The Ethnology of the Northmen-Their early Invasions-The Youth of Alfred the Great-Accession of Alfred-His Struggles against the Danes-Peace of Wedmore-The Danelaw- Political Effects of the Danish Settlement-Reorganisation of his Kingdom by Alfred--Later Wars with the Danes-Death of Alfred. Ethnology of the Northmen or Danes. Ir is a question whether the union of the English under Egbert would have proved more permanent than previous attempts at consolidation, had not a completely new turn been given to English affairs by the invasions of the Northmen. The name of Northmen was given by the English to all the inhabitants of Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula, and it is perfectly exact as far as it goes, for up to this time these people had not been consolidated, as they afterwards became, into Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes; but, as the Britons called all the English Saxons, so the English frequently spoke of the Northmen as Danes, and, since this name is short and convenient, we may do the same, provided it be remembered that many of the invaders came from other parts of the north of Europe besides Denmark. The Northmen belonged to the German branch of the Aryan family; but while the English spoke a dialect of the Low German tongue which was common to all the tribes who dwelt on the low plain from the Scheldt to the Elbe or thereabouts, the dialect of the Northmen is distinguished as Scandinavian, and differs from Low German in some essential particulars. In the ninth century the Northmen were still heathen, and they retained all the fighting qualities of their savage origin unimpaired by contact with civilisation. In fact, they were in the time of Egbert what the English had been at the time of the first settlements, and so far as they differed from the English in character seem to have done so in the direction of greater dash and brilliancy. They were also far abler seamen than the English, and had greater skill both in constructing and defending earthworks. First The first invasion of the Northmen took place in the reign of Offa, and from that time till the reign of William the Conqueror the fighting between the English and the Northmen was almost incessant. Nor Invasion of did England suffer alone, for during that period Northmen established themselves in large territories both of Northern France and Southern Italy; twice attacked Constantinople, founded a dynasty in Russia, and plundered almost every seaport town from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. the Northmen. Three Invasion. Battle of In their invasions of England it is possible to distinguish three distinct epochs: first, that of plunder; then that of English settlement; and, third, that of political conquest. The Danes first appeared on the Periods of coast in the year 787, and before the close of the century four plundering expeditions had landed on our shores and the great abbeys of Lindisfarne and Wearmouth, the homes of Aidan and Bede and the centres of Northumbrian culture and piety, had been pillaged and destroyed. Then there was a respite till 828, when the Danes landed in Wessex, and defeated Egbert in a pitched battle. However, in 837 Egbert contrived to get the mastery over a combined force of Cornishmen and Danes in the battle of Hengist's Down. From 837 to 840, every summer saw the heathen men at their deadly work. Three pitched battles at least were fought; in each the English were beaten, and London, Rochester, and Canterbury were taken by storm. In 851 the Danes, for the first time, wintered in the Isle of Thanet; and the same year no less than three hundred and fifty-one of the pirate vessels made their appearance in the Thames. London and Canterbury were again pillaged, and the Mercians were defeated; but when the Danes passed into Surrey they were routed with enormous slaughter Battle of at the battle of Ocley. In 855 some Danes passed the winter in Sheppey; but in 860 a body of Danes who had sacked Winchester were defeated by Osric, ealdorman of Hampshire, and Ethelwulf, ealdorman of Berkshire. On the whole, therefore, the Saxons were making a fair defence, when in 866 a new army, far more formidable than its predecessors, made its appearance in East-Anglia. After passing the winter there, the 'great heathen army' crossed the Humber into Northumbria, and, as it found the Northumbrians engaged in a civil war, seized York without difficulty. Next year the army, leaving Guthrum in charge of York, advanced into Mercia and seized Northmen winter in the Isle of Thanet. Ocley. Nottingham; but a great force of Mercians and West-Saxons compelled them to withdraw to York. However, in 870 they invaded EastAnglia, defeated and slew Edmund its king, and sacked Peterborough and Crowland; and in 871 they attacked Wessex. Reign of Ethelwulf. The reigning king of the West-Saxons was Ethelred, the grandson of Egbert. Egbert died in 839, and was succeeded by his son Ethelwulf. Ethelwulf appears to have devoted more attention to the injunctions of the church than to the affairs of his kingdom, judging by the fact that he chose the year when the Northmen wintered in Sheppey to pay a visit to the pope. On his return he visited the court of the Emperor Charles the Bald, and took as his second wife his daughter Judith. Ethelwulf died in 858, and left four sons, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred, and Alfred, each of whom in turn Reign of became king. Ethelbald reigned first, making Ethelbert Ethelbald. under-king of the south-eastern kingdoms. His reign, however, only lasted two years, and then Ethelbert came to the throne. In his reign the victory was gained which followed the sack of WinReign of chester, and during the remainder of Ethelbert's life the Ethelbert. invaders confined their attention to the under-kingdoms of EastAnglia and Northumbria. However, in 866 he too died, and was succeeded by Ethelred, as it had been arranged, by the Reign of will of Ethelwulf and with the consent of the witan, Ethelred. that each of his sons should succeed in turn, to the exclusion of his grandchildren. Early Life The object of this arrangement may have been to secure the succession of Alfred, who appears from his earliest youth to have given promise of his