IV. 871. BOOK in West Saxony, besides the excursions which Alfred and several of the ealdormen and the king's thegns made against the enemy, which were not numbered. Wearied himself, and the country being exhausted by these depopulating conflicts, Alfred made a peace with his enemies, and they quitted his dominions." Northmen conquer Mercia; 874. Yet a peace, with their continuance in the island, could but be a dangerous truce, that would soon end in more dangerous hostilities; and which, in the mean time, surrendered the rest of England into their power. This soon became visible; for the invaders marched immediately, even those who were in Northumberland, to London, and, wintering there, threatened Mercia. Burrhed, its king, twice negociated with them; but at last, disregarding all treaties, they entered Mercia, and wintered at Repton in Derbyshire, where they destroyed the celebrated monastery, the sacred mausoleum of all the Mercian kings.7 Burrhed quitted his throne, and leaving his people to the mercy of the invaders, went disgracefully to Rome, where he soon died, and was buried in the English school.8 The Danes gave the Mercian crown to Ceolwulf, an officer of Burrhed's court; his capacity was contracted; his disposition mischievous; he swore fidelity to his foreign masters; paid them tribute, and promised to return the power they granted, whenever they required, and to be ready with his forces to co-operate with them. He plundered the poor peasantry, robbed 6 Sax. Ch. 82. Asser, 25. Ethelw. 844. It would seem that Ingwar went to Scotland and Ireland after his conquest of East Anglia; for he is noticed in the Annals of Ulster, as besieging and destroying Alcuith at Dumbarton, and proceeding afterwards to Ireland with a multitude of English, Welsh, and Pictish prisoners, where he died; as mentioned in note 45. of the preceding chapter. Monasterium que celeberrimum omnium regum Merciorum sacratissimum mausoleum funditus destruxissent. Ingulf, 26. In the church of St. Mary there. Asser, 26. Ingulf, who in general is a very valuable authority, here makes a small confusion of dates; he says, Burrbed fled in 874, while Alfred was tarrying in Etheling island. This is not correct. Alfred did not seclude himself till four years afterwards. the merchants, and oppressed the unprotected and the clergy; on the wretched monks of the destroyed abbey of Croyland he unfeelingly imposed a tax of a thousand pounds. But this pageant of tyranny displeased his masters; he was stripped of every thing, and he perished miserably. With him ended for ever the Anglo-Saxon octarchy. The kingdom of Mercia never existed again. When the Danish power declined, it was associated by Alfred to Wessex from which it was never afterwards separated. England was now become divided between two powers, the West Saxons, and the Northmen, who had subdued all the island but Wessex. СНАР. nicia, VII. 874. The invaders divided themselves into two bodies. The largest part of their army, under their three kings, Godrun, Oskitul, and Amund, marched from Repton to Cambridge, where they wintered and resided twelve months 11; while another division of their They conforces procceded to Northumbria under Halfden, to quer Bercomplete the conquest of this kingdom. As yet they had subdued no more of it than Deira. His calamitous invasion subjected the whole kingdom of Northumbria, and harassed the Strathcluyd Britons.12 Scotland attempted to withstand them, but failed; and the king of Wales fled to Ireland for refuge from their attacks. 13 Halfden, having completed the conquest of Bernicia, divided it amongst his followers, and tilled and cultivated it. He perished soon afterwards in Ireland.14 9 Ingulf, 27. 10 Ingulf, 27. He says, that from the first year of Penda, to the deposition of Ceolwulf, the Mercian throne had lasted about 230 years. 11 Ethelwerd, 844. Asser, 27. 12 Sax. Chron. 83. 13 Ann. Ulster, 65. These annals notice some dissensions of the Northmen, in which Halfden killed by stratagem the son of Olaf, one of the kings, or sea-kings, that accompanied Ingwar. 14 Sax. Chron. 84. In 876, the Annals of Ulster place the death of Halfden. "Battle at Lochraun, between the Fingâls and Dubh-gâls, where the latter lost Halfden their captain," p. 65. BOOK IV. 876. They attack His second The three kings, who had wintered at Cambridge, began their hostilities against Wessex. Leaving their positions at night, they sailed to Dorsetshire, surprised the castle of Wareham, and depopulated the country round. Alfred, after a naval victory, weary of battles and seeking only repose, again negotiated with them to leave his dominions; and he had the impolicy to use money as his peace-maker. 