misery, that none of his subjects knew where he was, or what had befallen him.” 27 Asser had already declared, that on the invasion of Godrun, many fled into exile; and that "for the greatest part, all the inhabitants of that region subImitted to his dominion." 28 The inference which seems naturally to result from all his passages is, that Alfred had offended his people, and in this trying emergency was deserted by them. Other authors also declare, that it was their flight or disaffection which produced his. 29 A few other remarks on this subject may be perused in the accompanying note. 27 Quare ergo idem sæpedictus Ælfredus in tantam miseriam sæpius incidit, ut nemo subjectorum suorum sciret, ubi esset vel quo devenisset, p. 32. 28 Asser, p. 30. 29 The chronicle of Mailros says, that Alfred fugientibus suis cum paucis relictus est et in nemoribus se abscondebat, p. 144. Wallingford says, Rex vero Ealfredus elegit prophetiæ spiritui cedere quam cum certo suorum dissidio sævientibus occursare. Ingulf declares, that ad tantam tandem exilitatem deductus est ut tribus pagis Hamtoniensi, Wiltoniensi, et Somersata ægre in fide retentis, p. 26. So Malmsbury, p. 43. The Latin life of St. Neot says, Rex autem Aluredus audiens barbaricam rabiem atque sævitiam cominus iruisse suorumque considerans dispersionem huc illucque cœpit animo fluctuare. MSS. Claud. 157. The expression of Asser, in note 32. of Sæpius, would lead us to infer that Alfred had been in great difficulties before this last distress. 30 We have endeavoured to account for the neglect of his subjects mentioned by Asser; but he is also charged with cruelty and severity, and with immoral conduct, in the ancient lives of St. Neot. On the last imputation we may observe, that Alfred in his youth felt himself subject to tendencies which induced him to implore from Heaven some disciplining visitation to repress them, that would not make him useless or contemptible among his contemporaries. Asser, p. 41. The accusation of cruelty and severity is more remarkable. On this we may recollect some of his judicial punishments which are mentioned in the old law-book called the "Mirroir des Justices," written by Andrew Horne in the reign of Edward the Second. He quotes in this work, Rolls in the time of king Alfred, and, among many other inflictions of the king's love of justice, he mentions several executions which appear to have been both summary and arbitrary, and, according to our present notions, cruelly severe. It is true that the minds and habits of every part of society were in those times so violent, that our estimation of the propriety of these judicial severities cannot now be accurately just. But yet, even with this recollection, the capital punishments with which Alfred is stated to have visited the judicial errors, corruptions, incapacity, dishonesty, and violence, which are recorded in the Mirror, strike our moral feeling as coming within the expressions of the "immoderate tyranny" which he is said to have at first exhibited. That Alfred should desire the improvement of his people, was the natural result of his own improving mind. But if he at first attempted to effect this by violence; and to precipitate, by pitiless exertions of power, that melioration which time, and adapted education, laws, example, and institutions, only could produce, he acted CHAP. 878. BOOK IV. 878. with as much real tyranny as if he had shed their blood from the common passions of ordinary despots; but his motives must not be confounded with theirs. He meant well, though he may have acted, in this respect, injudiciously. Yet no motive can make crime not criminal. However men may palter with the question to serve temporary purposes, no end justifies bad means. Cruelty and violence are always evils, and tend to produce greater ones than those which they correct. We may, therefore, understand from the examples mentioned by Horne, that even Alfred's better purposes, thus executed, may have attached to the beginning of his reign the charges of tyranny and cruelty, and may have produced the temporary aversion of his people. They could not appreciate his great objects. They saw what they hated. They probably misconceived, for a time, his real character, and by their alienation may have contributed to amend it. Virtue, without intending it, will often act viciously from ignorance, prejudice, wrong advice, or undue alarm. Wisdom must unite with virtue to keep it from wrong conduct or deterioration; but true wisdom arises from the best human and divine tuition, and the gradual concurrence of experience. Alfred possessed these in the latter part of his life, but in its earlier periods had not attained them. CHAP. IX. His Conduct during his Seclusion. LET us now collect all that the most ancient writers have transmitted to us of this afflictive crisis of Alfred's life. Their statements present us with all that was known or believed on this subject, by our ancestors who lived nearest to the times of our venerable king; and they are too interesting not to merit our careful preservation. The period of Alfred's humiliation may be divided into four stages. 