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Vol.I., Part A., by David Hume

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Title: The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part A.
       From the Britons of Early Times to King John

Author: David Hume

Release Date: September 8, 2006 [EBook #19211]

Language: English

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[Illustration: frontispiece.jpg  PORTRAIT OF HUME.]

[Illustration: titlepage.jpg BOADICEA HARANGUING THE BRITONS]





THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND

FROM THE INVASION OF JULIUS CÆSAR

TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF JAMES THE SECOND,


BY DAVID HUME, ESQ.

1688



London: James S. Virtue, City Road and Ivy Lane
New York: 26 John Street
1860

And

Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott & Co.
March 17, 1901



In Three Volumes:

VOLUME ONE: The History Of England From The Invasion Of Julius Cæsar To
The End Of The Reign Of James The Second............ By David Hume, Esq.

VOLUME TWO: Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of
George II........................................... by Tobias Smollett.

VOLUME THREE: From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year
of the Reign of Queen Victoria............... by E. Farr and E.H. Nolan.




VOLUME ONE

Part A.

THE EARLY BRITONS TO KING JOHN




TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.




THE LIFE OF DAVID HUME, ESQ.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.


MY OWN LIFE.

It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity;
therefore I shall be short. It may be thought an instance of vanity
that I pretend at all to write my life; but this narrative shall contain
little more than the history of my writings; as, indeed, almost all
my life has been spent in literary pursuits and occupations. The first
success of most of my writings was not such as to be an object of
vanity.

I was born the twenty-sixth of April, 1711, old style, at Edinburgh. I
was of a good family, both by father and mother: my father's family is
a branch of the earl of Home's, or Hume's; and my ancestors had been
proprietors of the estate which my brother possesses, for several
generations. My mother was daughter of Sir David Falconer, president of
the college of justice; the title of Lord Halkerton came by succession
to her brother.

My family, however, was not rich; and being myself a younger brother,
my patrimony, according to the mode of my country, was of course very
slender. My father, who passed for a man of parts, died when I was an
infant, leaving me, with an elder brother and a sister, under the
care of our mother, a woman of singular merit, who, though young and
handsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing and educating of
her children. I passed through the ordinary course of education with
success, and was seized very early with a passion for literature, which
has been the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my
enjoyments. My studious disposition, my sobriety, and my industry, gave
my family a notion that the law was a proper profession for me; but
I found an insurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits of
philosophy and general learning; and while they fancied I was poring
upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was
secretly devouring.

My very slender fortune, however, being unsuitable to this plan of life,
and my health being a little broken by my ardent application, I was
tempted, or rather forced, to make a very feeble trial for entering
into a more active scene of life. In 1734, I went to Bristol, with some
recommendations to several eminent merchants; but in a few months found
that scene totally unsuitable to me. I went over to France, with a view
of prosecuting my studies in a country retreat; and I there laid that
plan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued. I resolved
to make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency of fortune, to
maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every object as
contemptible, except the improvement of my talents in literature.

During my retreat in France, first at Rheims, but chiefly at La Fleche,
in Anjou, I composed my Treatise of Human Nature. After passing three
years very agreeably in that country, I came over to London in 1737. In
the end of 1738, I published my Treatise, and immediately went down
to my mother and my brother, who lived at his country house, and was
employing himself very judiciously and successfully in the improvement
of his fortune.

Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of
Human Nature. It fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such
distinction as even to excite a murmur among the zealots. But being
naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I very soon recovered the
blow, and prosecuted with great ardor my studies in the country. In
1742, I printed at Edinburgh the first part of my Essays. The work
was favorably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former
disappointment. I continued with my mother and brother in the country,
and in that time recovered the knowledge of the Greek language, which I
had too much neglected in my early youth.

In 1745, I received a letter from the marquis of Annandale, inviting me
to come and live with him in England; I found also that the friends and
family of that young nobleman were desirous of putting him under my care
and direction, for the state of his mind and health required it. I
lived with him a twelve-month. My appointments during that time made
a considerable accession to my small fortune. I then received an
invitation from General St. Clair to attend him as a secretary to his
expedition, which was at first meant against Canada, but ended in an
incursion on the coast of France. Next year, to wit, 1747, I received
an invitation from the general to attend him in the same station in
his military embassy to the courts of Vienna and Turin. I then wore the
uniform of an officer, and was introduced at these courts as aid-de-camp
to the general, along with Sir Harry Erskine and Captain Grant, now
General Grant. These two years were almost the only interruptions which
my studies have received during the course of my life: I passed them
agreeably, and in good company; and my appointments, with my frugality,
had made me reach a fortune which I called independent, though most of
my friends were inclined to smile when I said so: in short, I was now
master of near a thousand pounds.

I had always entertained a notion, that my want of success in publishing
the Treatise of Human Nature had proceeded more from the manner than
the matter, and that I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in
going to the press too early. I, therefore, cast the first part of
that work anew in the Inquiry concerning Human Understanding, which was
published while I was at Turin. But this piece was at first little more
successful than the Treatise on Human Nature. On my return from Italy,
I had the mortification to find all England in a ferment, on account
of Dr. Middleton's Free Inquiry, while my performance was entirely
overlooked and neglected, A new edition, which had been published at
London, of my Essays, moral and political, met not with a much better
reception.

Such is the force of natural temper, that these disappointments made
little or no impression on me. I went down, in 1749, and lived two years
with my brother at his country house, for my mother was now dead. I
there composed the second part of my Essay, which I called Political
Discourses, and also my Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals,
which is another part of my Treatise that I cast anew. Meanwhile, my
bookseller, A. Millar, informed me, that my former publications (all
but the unfortunate Treatise) were beginning to be the subject of
conversation; that the sale of them was gradually increasing, and that
new editions were demanded. Answers by reverends and right reverends
came out two or three in a year; and I found, by Dr. Warburton's
railing, that the books were beginning to be esteemed in good company.
However, I had fixed a resolution, which I inflexibly maintained, never
to reply to any body; and not being very irascible in my temper, I have
easily kept myself clear of all literary squabbles. These symptoms of a
rising reputation gave me encouragement, as I was ever more disposed to
see the favorable than unfavorable side of things; a turn of mind
which it is more happy to possess, than to be born to an estate of ten
thousand a year.

In 1751, I removed from the country to the town, the true scene for a
man of letters. In 1752 were published at Edinburgh, where I then lived,
my Political Discourses, the only work of mine that was successful on
the first publication. It was well received at home and abroad. In the
same year was published, at London, my Inquiry concerning the Principles
of Morals; which, in my own opinion, (who ought not to judge on
that subject,) is, of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or
literary, incomparably the best, It came unnoticed and unobserved into
the world.

