BOOK IV. 884. bition, and prospect, to which the fame and actions of Ragnar was expanding the Northman mind. He landed again in France 20, and from him and others renewed destruction became its fate. The government was weak, and the country factious. Sometimes the assailants were bought off.21 Sometimes the rivers were fortified to prevent their ingress. 22 A general assembly of the powerful chiefs was in one year convened, to provide an united defence 23 ; and an edict was afterwards passed, awarding death to all who should give breast-plates, arms, or horses, to Northmen, even though it was to procure their own redemption. 24 But the particular actions of Hastings are not now to be traced, because though the chronicles of France abound with depredations, they often omit the name of the commanding adventurer. He appears to us, however, twice by name in the annals of Regino. Once in the year 867, as compelled to fortify himself in a church, sallying from which, he destroyed Count Robert the Strong 25, who has been called the greatest captain which France then had.26 Again, in the year 874, as hovering about Bretagne, and accepting a defiance from a celebrated Breton warrior, whose courage excited his admiration, and averted or deterred his hostility.27 20 Dudo, p. 65. The Gesta Normannorum does not state when they returned from Italy, but mentions that, in 869, part returned to Italy, p. 3. 21 In 869, Charles gave them 4000 pounds of silver, and raised this sum by exacting six denarii from every manso ingenuili et de servili tres et de accolis unus et de duobus hospitibus unus et decima de omnibus quæ negotiatores videbantur habere. Gesta Norman. Du Chesne, p. 3. So in 870, they obtained a great donation of silver, corn, wine, and cattle, p. 4, &c. 22 Ann. Bertiniani, an. 864. 23 In Junio, 864, celebrantur Comitia Pistensia quo regem et proceres traxerat generalis necessitas instituendi munitiones contra Normannos. Capit. Reg. ap. Lang. i. 558. 21 Capit. Reg. ap. Lang. i. 558. When the Pope Nicolaus cited the bishops of France, they excused themselves on account of the Northmen. Lang. i, 568. 25 Regino, p. 481. Pistor. Script. Germ. 26 Cet fut ainsi que perit alors Robert le Fort le plus grand capitaine qu'il y eust alors en France. Daniel, Hist. de France, vol. ii. p. 99. 27 Regino, p. 55. In 879 he was in England, as before-mentioned, at Fulham; but as he received no co-operation from Godrun, whom Alfred had wisely pacified, he sailed to Ghent 28, and joined vigorously in those furious assaults by which the kingdom of France was for thirteen years again desolated, and endangered.29 Defeated at length by the imperial forces, Hastings marched to Boulogne, and constructing there a large fleet 30, he determined to try his fortune against Alfred in England. Perhaps weary of a life of wandering warfare, he now hoped to extort an English kingdom, or to be chosen king of the Anglo-Danes, as no chieftain of the Northmen was then surviving of equal celebrity with himself. Fifteen years had now elapsed since Alfred's restoration, and he had employed the interval in executing every scheme which his active wisdom could form, for the improvement and protection of his people. His activity in defeating this attempt is a remarkable feature in a character so contemplative. The sudden invasion of Hastings compelled him to abandon literature and ease, for an unremitted exertion of sagacity and courage, in the decline of his life, and towards the end of his reign. Hastings attacked Alfred with peculiar advantages. As the Northmen were in possession of Northumbria and East Anglia, he had only to contend against the strength of Wessex and its dependencies. Godrun was dead 31; whose friendship with Alfred might have counteracted his invasion. If his countrymen 31 29 It is Malmsbury who has affixed his name to this incident. Asser and others mention the arrival at Fulham, and the departure. Malmsbury says, "Cæteri ex Danis qui Christiani esse recusassent, cum Hastingo mare transfretaverunt ubi quæ mala fecerunt indiginæ norunt. P. 43. During this period they were once defeated by Louis: a song, in the ancient Teutonic language, written at the time, on this victory, still exists. Their siege of Paris, and its defence in 886, is narrated in a curious poem of Abbo, who was in the scene of action, and who has transmitted to us a full description of the incident. It is in Du Chesne; and Langb. ii. 76-106. 20 Ethelwerd. 31 He died 890. Sax. Chron. p. 90. CHAP. XI. 884. 