Wessex was thus secured, the Danes of the North were allowed to keep their own customs and make their own laws. Similarly, friendship with the Northmen of Ireland was maintained, and through their friendship the King was enabled to keep up a powerful fleet, which constantly sailed round the coasts, and kept them free from foreign invasion. The tradition that Eadgar was rowed upon the Dee to Chester by eight tributary kings, whether the fact be true or not, points to the imperial position which Dunstan had secured for him. In the Church the same policy was pursued. The great disturbances of the kingdom had thrown much power into the hands of the Church, the most permanent element of society. This increase of influence had been followed by an increase of secularity. The bishops became statesmen, and even commanders of armies. The older form of monasticism died out. Marriage of priests was constant. Livings began to be handed on from father to son. There was some chance of the establishment of an hereditary priestly caste. In Ghent, Dunstan had become acquainted with the Benedictine rule lately established there. He saw its efficiency for securing discipline among the clergy. Like other strong rulers, he regarded anarchy with aversion, and was therefore anxious to introduce the rule into England. He intrusted the work to his friend Æthelwold, whom he made Bishop of Winchester, and to Oswald, whom he raised to the See of Worcester. In Wessex and Mercia he carried out his reform with vigour, even with violence: but, as in his secular government, he kept himself under the restraints of prudence. Thus, when Oswald was appointed Archbishop of York, he made no efforts to restrain the marriage of the clergy, and in Dunstan’s own See he yielded to the prejudices of the people, and allowed the abbeys to continue in the hands of secular clerks. The title of Eadgar the Peaceful, and a reign of seventeen years unbroken by any great foreign war, attest the success of Dunstan’s policy.

Eadward the Martyr 975-979.

Fall of Dunstan.

But with Eadgar’s death, and the accession of his son Eadward, this prosperous state of things ended. For a time Dunstan held his own, but not without strong opposition. Again and again he had to plead his cause before the Witan. And at one synod, at Calne, it was intended to bring the matter to a crisis. Beornhelm, a Bishop of the Scottish Church, was brought forward as a champion by his enemies. His eloquence was carrying the assembly with him, and Dunstan could only appeal to heaven for assistance. Nor was that assistance denied; by accident or design, the floor of the upper chamber where the meeting was held gave way in that part where Beornhelm and his friends were seated, and they were hurried to swift destruction, while Dunstan’s triumphant party remained uninjured on the floor above. But even miraculous interferences did not suppress the enemies of the Prelate. A conspiracy, in which Ælfthryth [Elfrida], the mother of Ethelred, seems to have been chiefly engaged, was formed; and Eadward, returning from the chase, was killed at her castle at Corfe.

Æthelred the Unready. 979-1016.

Third Period of Danish invasion.

Battle of Maldon. 991.

The first Danegelt. 994.

Æthelred’s marriage with Emma.

Massacre of St. Brice. 1002.

Pernicious influence of Eadric Streona.