In 1752, the Faculty of Advocates chose me their librarian, an office
from which I received little or no emolument, but which gave me the
command of a large library, I then formed the plan of writing the
History of England; but being frightened with the notion of continuing a
narrative through a period of seventeen hundred years, I commenced with
the accession of the house of Stuart, an epoch when, I thought, the
misrepresentations of faction began chiefly to take place. I was, I own,
sanguine in my expectations of the success of this work. I thought
that I was the only historian that had at once neglected present power,
interest, and authority, and the cry of popular prejudices; and as the
subject was suited to every capacity, I expected proportional applause.
But miserable was my disappointment; I was assailed by one cry of
reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation; English, Scotch,
and Irish, whig and tory, churchman and sectary, freethinker and
religionist, patriot and courtier, united in their rage against the man
who had presumed to shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I. and
the earl of Stratford; and after the first ebullitions of their fury
were over, what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink
into oblivion. Mr. Millar told me that in a twelvemonth he sold only
forty-five copies of it. I scarcely, indeed head of one man in the three
kingdoms, considerable for rank or letters, that could endure the book.
I must only except the primate of England, Dr. Herring, and the primate
of Ireland, Dr. Stone, which seem two odd exceptions. These dignified
prelates separately sent me messages not to be discouraged.

I was, however, I confess, discouraged; and had not the war been at that
time breaking out between France and England, I had certainly retired
to some provincial town of the former kingdom, have changed my name, and
never more have returned to my native country. But as this scheme
was not now practicable, and the subsequent volume was considerably
advanced, I resolved to pick up courage and to persevere.

In this interval, I published, at London, my Natural History of
Religion, along with some other small pieces. Its public entry was
rather obscure, except only that Dr. Hurd wrote a pamphlet against
it, with all the illiberal petulance, arrogance, and scurrility,
which distinguish the Warburtonian school. This pamphlet gave me some
consolation for the otherwise indifferent reception of my performance.

In 1756, two years after the fall of the first volume, was published
the second volume of my history, containing the period from the death of
Charles I. till the revolution. This performance happened to give less
displeasure to the whigs, and was better received. It not only rose
itself, but helped to buoy up its unfortunate brother.

But though I had been taught by experience that the whig party were in
possession of bestowing all places, both in the state and in Literature,
I was so little inclined to yield to their senseless clamor, that in
above a hundred alterations, which further study, reading, or reflection
engaged me to make in the reigns of the two first Stuarts, I have made
all of them invariably to the tory side. It is ridiculous to consider
the English constitution before that period as a regular plan of
liberty.

In 1759, I published my history of the house of Tudor. The clamor
against this performance was almost equal to that against the history
of the two first Stuarts. The reign of Elizabeth was particularly
obnoxious. But I was now callous against the impressions of public
folly, and continued very peaceably and contentedly, in my retreat at
Edinburgh, to finish, in two volumes, the more early part of the English
history, which I gave to the public in 1761, with tolerable, and but
tolerable, success.

But, notwithstanding this variety of winds and seasons, to which my
writings had been exposed, they had still been making such advances,
that the copy-money given me by the booksellers much exceeded any
thing formerly known in England; I was become not only independent, but
opulent. I retired to my native country of Scotland, determined never
more to set my foot out of it; and retaining the satisfaction of never
having preferred a request to one great man, or even making advances of
friendship to any of them. As I was now turned of fifty, I thought of
passing all the rest of my life in this philosophical manner: when I
received, in 1763, an invitation from the earl of Hertford, with whom I
was not in the least acquainted, to attend him on his embassy to Paris,
with a near prospect of being appointed secretary to the embassy; and,
in the mean while, of performing the functions of that office. This
offer, however inviting, I at first declined; both because I was
reluctant to begin connections with the great, and because I was afraid
that the civilities and gay company of Paris would prove disagreeable
to a person of my age and humor; but on his lordship's repeating the
invitation, I accepted of it. I have every reason, both of pleasure and
interest; to think myself happy in my connections with that nobleman, as
well as afterwards with his brother, General Conway.

Those who have not seen the strange effects of modes, will never imagine
the reception I met with at Paris, from men and women of all ranks and
stations. The more I resiled from their excessive civilities, the more
I was loaded with them. There is, however, a real satisfaction in living
at Paris, from the great number of sensible, knowing, and polite company
with which that city abounds above all places in the universe. I thought
once of settling there for life.

I was appointed secretary to the embassy; and, in summer, 1765, Lord
Hertford left me, being appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland. I was
chargé d'affaires till the arrival of the duke of Richmond, towards the
end of the year. In the beginning of 1766, I left Paris, and next summer
went to Edinburgh, with the same view as formerly, of burying myself in
a philosophical retreat. I returned to that place, not richer, but with
much more money, and a much larger income, by means of Lord Hertford's
friendship, than I left it; and I was desirous of trying what
superfluity could produce, as I had formerly made an experiment of a
competency. But in 1767, I received from Mr. Conway an invitation to be
under-secretary; and this invitation, both the character of the person,
and my connections with Lord Hertford, prevented me from declining. I
returned to Edinburgh in 1769, very opulent, (for I possessed a revenue
of one thousand pounds a year,) healthy, and though somewhat stricken
in years, with the prospect of enjoying long my ease, and of seeing the
increase of my reputation.

In spring, 1775, I was struck with a disorder in my bowels, which at
first gave me no alarm, but has since, as I apprehend it, become mortal
and incurable. I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution. I have suffered
very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange, have,
notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a
moment's abatement of my spirits; insomuch, that were I to name a period
of my life which I should most choose to pass over again, I might be
tempted to point to this later period. I possess the same ardor as ever
in study, and the same gayety in company. I consider, besides, that a
man of sixty-five, by dying, cuts off only a few years of infirmities;
and though I see many symptoms of my literary reputation's breaking out
at last with additional lustre, I know that I could have but few years
to enjoy it. It is difficult to be more detached from life than I am at
present.

To conclude historically with my own character: I am, or rather was,
(for that is the style I must now use in speaking of myself, which
imboldens me the more to speak my sentiments;) I was, I say, a man of
mild disposition, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful
humor, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of
great moderation in all my passions. Even my love of literary fame,
my ruling passion, never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent
disappointments. My company was not unacceptable to the young and
careless, as well as to the studious and literary; and as I took a
particular pleasure in the company of modest women, I had no reason to
be displeased with the reception I met with from them. In a word, though
most men, anywise eminent, have found reason to complain of Calumny, I
never was touched, or even attacked, by her baleful tooth; and though
I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious
factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury.
My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my
character and conduct; not but that the zealots, we may well
suppose, would have been glad to invent and propagate any story to my
disadvantage, but they could never find any which they thought would
wear the face of probability. I cannot say there is no vanity in making
this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one;
and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained.



April 18, 1776.

LETTER FROM ADAM SMITH, LL. D. TO WILLLIAM STRAHAN, ESQ.

Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, Nov. 9, 1778.[**]

DEAR SIR,

It is with a real, though a very melancholy pleasure, that I sit down to
give you some account of the behavior of our late excellent friend, Mr.
Hume, during his last illness.