future excellence. Alfred was born at Wanof Alfred. tage, in Berkshire, in 849; and, though it is hard to believe all the stories of his precocity, he soon attracted attention by his abilities. In 853 Ethelwulf sent his little son to Rome, and while there he was in some sort consecrated a king by Leo IV., who had heard rumours of Ethelwulf's death. When Ethelwulf visited Rome Alfred returned home with him, and till the age of twenty led an active life, dividing his time between study, hunting, and the exercises of religion. Even as a young man he was noted for the seriousness of his character, and a copy of the Psalms prepared for his own use was his constant companion. In 868 he married Elswitha, the daughter of the ealdorman of the Gainas, a tribe whose name is still preserved in Gainsborough. Alfred, therefore, was twenty-two years of age and a married man when the great invasion took place. In 871 'the great army,' supported by its fleet, made its way up the valley Great of Wessex. of the Thames, and, following the practice of pitching their camp in the angle between two rivers, entrenched itself in the angle of ground between the Kennet and the Thames, close to the town of Reading. They then began their usual practice of plundering the country and collecting the spoil into their camp. One of their bands, however, was defeated by Ethelwulf, the veteran ealdorman Battle of of Berkshire; and three days later Ethelred and Alfred, with Reading. youthful impetuosity, attempted to storm the camp itself. In this, however, they overrated their strength. Behind earthworks the Danes were invincible; the assault was beaten off; and the brave Ethelwulf was killed. Encouraged by this, the Danes sallied forth in Battle of force, but were met on the Berkshire downs at Ashdown by Ashdown. the whole force of the West Saxons. There the invaders were completely routed, apparently owing to the adoption by Alfred of the method of forming his men in a close column of attack instead of fighting in loose order. The losses in these three engagements fell heavily on the English; and a fortnight later, in trying to prevent an invasion of Hampshire, they were beaten at Basing; and two months later, probably at Marden in Wiltshire, they were again routed after a most stubborn encounter. Here Ethelred appears to have been mortally wounded, and Alfred at once stepped into his place. To make matters worse, the Danes received reinforcements, and Alfred was beaten at Wilton. 'Nine general battles,' says the Chronicle, were fought this year south of the Thames, besides which Alfred, the king's brother, and single ealdormen and king's thegns oftentimes made incursions on them, which are not counted.' Battle of Reign of Northmen However, the general result of the fighting seems to have discouraged the Danes, for the next year the camp at Reading was broken up and the army, though it did not quit the country, fell back on retire from London. Next year it passed into Lincolnshire, and in 874 Wessex. it drove Burhed, king of Mercia and brother-in-law of Alfred, from his kingdom and gave it to Ceolwulf, 'an unwise king's thegn,' to hold as tenant-at-will. Then one-half of the army,' under Halfdene, seized Northumbria and divided it among themselves and raided on the Picts and Strathclyde Britons; while the other, under Guthrum, occupied Cambridge and prepared for another invasion of Wessex. This occurred in 877. The heathen men sailed through the Straits of Dover, landed at Wareham, and formed their fortified camp by drawing a trench between the rivers Frome and Piddle. This time Alfred was Fresh Wessex by too wary to risk a repetition of the Reading disaster, so he contented himself with preventing plunder, and did it so effectively that at last the Danes came to terms. Some of them, however, broke their word and made their way by land to Exeter, where Invasion of they were next year joined by the main body, which, however, was weakened by the loss of one hundred and twenty ships in a storm. Again Alfred kept to his blockading tactics, and with such success that the Danish army gave up the game; and, terms having been made, it retired by land into Mercia and spent the autumn and early winter at Gloucester. At Christmas, however, the Danes were joined by a countryman, Hubba, who had been plundering in South Wales, and he persuaded Guthrum to renew the war. Accordingly, in the depth of winter, Guthrum broke up his camp and plunged into the heart of Wessex, while Hubba and his ships made for Devonshire. So swift were Guthrum's marches, that he was master of Chippenham before Alfred could oppose him; and the king, seeing that it was useless to attempt to collect forces in the east of his kingdom while the Danes held the key of the position, retired into the great forest of Selwood, and waited till the return of spring should enable him to take the field with advantage; and, meanwhile, Hubba's force was cut to pieces by the men of Devonshire. Alfred made his headquarters at the isle of Athelney, a Alfred stronghold among the marshes of the river Parret ; and while he kept up the spirits of his men by successful skirmishes, he fixed Brixton in Wiltshire as the place, and May 12th as the day, for the assembling of his great expedition. retires to Athelney. Sheltered by the Downs, or concealed from observation by the thickets of Selwood, Alfred's warriors made their way to the appointed spot, and, falling on the Danes at Edington, 878, put them to complete Battle of rout. From the field the Danes fled to their camp; but, Edington. being separated from their fleet, they were soon starved into surrender, and Guthrum was compelled to enter into a permanent peace, and to be baptized as a Christian, which accordingly was done at Wedmore, a royal palace in Somerset. Peace of By the peace concluded at Wedmore the Watling Street was made the boundary of the English and Danish districts; but in 886 Alfred took advantage of a partial rising of the Danes of East Anglia to secure a better military frontier on the south-east. Wedmore. The new boundary ran along the estuary of the Thames to the mouth of the Lea, along the Lea to its source, then across country to Bedford, and then along the Ouse till it crossed the Watling Street, and so on to the |