1st. What occurred between his leaving his throne and his reaching Athelney: 2d. The incidents which happened to him there before he began his active measures against the invaders: 3d. His exertions until he discovered himself again to his subjects: and, 4th. The great battle which restored him to his kingdom. On each of these heads we will lay before the reader the circumstances which the best and most ancient authorities that we could explore have transmitted to us. On the first stage, the oldest authority that now remains is the Saxon life of St. Neot, written before the Conquest. He says of the king, that when the army approached "he was soon lost; he took flight, and left all his warriors, and his commanders, and all his people, his treasures and his treasure vessels, and preserved his life. He went hiding over hedges and ways, woods and wilds, till through the divine guidance he came safe to the isle of Ethelney."1 1 Tha re hene spa stithlic pæs, and spa neh Englelande, he sone foppypht, fleamer cepte, hir cempen ealle forlet and his heretogen and call his theode, CHAP. IX. 878. BOOK IV. 878. The life of St. Neot was first written in Alfred's time, and is quoted by his friend Asser.2 This primitive tract of Neot's biography is not now to be found; but we may reasonably suppose that the ancient lives of this saint which have survived to us were composed from it. The next work in point of antiquity is the MS. Latin life of the same person in the Cotton Library, ascribed by the title of the MS. to an Abbot of Croyland in 1180. It says: "The king hearing that the rage and cruelty of the barbarians were rushing immediately upon him, and considering the dispersion of his people, began to fluctuate to and fro in his mind. At length yielding to his discreeter judgment, he retired from his enemies alone and unarmed, and exposed to be the sport of flight. As he was entirely ignorant whither he should turn himself, or where the necessity of his flight should impel him, he let fortune lead him, and came unexpectedly into a place surrounded on all sides with extensive marshes. This place was in the extreme boundary of England, on the borders of Britain, which, in their language, is called Ethelingaia, and in ours (Latin) means the royal island." s The fuller account of Matthew of Westminster seems to be taken chiefly from Ramsay's Life of St. Neot, written within half a century after the preceding. "In the extreme borders of the English people towards the west, there is a place called Ethelingeie, or the isle of the nobles. It is surrounded by marshes, and so inaccessible that no one can get to it but by a small vessel. It has a great wood of alders, which madmes and madmrazen and his life gebeanh. Fende tha lutigende geond heges and peges, geond pudes and pelder spa tha he thunh Lodes pissunge gesund become to Ætheling-ege. MSS. British Museum, Vespas. D. 14. 2 Ut in vita sancti patris Neoti legitur. Asser, p. 30. MSS. Claud. A. 5. IX. 878. contains stags and goats, and many animals of that CHAP. kind. Its solid earth is scarcely two acres in breadth. Alfred having left the few fellow-soldiers whom he had, that he might be concealed from his enemies, sought this place alone, where, seeing the hut of an unknown person, he turned to it, asked and received a shelter. For some days he remained there as a guest and in poverty, and contented with the fewest necessaries. But the king, being asked who he was and what he sought in such a desert place, answered that he was one of the king's thegns, had been conquered with him in battle, and flying from his enemies had reached that place. The herdsman, believing his words, and moved with pity, carefully supplied him with the necessaries of life." 4 His first incident is thus described by his friend Alfred's adAsser, with an allusion to a contemporary life of Neot not now extant. "He led an unquiet life there, at his cowherd's. It happened that on a certain day the rustic wife of this man prepared to bake her bread. The king, sitting then near the hearth, was making ready his bow and arrows, and other warlike instruments, when the illtempered woman beheld the loaves burning at the fire. She ran hastily and removed them, scolding the king, and exclaiming, 'You man! you will not turn the bread you see burning, but you will be very glad to eat it when done.' This unlucky woman little thought she was addressing the king, Alfred." 5 4 Matt. West. p. 329, 330. 5 Asser, p. 30, 31. Although in the Cotton MS. of Asser this passage is wanting, yet it was in Camden's ancient MS., and the preceding words, "apud quondam suum vaccarium" are in the Cotton MS. Dr. Whitaker, in his usual hasty manner, boldly calls it an interpolation taken from Ramsay's Life of St. Neot, which he has printed. But Dr. W. did not know of the earlier life in the Claud. MS., nor of the still more ancient Saxon life, Vesp. D. 14., both of which contain the incident. Malmsbury also mentions the "in silvam profugus," and the subsequent education of the herdsman for the church, and his elevation to the see of Winchester, p. 242. ventures in Ethelney. |