Though, in his own judgment, his disease was mortal and incurable, yet
he allowed himself to be prevailed upon, by the entreaty of his friends,
to try what might be the effects of a long journey. A few days before he
set out, he wrote that account of his own life, which, together with
his other papers, he has left to your care. My account, therefore, shall
begin where his ends.

He set out for London towards the end of April, and at Morpeth met with
Mr. John Home and myself, who had both come down from London on purpose
to see him, expecting to have found him at Edinburgh. Mr. Home returned
with him, and attended him during the whole of his stay in England,
with that care and attention which might be expected from a temper so
perfectly friendly and affectionate. As I had written to my mother that
she might expect me in Scotland, I was under the necessity of continuing
my journey. His disease seemed to yield to exercise and change of air;
and when he arrived in London, he was apparently in much better health
than when he left Edinburgh. He was advised to go to Bath to drink the
waters, which appeared for some time to have so good an effect upon him,
that even he himself began to entertain, what he was not apt to do, a
better opinion of his own health. His symptoms, however, soon returned
with their usual violence; and from that moment he gave up all thoughts
of recovery, but submitted with the utmost cheerfulness, and the most
perfect complacency and resignation. Upon his return to Edinburgh,
though he found himself much weaker, yet his cheerfulness never abated,
and he continued to divert himself, as usual, with correcting his own
works for a new edition, with reading books of amusement, with the
conversation of his friends; and, sometimes in the evening, with a party
at his favorite game of whist. His cheerfulness was so great, and his
conversation and amusements ran so much in their usual strain, that,
notwithstanding all bad symptoms, many people could not believe he was
dying. "I shall tell your friend, Colonel Edmonstone," said Dr. Dundas,
to him one day, "that I left you much better, and in a fair way of
recovery." "Doctor," said he, "as I believe you would not choose to tell
any thing but the truth, you had better tell him that I am dying as fast
as my enemies, if I have any, could wish, and as easily and cheerfully
as my best friends could desire." Colonel Edmonstone soon afterwards
came to see him, and take leave of him; and on his way home he could not
forbear writing him a letter, bidding him once more an eternal adieu,
and applying to him, as to a dying man, the beautiful French verses in
which the abbé Chaulieu in expectation of his own death, laments his
approaching separation from his friend the marquis de la Fare. Mr.
Hume's magnanimity and firmness were such, that his most affectionate
friends knew that they hazarded nothing in talking or writing to him as
to a dying man, and that so far from being hurt by this frankness, he
was rather pleased and flattered by it. I happened to come into his room
while he was reading this letter, which he had just received, and which
he immediately showed me. I told him, that though I was sensible how
very much he was weakened, and that appearances were in many respects
very bad, yet his cheerfulness was still so great, the spirit of
life seemed still to be so very strong in him, that I could not help
entertaining some faint hopes. He answered, "Your hopes are groundless.
An habitual diarrhoea of more than a year's standing, would be a very
bad disease at any age; at my age it is a mortal one. When I lie down in
the evening, I feel myself weaker than when I rose in the morning; and
when I rise in the morning, weaker than when I lay down in the evening.
I am sensible besides, that some of my vital parts are affected, so that
I must soon die." "Well," said I, "if it must be so, you have at least
the satisfaction of leaving all your friends, your brother's family in
particular, in great prosperity." He said that he felt that satisfaction
so sensibly, that when he was reading, a few days before, Lucian's
Dialogues of the Dead, among all the excuses which are alleged to Charon
for not entering readily into his boat, he could not find one that
fitted him: he had no house to finish, he had no daughter to provide for
he had no enemies upon whom he wished to revenge himself. "I could not
well imagine," said he, "what excuse I could make to Charon in order to
obtain a little delay. I have done every thing of consequence which I
ever meant to do; and I could at no time expect to leave my relations
and friends in a better situation than that in which I am now likely
to leave them: I, therefore, have all reason to die contented." He
then diverted himself with inventing several jocular excuses, which
he supposed he might make to Charon, and with imagining the very surly
answers which it might suit the character of Charon to return to them.
"Upon further consideration," said he, "I thought I might say to him,
'Good Charon, I have been correcting my works for a new edition.
Allow me a little time, that I may see how the public receives the
alterations.' But Charon would answer, 'When you have seen the effect of
these, you will be for making other alterations. There will be no end of
such excuses; so, honest friend, please step into the boat.' But I
might still urge, 'Have a little patience, good Charon: I have been
endeavoring to open the eyes of the public. If I live a few years
longer, I may have the satisfaction of seeing the downfall of some of
the prevailing systems of superstition.' But Charon would then lose all
temper and decency. 'You loitering rogue, that will not happen these
many hundred years. Do you fancy I will grant you a lease for so long a
term? Get into the boat this instant, you lazy, loitering rogue.'"

But, though Mr. Hume always talked of his approaching dissolution
with great cheerfulness, he never affected to make any parade of his
magnanimity. He never mentioned the subject but when the conversation
naturally led to it, and never dwelt longer upon it than the course
of the conversation happened to require; it was a subject indeed which
occurred pretty frequently, in consequence of the inquiries which his
friends, who came to see him, naturally made concerning the state of his
health. The conversation which I mentioned above, and which passed on
Thursday the eighth of August, was the last, except one, that I ever had
with him. He had now become so very weak, that the company of his most
intimate friends fatigued him; for his cheerfulness was still so great,
his complaisance and social disposition were still so entire, that
when any friend was with him, he could not help talking more, and with
greater exertion, than suited the weakness of his body. At his own
desire, therefore, I agreed to leave Edinburgh, where I was staying
partly upon his account and returned to my mother's house here at
Kirkaldy, upon condition that he would send for me whenever he wished
to see me; the physician who saw him most frequently, Dr. Black,
undertaking, in the mean time, to write me occasionally an account of
the state of his health.

On the twenty-second of August, the doctor wrote me the following
letter;--

"Since my last, Mr. Hume has passed his time pretty easily, but is much
weaker. He sits up, goes down stairs once a day, and amuses himself with
reading, but seldom sees any body. He finds that even the conversation
of his most intimate friends fatigues and oppresses him; and it is happy
that he does not need it, for he is quite free from anxiety, impatience,
or low spirits, and passes his time very well with the assistance of
amusing books."


I received, the day after, a letter from Mr. Hume himself, of which the
following is an extract:--

     "Edinburgh, 23d August, 1776.

     "MY DEAREST FRIEND,

     "I am obliged to make use of my nephew's hand
     in writing to you, as I do not rise to-day.

     "I go very fast to decline, and last night had a
     small fever, which I hoped might put a quicker period
     to this tedious illness; but unluckily it has, in a
     great measure, gone off. I cannot submit to your
     coming over here on my account, as it is possible for
     me to see you so small a part of the day; but Dr.
     Black can better inform you concerning the degree of
     strength which may from time to time remain with
     me. Adieu, etc."