893. BOOK IV. 893. in England declined to assist him by their active cooperation, he was sure of their neutrality, and he relied on their secret connivance. He shaped his operations in conformity with this political situation. By not landing in East Anglia and Northumbria, he avoided the danger of exciting their jealousy; and by directing his fleet to Kent, he was enabled to profit from their vicinity. If he were defeated, they might afford him a shelter; if successful, they could immediately assist. On these occasions we must also recollect, that the assailing force did not merely consist of those who at first invaded. The landing actually made, usually drew to the enterprise many of the independent bands that were floating about. It may have been from these supplies that Hastings continued the struggle so long. Two hundred and fifty vessels sailed to the southwest coast of Kent, and landed near Romney-marsh, at the eastern termination of the great wood or weald of Anderida. 32 They drew up their ships to the weald, four miles from the outward mouth of the river, and there attacked and mastered a fortification which the peasants of the country were constructing in the fens. They built a stronger military work at Apuldre, on the Rother, and ravaged Hampshire and Berkshire. 33 Soon afterwards, Hastings himself appeared with the division he had selected to be under his own command, consisting of eighty ships, in the Thames. He navigated them into the East Swale, landed at Milton, near Sittingbourn, and threw up a strong entrenchment, which continued visible for ages. 33 This distribution of his forces was judicious. The This au 32 The Saxon Chronicle says, they landed at Limine muthan, p. 91. thority describes this wood as then being 120 miles long from east to west, and 30 broad. 33 Sax. Chron. 92. Ethelw. 846. Matt. West. 345. two armies were but twenty miles asunder, and could therefore act separately, or combine for any joint operation which prudence or exigency should direct. The vicinity of their countrymen in Essex secured them from any attacks on the right, and the sea was their frontier on the left. The fertile districts in the east part of Kent became their spoil without a blow; and thus Hastings secured an ample supply, and a safe position, which courage and policy might convert into a kingdom. While Alfred prepared for measures of active resistance, he endeavoured to bind the Northumbrians and East Anglians to peace, by oaths and hostages; but the sympathetic temptations to plunder, which the presence and situation of Hastings presented, overcame their young religion and their honour. When the armies of Hastings pervaded the country in occasional excursions, they joined in the enterprise, and sometimes they made aggressions themselves. 34 In this perilous conjuncture, Alfred, with cool judgment, distinguished the dangerous from the temporary attack. He neglected the East Anglians; he left the country which they could infest to the protection of its inhabitants, and the fortified cities which he had provided; and he encamped, with his collected army, between the two divisions of the Danes the forest on the one side, and waters upon the other, protected his flanks, and gave security to his encampment. 35 By this judicious station he separated the invaders from the East Anglians, and at the same time kept asunder the two armies of the Northmen. He watched their movements, and was prepared to pour his avenging troops on either which should attempt to molest his people beyond the districts in which they CHAP. XI. 893. 894. BOOK IV. 894. resided. They sometimes endeavoured to plunder in places where the royal army was absent; but bands from the neighbouring cities, or Alfred's patrolling parties, both by day and night, chastised their The king's discretion and activity awed even Hastings. It was so unlike the disorderly warfare which he had experienced in France, that for some time he seemed intimidated by an enemy whose strength was multiplied by his judgment. Alfred's position was too strong to be attacked without assured peril; and as the king despised the valour of temerity, he forbore to assault the Danes in their entrenchments. His hope was to acquire a certain victory from a Fabian caution, combined with a Fabian vigilance. The plan of Alfred required the aid of time, and a permanent force: but the conditions of military service prevented the Saxon army from being perpetually in the field. To remedy this inconvenience, which would have robbed him of all the advantages he projected, Alfred divided his army into two bodies: of these, he called one to the warlike campaign, while the individuals of the other were enjoying peaceably their private occupations. After a reasonable service, the active portion was allowed to return home, and the rest quitted their domestic hearths to supply the place of their retiring countrymen. Thus while he avoided every necessity of rushing to a precipitate attack, he always presented to the invaders a strong and undiminished force. Surprised at this new phenomenon, Hastings and his confederates remained in their camps, discontented, coerced, and overawed. The East Anglians, who watched the motions of Hastings, forbore any material warfare while he remained inactive. 36 Sax. Chron. 92. Flor. 330. Matt. West. 346. |