Eadward the Martyr, as his monkish chroniclers call him, being thus disposed of, his brother, Æthelred the Unready, ascended the throne. Dunstan, compelled to assist at the coronation, did so only to denounce curses on the new king He had to withdraw from Court. His policy was at an end. Mercia and the North fell away from Wessex. The King’s own character, at once weak and cruel, was not such as to inspire confidence; and we accordingly enter upon a period of almost inexplicable treasons, weakness, and disorder. The Danes reappear on the coast, and what has been spoken of as the third period of Danish invasion begins. The fleets were no longer merely piratical expeditions, but were commanded by kings of whole countries, and towards the end of the period the object was no longer plunder, or even settlement, but national conquest. The change was closely connected with the gradual consolidation of the three Northern kingdoms of Europe—Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, in each of which, as in England, one sovereign had now become paramount. The chief personage in these invasions is Swegen or Swend, son of the King of Denmark. In the year 982 he made his appearance on the English coasts, and Southampton, Chester, and London were either taken or destroyed. The kingdom was in no condition to offer a firm resistance. Internal dissensions had already begun. The King was at enmity with the whole of Dunstan’s party. We hear of a fierce quarrel with the Bishop of Rochester. The allegiance of Mercia and Northumbria was more than doubtful. East Anglia, where resistance to a kindred people might have been least expected, alone succeeded in checking the Danes. There, under Brihtnoth, the great battle of Maldon was fought, which forms the subject of one of the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon poems. Such single instances of resistance were of no real avail. Sigeric of Canterbury, who had succeeded to Dunstan’s position and policy, and was therefore by no means unfriendly to the Danes as the opponents of Wessex, induced the King to entertain a fatal plan of buying off the invaders. With the consent of his Witan, he raised £10,000, with which he bribed the Danish hosts. This was the origin of the tax known as Danegelt, which became permanent, and lasted till the reign of Henry II. The effect of such a bribe was naturally only to excite the Northern robbers to further efforts. Accordingly, in 994, Swegen and Olaf of Norway made their appearance, and England was assaulted by the national fleets of Denmark and Norway. Divided by faction, undermined by treason, and without a leader, the English knew no expedient but the repetition of bribes. Olaf, as a Christian, was indeed induced to return to his own country, but Swegen’s invasions were continuous. Supported by the disloyal chiefs of the North, he ravaged in turn Dorsetshire, Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent. And when, in the year 1000, a temporary lull occurred, Æthelred, with a madness which seems almost inconceivable, insisted on quarrelling, first with the King of Cumberland, who is said to have refused the disgraceful tribute demanded of him, though willing to serve with his forces against the Danes, and afterwards with the Normans in France. An expedition undertaken against this people with ridiculous ostentation was easily defeated. A peace was made, and hostility changed into alliance, cemented by the marriage of the King with Emma, a Norman Princess. In her train came certain followers, who obtained high office and military commands, and added a fresh element of weakness to already weakened England. But though contemptible in the field, with the craft and cruelty of a weak mind Æthelred planned the massacre of all the Danes in Wessex. Many of these were settled quietly in different parts of the country, or billeted and living on friendly terms with their landlords. On the 13th of November 1002, on the festival of St. Brice, the cruel plan was carried out. Among other victims was a sister of Swegen’s who had become a Christian; she was put to death with circumstances of unusual barbarity, it is said, at the instigation of Eadric Streona, or the Gainer. This man henceforward plays a prominent part in the history. Though of low birth, he had contrived to make himself the favourite of the King, whose daughter he subsequently married. Selfish, unscrupulous, and treacherous, his influence as the King’s adviser was most pernicious; while, if it suited his own ends, he never hesitated to betray his master. So completely is he identified with the disasters of England, that there is scarcely any criminal act of the reign that is not traced to him. But his repeated treasons do not seem to have destroyed the trust which Æthelred and his nobler son Edmund placed in him. After the massacre of St. Brice the Danes naturally sought revenge. Exeter was taken by the treachery of Hugh the Frenchman, one of Emma’s followers. Wiltshire and Salisbury were deserted by the traitor Ælfric. Again East Anglia, under Ulfcytel the Ealdorman, made the only show of resistance; but here too, treason, not of the commander but of the soldiers, themselves of Danish origin, proved fatal. Famine and civil quarrels added to the misery of the English. Again Eadric is visible, ruining rival Thegns, and advising still further use of bribes. In 1006, he had succeeded in getting made Ealdorman of the Mercians. His family rose with him, and in 1008, when at last a great national fleet was collected, the quarrels of his brother Brihtric and his nephew Wulfnoth destroyed its utility.

Thurkill’s invasions.

Swegen’s invasion.

England submits to Swegen. 1013.

In the same year, a fresh host, one division of which was commanded by Thurkill or Thurcytel, one of the most formidable of the Danish sea kings, made its appearance In 1010, the English were again defeated at the battle of Ipswich, and the country was in a condition of absolute collapse. Mercia and Wessex itself were overrun. The cause of Æthelred looked so hopeless, that Eadric the Gainer thought it time to change sides, and after the capture of Canterbury and the death of the Archbishop St. Alphege, the Witan was collected under Eadric, without the participation of the King, and a further large tribute paid, while by some arrangement, probably the cession of East Anglia, Thurkill was drawn to the English side. This step of Thurkill seems to have opened Swegen’s eyes at once to the inutility of single invasions, and to the possibility of himself effecting some similar arrangement. He felt confident of the support of Northumbria and Mercia against Wessex. He therefore moved his fleet to the Humber, and advanced to York. He had not miscalculated. The whole of the Danelagu joined him, and with this assistance, leaving his son Cnut behind him in command of the fleet in the Humber, he advanced into Wessex. His success was constant. Oxford was taken, and the royal town of Winchester. At Bath the Danish conqueror received the submission of the Thegns of the West. London, which we find constantly rising in importance, alone held out, nor was it till Æthelred deserted the city that it surrendered. But then, there being no longer any opposition, Swegen was, in fact, King of England. Æthelred sought and obtained an asylum in Normandy, till recalled by Swegen’s death the following year.

Restoration of Æthelred. 1014.

The Danes acknowledged Cnut as King, but the bulk of the English wished to retain the House of Cerdic, if Æthelred would pledge himself to rule better. This he promised to do, and his cause for a time was successful. Cnut had to retreat to his ships. Nevertheless, we hear of another large tribute, but it was paid probably to a fleet of Danish auxiliaries serving upon the English side. Eadric had of course again joined the victorious party; but again his persistent treachery was the destruction of the country. He enticed Sigeferth and Morkere, Thegns of the Five Danish Burghs, to Oxford, and there murdered them. Sigeferth’s widow was kept a prisoner, and taken in marriage by Edmund Ironside, Æthelred’s son. This prince thus acquired possession of the Five Burghs, and secured an influence which enabled him to take up a position in opposition to Eadric. On the renewal of the invasion by Cnut both Eadric and Edmund collected their forces; but, angry at the new rivalry he was experiencing, Eadric led his troops to join Cnut. Wessex was thus thrown open, and by a strange inversion of affairs, Edmund, with Utred of Northumberland, occupied the northern part of England, while the Danes, under Cnut and Eadric, held Wessex and the South. In 1016, Æthelred died.