Three days after, I received the following letter from Dr. Black:--

     "Edinburgh, Monday, 26th August, 1776.

     "DEAR SIR,

     "Yesterday, about four o'clock, afternoon, Mr. Hume expired.
     The near approach of his death became evident in the night
     between Thursday and Friday, when his disease became
     excessive, and soon weakened him so much, that he could no
     longer rise out of his bed He continued to the last
     perfectly sensible, and free from much pain or feelings of
     distress. He never dropped the smallest expression of
     impatience; but when he had occasion to speak to the people
     about him, always did it with affection and tenderness. I
     thought it improper to write to bring you over, especially
     as I heard that he had dictated a letter to you, desiring
     you not to come. When he became very weak, it cost him an
     effort to speak; and he died in such a happy composure of
     mind, that nothing could exceed it."

Thus died our most excellent and never to be forgotten friend;
concerning whose philosophical opinions men will, no doubt, judge
variously, every one approving or condemning them, according as they
happen to coincide or disagree with his own; but concerning whose
character and conduct there can scarce be a difference of opinion. His
temper, indeed, seemed to be more happily balanced, if I may be allowed
such an expression, than that perhaps of any other man I have ever
known. Even in the lowest state of his fortune, his great and necessary
frugality never hindered him from exercising, upon proper occasions,
acts both of charity and generosity. It was a frugality founded not upon
avarice, but upon the love of independency. The extreme gentleness
of his nature never weakened either the firmness of his mind or the
steadiness of his resolutions. His constant pleasantry was the genuine
effusion of good nature and good humor, tempered with delicacy and
modesty, and without even the slightest tincture of malignity, so
frequently the disagreeable source of what is called wit in other men.
It never was the meaning of his raillery to mortify; and therefore, far
from offending, it seldom failed to please and delight, even those who
were the objects of it. To his friends who were frequently the objects
of it, there was not perhaps any one of all his great and amiable
qualities which contributed more to endear his conversation. And
that gayety of temper, so agreeable in society, but which is so often
accompanied with frivolous and superficial qualities, was in him
certainly attended with the most severe application, the most extensive
learning, the greatest depth of thought, and a capacity in every respect
the most comprehensive. Upon the whole, I have always considered him,
both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to
the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man as perhaps the nature of
human frailty will permit.

I ever am, dear sir,

Most affectionately yours,

ADAM SMITH.




HISTORY OF ENGLAND.




CHAPTER I.




THE BRITONS.

The curiosity entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring into
the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a
regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much involved
in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction. Ingenious men, possessed
of leisure, are apt to push their researches beyond the period in which
literary monuments are framed or preserved; without reflecting, that the
history of past events is immediately lost or disfigured when intrusted
to memory and oral tradition, and that the adventures of barbarous
nations, even if they were recorded, could afford little or no
entertainment to men born in a more cultivated age. The convulsions of
a civilized state usually compose the most instructive and most
interesting part of its history; but the sudden, violent, and unprepared
revolutions incident to barbarians, are so much guided by caprice, and
terminate so often in cruelty, that they disgust us by the uniformity of
their appearance; and it is rather fortunate for letters that they are
buried in silence and oblivion. The only certain means by which nations
can indulge their curiosity in researches concerning their remote
origin, is to consider the language, manners, and customs of their
ancestors, and to compare them with those of the neighboring nations.
The fables, which are commonly employed to supply the place of true
history, ought entirely to be disregarded; or if any exception be
admitted to this general rule, it can only be in favor of the ancient
Grecian fictions, which are so celebrated and so agreeable, that they
will ever be the objects of the attention of mankind. Neglecting,
therefore, all traditions, or rather tales, concerning the more early
history of Britain, we shall only consider the state of the inhabitants
as it appeared to the Romans on their invasion of this country: we shall
briefly run over the events which attended the conquest made by that
empire, as belonging more to Roman than British story: we shall hasten
through the obscure and uninteresting period of Saxon annals; and shall
reserve a more full narration for those times, when the truth is both
so well ascertained, and so complete, as to promise entertainment and
instruction to the reader.

All ancient writers agree in representing the first inhabitants of
Britain as a tribe of the Gauls or Celtæ, who peopled that island from
the neighboring continent. Their language was the same, their manners,
their government, their superstition; varied only by those small
differences which time or a communication with the bordering nations
must necessarily introduce. The inhabitants of Gaul, especially in those
parts which lie contiguous to Italy, had acquired, from a commerce with
their southern neighbors, some refinement in the arts, which gradually
diffused themselves northwards, and spread but a very faint light over
this island. The Greek and Roman navigators or merchants (for there
were scarcely any other travellers in those ages) brought back the most
shocking accounts of the ferocity of the people, which they magnified,
as usual, in order to excite the admiration of their countrymen. The
south-east parts, however, of Britain had already, before the age
of Cæsar, made the first and most requisite step towards a civil
settlement; and the Britons, by tillage and agriculture, had there
increased to a great multitude.[*]

     [* Cæsar, lib. iv.]

The other inhabitants of the island still maintained themselves by
pasture: they were clothed with skins of beasts: they dwelt in huts,
which they reared in the forests and marshes, with which the country was
covered: they shifted easily their habitation, when actuated either by
the hopes of plunder or the fear of an enemy: the convenience of feeding
their cattle was even a sufficient motive for removing their seats and
as they were ignorant of all the refinements of life, their wants and
their possessions were equally scanty and limited.

The Britons were divided into many small nations or tribes and being a
military people, whose sole property was then arms and their cattle, It
was impossible, after they had acquired a relish of liberty for their
princes or chieftains to establish any despotic authority over them.
Their governments, though monarchical,[*] were free, as well as those of
all the Celtic nations; and the common people seem even to have enjoyed
more liberty among them,[**] than among the nations of Gaul,[***] from
whom they were descended. Each state was divided into factions within
itself:[****] it was agitated with jealousy or animosity against the
neighboring states: and while the arts of peace were yet unknown, wars
were the chief occupation, and formed the chief object of ambition,
among the people.

     [* Diod. Sic. lib. iv. Mela, lib. iii. cap. 6.
     Strabo, lib. iv.]

     [** Dion Cassius, lib. lxxv.]

     [*** Cæsar, lib. vi.]

     [**** Tacit. Agr.]

The religion of the Britons was one of the most considerable parts of
their government; and the druids, who were their priests, possessed
great authority among them. Besides ministering at the altar, and
directing all religious duties, they presided over the education of
youth; they enjoyed an immunity from wars and taxes; they possessed
both the civil and criminal jurisdiction; they decided all controversies
among states as well as among private persons, and whoever refused to
submit to their decree was exposed to the most severe penalties. The
sentence of excommunication was pronounced against him: he was forbidden
access to the sacrifices or public worship: he was debarred all
intercourse with his fellow-citizens, even in the common affairs of
life: his company was universally shunned, as profane and dangerous:
he was refused the protection of law:[*] and death itself became an
acceptable relief from the misery and infamy to which he was exposed.
Thus the bands of government, which were naturally loose among that rude
and turbulent people, were happily corroborated by the terrors of their
superstition.