15 They pledged themselves by their bracelets, the oath most sacred to their feelings, and which they had never plighted before.16 But Alfred exacted also an oath on Christian relics. We may smile at the logic of the king, who thought that a Christian oath would impose a stronger obligation on Pagan minds, or that the crime of perjury was aggravated by the formalities of the adjuration. But the delusion of his mind in not discerning that the welfare of himself and his country was sacrificed by such treaties is more remarkable; especially as Asser mentions that his natural character was to be too warlike.17 To punish Northmen by the impositions of oaths, or by hostages, which appear to have been reciprocal 18, was to encourage their depredations by the impunity which attended them. It was binding a giant with a rush, an eagle with a cobweb. Accordingly, in a night quickly succeeding the peace-making solemnity, they rushed clandestinely on the king's forces, and slew all his horsemen.19 They used the steeds to 15 Ethelwerd, 844. Before this treaty Alfred attacked the Danes by sea. His ships, meeting six of theirs, took one and dispersed the others. Asser, 27. 16 Asser, 28. Their bracelets were highly valued by them, and always buried with them. See Bartholin. 499-503. Joannes Tinmouth says, they were nobilitatis indicium. Hist. MSS. cited by Dugdale, i. p. 256.; and see Aimon, p. 371. 18 I infer this, because, in mentioning Alfred's complete and final conquest of Guthrun, Asser says, he exacted hostages, but gave none. Ille nullum eis daret, p. 34. He adds that this was unusual. Ita tamen qualiter nunquam cum aliquo pacem ante pepigerant. 19 Asser, 28. mount a part of their army, which rode immediately CHAP. to Exeter, and remained there for the winter.20 VII. 877. Alfred's The small advantage which the ships of Alfred had obtained over a few Danish vessels, induced him naval suc to cause long ships and galleys to be built at the cesses. ports of his kingdom; and, as his countrymen were less competent to navigate them, he manned them with such piratical foreigners as would engage in his service.21 They were appointed to cut off all supplies from his invaders. They met a large fleet of Northmen hastening from Wareham, to relieve their countrymen. They flew to arms with the same alacrity with which they prosecuted all their enterprises. The Northmen, half ruined already by a stormy voyage, waged a fruitless battle; their hosts perished, and of their steeds of the ocean, to adopt their favourite metaphor, one hundred and twenty were destroyed at the rock of Swanwick, on the coast of Hampshire.22 Alfred at last collected his troops, and marched against the Danes in Exeter; but they possessed themselves of the castle before he reached it, and his military skill was unable or unwilling to assault or to besiege it. He contented himself with repeating the illusory policy of exacting new hostages and new oaths, that they should depart from his kingdom.23 The conduct of Alfred, in the first years of his reign, seems to have been imprudent. While acting with his brother, he was energetic and indefatigable; 20 Named by the Britons, Caer Wisc; by the Saxons, Caxanceartne. It is, continues Asser, on the eastern bank of the river Wisc, near the southern sea, which flows between Gaul and Britain. 21 Asser's expressions are "Impositisque piratis in illis vias maris custodiendas commisit." P. 29. 22 The printed copy of Asser, besides this defeat, makes 120 also to perish in a storm. I follow Matt. West. 328., who consolidates the two incidents into one. Flor. Wig. 315., Sax. Ch. 83., Ethelw. 845., and Hunt. 350., mention only one loss of 120 vessels. 23 Asser, 28. BOOK IV. 877. but after he became possessed of the crown himself, instead of a system of vigilance and vigour against his enemies, we find nothing but inert quietude, temporising pacifications, and transient armaments. The only plan discernible in the first seven years of his reign, was to gain momentary repose. An interval of tranquillity was certainly obtained; but it was a delusive slumber on the precipice of fate. |