     [* Cæsar, lib. vi. Strabo, lib. iv.]

No species of superstition was ever more terrible than that of the
druids. Besides the severe penalties, which it was in the power of the
ecclesiastics to inflict in this world, they inculcated the eternal
transmigration of souls; and thereby extended their authority as far as
the fears of their timorous votaries. They practised their rites in
dark groves or other secret recesses;[*] and in order to throw a greater
mystery over their religion, they communicated their doctrines only to
the initiated, and strictly forbade the committing of them to writing,
lest they should at any time be exposed to the examination of the
profane vulgar.

     [* Plin. lib. xii. cap. 1.]

Human sacrifices were practised among them: the spoils of war were
often devoted to their divinities; and they punished with the severest
tortures whoever dared to secrete any part of the consecrated offering:
these treasures they kept in woods and forests, secured by no other
guard than the terrors of their religion;[*] and this steady conquest
over human avidity may be regarded as more signal than their prompting
men to the most extraordinary and most violent efforts. No idolatrous
worship ever attained such an ascendant over mankind as that of the
ancient Gauls and Britons; and the Romans, after their conquest, finding
it impossible to reconcile those nations to the laws and institutions of
their masters, while it maintained its authority, were at last obliged
to abolish it by penal statutes; a violence which had never, in any
other instance, been practised by those tolerating conquerors.[**]

     [* Cæsar, lib. vi.]

     [* Sueton. in vita Claudii.]




THE ROMANS.

The Britons had long remained in this rude but independent state, when
Cæsar, having overrun all Gaul by his victories, first cast his eye on
their island. He was not allured either by its riches or its renown; but
being ambitious of carrying the Roman arms into a new world, then mostly
unknown, he took advantage of a short interval in his Gaulic wars, and
made an invasion on Britain. The natives, informed of his intention,
were sensible of the unequal contest, and endeavored to appease him by
submissions, which, however, retarded not the execution of his design.
After some resistance, he landed, as is supposed, at Deal, [Anno ante,
C. 55;] and having obtained several advantages over the Britons, and
obliged them to promise hostages for their future obedience, he was
constrained, by the necessity of his affairs, and the approach of
winter, to withdraw his forces into Gaul. The Britons relieved, from the
terror of his arms, neglected the performance of their stipulations; and
that haughty conqueror resolved next summer to chastise them for this
breach of treaty. He landed with a greater force; and though he found
a more regular resistance from the Britons, who had united under
Cassivelaunus, one of their petty princes, he discomfited them in every
action. He advanced into the country; passed the Thames in the face of
the enemy; took and burned the capital of Cassivelaunus; established his
ally, Mandubratius, in the sovereignty of the Trinobantes; and having
obliged the inhabitants to make him new submissions, he again returned
with his army into Gaul, and left the authority of the Romans more
nominal than real in this island.

The civil wars which ensued, and which prepared the way for the
establishment of monarchy in Rome, saved the Britons from that yoke
which was ready to be imposed upon them. Augustus, the successor of
Cæsar, content with the victory obtained over the liberties of his own
country, was little ambitious of acquiring fame by foreign wars; and
being apprehensive lest the same unlimited extent of dominion, which had
subverted the republic, might also overwhelm the empire, he recommended
it to his successors never to enlarge the territories of the Romans.
Tiberius, jealous of the fame which might be acquired by his generals,
made this advice of Augustus a pretence for his inactivity.[*]

     [* Tacit. Agr.]

The mad sallies of Caligula, in which he menaced Britain with an
invasion, served only to expose himself and the empire to ridicule;
and the Britons had now, during almost a century, enjoyed their liberty
unmolested, when the Romans, in the reign of Claudius, began to think
seriously of reducing them under their dominion. Without seeking any
more justifiable reasons of hostility than were employed by the late
Europeans in subjecting the Africans and Americans, they sent over an
army, [A. D. 43,] under the command of Plautius, an able general, who
gained some victories, and made a considerable progress in subduing the
inhabitants. Claudius himself, finding matters sufficiently prepared for
his reception, made a journey into Britain, and received the
submission of several British states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and
Trinobantes, who inhabited the south-east parts of the island, and whom
their possessions and more cultivated manner of life rendered willing to
purchase peace at the expense of their liberty. The other Britons, under
the command of Caractacus, still maintained an obstinate resistance, and
the Romans made little progress against them; till Ostorius Scapula was
sent over to command their armies. [A. D. 50.] This general advanced
the Roman conquests over the Britons; pierced into the country of
the Silures, a warlike nation, who inhabited the banks of the Severn;
defeated Caractacus in a great battle; took him prisoner, and sent him
to Rome, where his magnanimous behavior procured him better treatment
than those conquerors usually bestowed on captive princes.[*]

     [* Tacit. Ann lib. xii.]

Notwithstanding these misfortunes, the Britons were not subdued; and
this island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in which
military honor might still be acquired. [A. D. 59.] Under the reign of
Nero, Suetonius Paulinus was invested with the command, and prepared to
signalize his name by victories over those barbarians. Finding that
the island of Mona, now Anglesey, was the chief seat of the druids, he
resolved to attack it, and to subject a place which was the centre of
their superstition, and which afforded protection to all their baffled
forces. The Britons endeavored to obstruct his landing on this sacred
island, both by the force of their arms and the terrors of their
religion. The women and priests were intermingled with the soldiers upon
the shore; and running about with flaming torches in their hands, and
tossing their dishevelled hair, they struck greater terror into the
astonished Romans by their bowlings, cries, and execrations, than the
real danger from the armed forces was able to inspire. But Suetonius,
exhorting his troops to despise the menaces of a superstition which they
despised, impelled them to the attack, drove the Britons off the field,
burned the druids in the same fires which those priests had prepared for
their captive enemies, destroyed all the consecrated groves and altars;
and having thus triumphed over the religion of the Britons, he thought
his future progress would be easy in reducing the people to subjection.
But he was disappointed in his expectations. The Britons, taking
advantage of his absence, were all in arms; and headed by Boadicea,
queen of the Iceni, who had been treated in the most ignominious manner
by the Roman tribunes, had already attacked, with success, several
settlements of their insulting conquerors. Suetonius hastened to the
protection of London, which was already a flourishing Roman colony;
but found, on his arrival, that it would be requisite for the general
safety, to abandon that place to the merciless fury of the enemy. London
was reduced to ashes; such of the inhabitants as remained in it were
cruelly massacred; the Romans and all strangers, to the number of
seventy thousand, were every where put to the sword without distinction;
and the Britons, by rendering the war thus bloody, seemed determined
to cut off all hopes of peace or composition with the enemy. But this
cruelty was revenged by Suetonius in a great and decisive battle, where
eighty thousand of the Britons are said to have perished, and Boadicea
herself, rather than fall into the hands of the enraged victor, put an
end to her own life by poison.[*] Nero soon after recalled Suetonius
from a government, where, by suffering and inflicting so many
severities, he was judged improper for composing the angry and alarmed
minds of the inhabitants. After some interval, Cerealis received the
command from Vespasian, and by his bravery propagated the terror of the
Roman arms, Julius Frontinus succeeded Cerealis both in authority and in
reputation: but the general who finally established the dominion of
the Romans in this island, was Julius Agricola, who governed it in the
reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and distinguished himself in
that scene of action.

This great commander formed a regular plan for subduing Britain, and
rendering the acquisition useful to the conquerors. He carried his
victorious arms northwards, defeated the Britons in every encounter,
pierced into the inaccessible forests and mountains of Caledonia,
reduced every state to subjection in the southern parts of the island,
and chased before him all the men of fiercer and more intractable
spirits, who deemed war and death itself less intolerable than servitude
under the victors. He even defeated them in a decisive action, which
they fought under Galgacus, their leader; and having fixed a chain of
garrisons between the Friths of Clyde and Forth, he thereby cut off
the ruder and more barren parts of the island, and secured the Roman
province from the incursions of the barbarous inhabitants.[*]

     [* Tacit Ann. lib. xiv.]

During these military enterprises, he neglected not the arts of peace.
He introduced laws and civility among the Britons, taught them to desire
and raise all the conveniences of life, reconciled them to the Roman
language and manners, instructed them in letters and science, and
employed every expedient to render those chains which he had forged both
easy and agreeable to them.[*]

     [* Tacit. Agr.]

The inhabitants, having experienced how unequal their own force was to
resist that of the Romans, acquiesced in the dominion of their masters,
and were gradually incorporated as a part of that mighty empire.

This was the last durable conquest made by the Romans, and Britain,
once subdued, gave no further inquietude to the victor. Caledonia alone,
defended by its barren mountains, and by the contempt which the Romans
entertained for it, sometimes infested the more cultivated parts of the
island by the incursions of its inhabitants. The better to secure
the frontiers of the empire, Adrian, who visited this island, built a
rampart between the River Tyne and the Frith of Solway; Lollius Urbicus,
under Antoninus Pius, erected one in the place where Agricola had
formerly established his garrisons, Severus, who made an expedition
into Britain, and carried his arms to the most northern extremity of it,
added new fortifications to the wall of Adrian; and during the reigns
of all the Roman emperors, such a profound tranquillity prevailed in
Britain, that little mention is made of the affairs of that island by
any historian. The only incidents which occur, are some seditions or
rebellions of the Roman legions quartered there, and some usurpations
of the imperial dignity by the Roman governors. The natives, disarmed,
dispirited, and submissive, had lost all desire and even idea of their
former liberty and independence.


But the period was now come, when that enormous fabric of the Roman
empire, which had diffused slavery and oppression, together with peace
and civility, over so considerable a part of the globe, was approaching
towards its final dissolution. Italy, and the centre of the empire,
removed during so many ages from all concern in the wars, had entirely
lost the military spirit, and were peopled by an enervated race, equally
disposed to submit to a foreign yoke, or to the tyranny of their own
rulers. The emperors found themselves obliged to recruit their
legions from the frontier provinces, where the genius of war, though
languishing, was not totally extinct; and these mercenary forces,
careless of laws and civil institutions, established a military
government no less dangerous to the sovereign than to the people.
The further progress of the same disorders introduced the bordering
barbarians into the service of the Romans; and those fierce nations,
having now added discipline to their native bravery, could no longer be
restrained by the impotent policy of the emperors, who were accustomed
to employ one in the destruction of the others. Sensible of their own
force, and allured by the prospect of so rich a prize, the northern
barbarians, in the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, assailed at once
all the frontiers of the Roman empire; and having first satiated their
avidity by plunder, began to think of fixing a settlement in the wasted
provinces. The more distant barbarians, who occupied the deserted
habitations of the former, advanced in their acquisitions, and pressed
with their incumbent weight the Roman state, already unequal to the load
which it sustained. Instead of arming the people in their own defence,
the emperors recalled all the distant legions, in whom alone they
could repose confidence; and collected the whole military force for
the defence of the capital and centre of the empire. The necessity of
self-preservation had superseded the ambition of power; and the ancient
point of honor, never to contract the limits of the empire, could no
longer be attended to in this desperate extremity.

Britain by its situation was removed from the fury of these barbarous
incursions; and being also a remote province, not much valued by
the Romans, the legions which defended it were carried over to the
protection of Italy and Gaul. But that province, though secured by
the sea against the inroads of the greater tribes of barbarians, found
enemies on its frontiers, who took advantage of its present defenceless
situation. The Picts and Scots, who dwelt in the northern parts,
beyond the wall of Antoninus, made incursions upon their peaceable and
effeminate neighbors; and besides the temporary depredations which they
committed, these combined nations threatened the whole province with
subjection, or, what the inhabitants more dreaded, with plunder and
devastation, The Picts seem to have been a tribe of the native British
race, who, having been chased into the northern parts by the conquests
of Agricola, had there intermingled with the ancient inhabitants:
the Scots were derived from the same Celtic origin, had first been
established in Ireland, had migrated to the north-west coasts of this
island, and had long been accustomed, as well from their old as their
new seats, to infest the Roman province by piracy and rapine. [1]

     [* See note A, at the end of the volume.]

These tribes finding their more opulent neighbors exposed to invasion,
soon broke over the Roman wall, no longer defended by the Roman arms;
and, though a contemptible enemy in themselves, met with no resistance
from the unwarlike inhabitants. The Britons, accustomed to have recourse
to the emperors for defence as well as government, made supplications to
Rome: and one legion was sent over for their protection. This force was
an overmatch for the barbarians, repelled their invasion, touted them
in every engagement, and having chased them into their ancient limits,
returned in triumph to the defence of the southern provinces of the
empire.[*]

     [* Gildas, Bede, lib. i. cap. 12.]

Their retreat brought on a new invasion of the enemy. The Britons made
again an application to Rome, and again obtained the assistance of a
legion, which proved effectual for their relief: but the Romans, reduced
to extremities at home, and fatigued with those distant expeditions,
informed the Britons that they must no longer look to them for succor,
exhorted them to arm in their own defence, and urged, that, as they were
now their own masters, it became them to protect by their valor that
independence which their ancient lords had conferred upon them.[*] That
they might leave the island with the better grace, the Romans assisted
them in erecting anew the wall of Severus, which was built entirely of
stone, and which the Britons had not at that time artificers skilful
enough to repair.[*]

     [* Paul. Diacon. p. 43.]

And having done this last good office to the inhabitants, they bade a
final adieu to Britain, about the year 448, after being masters of the
more considerable part of it during the course of near four centuries.




THE BRITONS.

The abject Britons regarded this present of liberty as fatal to them;
and were in no condition to put in practice the prudent counsel given
them by the Romans, to arm in their own defence. Unaccustomed both
to the perils of war and to the cares of civil government, they found
themselves incapable of forming or executing any measures for resisting
the incursions of the barbarians. Gratian also and Constantine, two
Romans who had a little before assumed the purple in Britain, had
carried over to the continent the flower of the British youth; and
having perished in their unsuccessful attempts on the imperial throne,
had despoiled the island of those who, in this desperate extremity, were
best able to defend it. The Picts and Scots, finding that the Romans had
finally relinquished Britain, now regarded the whole as their prey, and
attacked the northern wall with redoubled forces. The Britons, already
subdued by their own fears, found the ramparts but a weak defence for
them; and deserting their station, left the country entirely open to
the inroads of the barbarous enemy. The invaders carried devastation and
ruin along with them; and exerted to the utmost their native ferocity,
which was not mitigated by the helpless condition and submissive
behavior of the inhabitants.[*]

     [* Gildas, Bede, lib. i. Allured. Beverl. p. 45.]

The unhappy Britons had a third time recourse to Rome, which had
declared its resolution forever to abandon them. Ætius, the patrician,
sustained at that time, by his valor and magnanimity, the tottering
ruins of the empire, and revived for a moment among the degenerate
Romans the spirit, as well as discipline, of their ancestors. The
British ambassadors carried to him the letter of their countrymen, which
was inscribed, "The groans of the Britons." The tenor of the epistle was
suitable to its superscription. "The barbarians," say they, "on the one
hand, chase us into the sea; the sea, on the other, throws us back upon
the barbarians; and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing by
the sword or by the waves."[*]

     [* Gildas, Bede, lib. i. cap. 13. William of
     Malmesbury, lib. i. cap. 1 Alured. Beverl. p. 45.]

But Ætius, pressed by the arms of Attila, the most terrible enemy that
ever assailed the empire, had no leisure to attend to the complaints of
allies, whom generosity alone could induce him to assist.[*]

     [* Saxon Chron. p. 11, edit. 1692.]

The Britons, thus rejected, were reduced to despair, deserted their
habitations, abandoned tillage, and flying for protection to the forests
and mountains, suffered equally from hunger and from the enemy. The
barbarians themselves began to feel the pressures of famine in a country
which they had ravaged; and being harassed by the dispersed Britons, who
had not dared to resist them in a body, they retreated with their spoils
into their own country.[*]

     [* Alured. Beverl, p. 45.]

The Britons, taking advantage of this interval, returned to their usual
occupations; and the favorable seasons which succeeded, seconding their
industry, made them soon forget their past miseries, and restored
to them great plenty of all the necessaries of life. No more can be
imagined to have been possessed by a people so rude, who had not,
without the assistance of the Romans, art of masonry sufficient to raise
a stone rampart for their own defence; yet the monkish historians,[*]
who treat of those events, complain of the luxury of the Britons
during this period, and ascribe to that vice, not to their cowardice or
improvident counsels, all their subsequent calamities.

     [* Gildas, Bede, lib. i. cap. 14.]

The Britons, entirely occupied in the enjoyment of the present interval
of peace, made no provision for resisting the enemy, who, invited by
their former timid behavior, soon threatened them with a new invasion.
We are not exactly informed what species of civil government the Romans,
on their departure, had left among the Britons, but it appears probable
that the great men in the different districts assumed a kind of regal,
though precarious authority, and lived in a great measure independent of
each other.[*]

     [* Gildas, Usher, Ant. Brit. p. 248, 347.]

To this disunion of counsels were also added the disputes of theology;
and the disciples of Pelagius, who was himself a native of Britain,
having increased to a great multitude, gave alarm to the clergy, who
seem to have been more intent on suppressing them, than on opposing the
public enemy.[*]

     [* Gildas, Bede, lib. i. cap. 17. Constant, in Vita Germ.]

Laboring under these domestic evils, and menaced with a foreign
invasion, the Britons attended only to the suggestions of their present
fears, and following the counsels of Vortigern, prince of Dumnonium,
who, though stained with every vice, possessed the chief authority among
them,[*] they sent into Germany a deputation to invite over the Saxons
for their protection and assistance.

     [* Gildas, W. Malms. p. 8.]




THE SAXONS.

Of all the barbarous nations, known either in ancient or modern times,
the Germans seem to have been the most distinguished both by their
manners and political institutions, and to have carried to the highest
pitch the virtues of valor and love of liberty; the only virtues which
can have place among an uncivilized people, where justice and humanity
are commonly neglected. Kingly government, even when established among
the Germans, (for it was not universal,) possessed a very limited
authority; and though the sovereign was usually chosen from among the
royal family, he was directed in every measure by the common consent
of the nation over whom he presided. When any important affairs were
transacted, all the warriors met in arms; the men of greatest authority
employed persuasion to engage their consent; the people expressed their
approbation by rattling their armor, or their dissent by murmurs; there
was no necessity for a nice scrutiny of votes among a multitude, who
were usually carried with a strong current to one side or the other;
and the measure, thus suddenly chosen by general agreement, was executed
with alacrity, and prosecuted with vigor. Even in war, the princes
governed more by example than by authority, but in peace, the civil
union was in a great measure dissolved, and the inferior leaders
administered justice, after an independent manner, each in his
particular district. These were elected by the votes of the people in
their great councils; and though regard was paid to nobility in the
choice, their personal qualities, chiefly their valor, procured
them, from the suffrages of their fellow-citizens, that honorable but
dangerous distinction. The warriors of each tribe attached themselves
to the[**possibly this word is their] leader, with the most devoted
affection and most unshaken constancy. They attended him as his ornament
in peace, as his defence in war, as his council in the administration of
justice. Their constant emulation in military renown dissolved not that
inviolable friendship which they professed to their chieftain and to
each other. To die for the honor of their band was their chief ambition;
to survive its disgrace, or the death of their leader, was infamous.
They even carried into the field their women and children, who adopted
all the martial sentiments of the men: and being thus impelled by every
human motive, they were invincible; where they were no[**possibly the
word is not] opposed, either by the similar manners and institutions
of the neighboring Germans, or by the superior discipline, arms, and
numbers of the Romans.[*]

     [* Caesar, lib. vi.]

The leaders and their military companions were maintained by the labor
of their slaves, or by that of the weaker and less warlike part of the
community whom they defended. The contributions which they levied went
not beyond a bare subsistence; and the honors, acquired by a superior
rank, were the only reward of their superior dangers and fatigues. All
the refined arts of life were unknown among the Germans: tillage itself
was almost wholly neglected; they even seem to have been anxious to
prevent any improvements of that nature; and the leaders, by annually
distributing anew all the land among the inhabitants of each village,
kept them from attaching themselves to particular possessions, or
making such progress in agriculture as might divert their attention from
military expeditions, the chief occupation of the community.[*]

     [* Tacit. de Mor. Germ]

The Saxons had been for some time regarded as one of the most warlike
tribes of this fierce people, and had become the terror of the
neighboring nations.[*]

     [* Amm. Marcell. lib. xxviii. Orosius.]

They had diffused themselves from the northern parts of Germany and the
Cimbrian Chersonesus, and had taken possession of all the sea-coast
from the mouth of the Rhine to Jutland; whence they had long infested
by their piracies all the eastern and southern parts of Britain, and the
northern of Gaul.[*]

     [* Amm. Marcell. lib. xxvii. cap. 7. lib. xxviii. cap. 7]

In order to oppose their inroads, the Romans had established an officer,
whom they called "Count of the Saxon shore;" and as the naval arts can
flourish among a civilized people alone, they seem to have been more
successful in repelling the Saxons than any of the other barbarians by
whom they were invaded. The dissolution of the Roman power invited them
to renew their inroads; and it was an acceptable circumstance that
the deputies of the Britons appeared among them, and prompted them to
undertake an enterprise to which they were of themselves sufficiently
inclined.[*]

     [* W. Malms, p. 8.]

Hengist and Horsa, two brothers, possessed great credit among the
Saxons, and were much celebrated both for their valor and nobility. They
were reputed, as most of the Saxon princes, to be sprung from Woden, who
was worshipped as a god among those nations, and they are said to be his
great grandsons;[*] a circumstance which added much to their authority.

     [* Bede, lib. i. cap. 15. Chron. Sax. p. 13. Nennius, cap.
     28.]

We shall not attempt to trace any higher the origin of those princes
and nations. It is evident what fruitless labor it must be to search,
in those barbarous and illiterate ages, for the annals of a people, when
their first leaders, known in any true history, were believed by them to
be the fourth in descent from a fabulous deity, or from a man exalted by
ignorance into that character. The dark industry of antiquaries, led by
imaginary analogies of names, or by uncertain traditions, would in
vain attempt to pierce into that deep obscurity which covers the remote
history of those nations.

These two brothers, observing the other provinces of Germany to be
occupied by a warlike and necessitous people, and the rich provinces of
Gaul already conquered or overrun by other German tribes, found it
easy to persuade their countrymen to embrace the sole enterprise
which promised a favorable opportunity of displaying their valor and
gratifying their avidity. They embarked their troops in three vessels
and about the year 449 or 450,[*] earned over one thousand six hundred
men, who landed in the Isle of Thanet, and immediately marched to the
defence of the Britons against the northern invaders. The Scots and
Picts were unable to resist the valor of these auxiliaries; and the
Britons, applauding their own wisdom in calling over the Saxons, hoped
thenceforth to enjoy peace and security under the powerful protection of
that warlike people.

But Hengist and Horsa, perceiving, from their easy victory over the
Scots and Picts, with what facility they might subdue tae Britons
themselves, who had not been able to resist those feeble invaders, were
determined to conquer and fight for their own grandeur, not for the
defence of their degenerate allies. They sent intelligence to Saxony
of the fertility and riches of Britain, and represented as certain the
subjection of a people so long disused to arms, who, being now cut off
from the Roman empire, of which they had been a province during so
many ages, had not yet acquired any union among themselves, and were
destitute of all affection to their new liberties, and of all national
attachments and regards.[**] The vices, and pusillanimity of Vortigern,
the British leader, were a new ground of hope; and the Saxons in
Germany, following such agreeable prospects, soon reënforced Hengist and
Horsa with five thousand men, who came over in seventeen vessels. The
Britons now began to entertain apprehensions of their allies, whose
numbers they found continually augmenting; but thought of no remedy,
except a passive submission and connivance. This weak expedient soon
failed them. The Saxons sought a quarrel, by complaining that their
subsidies were ill paid, and their provisions withdrawn;[***] and
immediately taking off the mask, they formed an alliance with the Picts
and Scots, and proceeded to open hostility against the Britons.

The Britons, impelled by these violent extremities, ana roused to
indignation against their treacherous auxiliaries, were necessitated to
take arms; and having deposed Vortigern, who had become odious from his
vices, and from the bad event of his rash counsels, they put themselves
under the Command of his son, Vortimer. They fought many battles with
their enemies; and though the victories in these actions be disputed
between the British and Saxon annalists, the progress still made by the
Saxons proves that the advantage was commonly on their side.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 12. W. Malms, p. 11. Hunting,
     lib. U. p. 309. Ethelwerd, Brompton, p. 728.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 12. Alured. Beverl. p. 49.]

     [*** Bede, lib. i cap. 15. Nennius, cap. 35. Gildas,
     sect 2d.]

In one battle, however, fought at Faglesford, now Ailsford, Horsa, the
Saxon general, was slain and left the sole command over his countrymen
in the hands of Hengist. This active general, continually reënforced
oy fresh numbers from Germany, carried devastation into the most remote
corners of Britain; and being chiefly anxious to spread the terror of
his arms, he spared neither age, nor sex, nor condition, wherever he
marched with his victorious forces. The private and public edifices of
the Britons were reduced to ashes; the priests were slaughtered on the
altars by those idolatrous ravagers; the bishops and nobility shared
the fate of the vulgar; the people, flying to the mountains and deserts,
were intercepted and butchered in heaps: some were glad to accept of
life and servitude under their victors: others, deserting their
native country, took shelter in the province of Armorica; where, being
charitably received by a people of the same language and manners, they
settled in great numbers, and gave the country the name of Brittany.[*]

The British writers assign one cause which facilitated the entrance of
the Saxons into this island--the love with which Vortigern was at
first seized for Rovena, the daughter of Hengist, and which that artful
warrior made use of to blind the eyes of the imprudent monarch.[**]
The same historians add, that Vortimer died; and that Vortigern,
being restored to the throne, accepted of a banquet from Hengist, at
Stonehenge, where three hundred of his nobility were treacherously
slaughtered, and himself detained captive.[***] But these stories seem
to have been invented by the Welsh authors, in order to palliate the
weak resistance made at first by their countrymen, and to account for
the rapid progress and licentious devastations of the Saxons.[****]

After the death of Vortimer, Ambrosius, a Briton, though of Roman
descent, was invested with the command over his countrymen, and
endeavored, not without success, to unite them in their resistance
against the Saxons. Those contests increased the animosity between the
two rations, and roused the military spirit of the ancient inhabitants,
which had before been sunk into a fatal lethargy.

     [* Bede, lib. i. cap. 15. Usher, p. 226. Gildas,
     sect. 24.]


     [** Nennius, Galfr. lib. vi. cap. 12.]


     [*** Nennius, cap. 47. Galfr.]


     [**** Stillingfleet's Orig. Britt. p. 324,325.]

Hengist, however, notwithstanding their opposition, still maintained his
ground in Britain and in order to divide the forces and attention of the
natives he called over a new tribe of Saxons, under the command of his
brother Octa, and of Ebissa, the son of Octa; and he settled them in
Northumberland. He himself remained in the southern parts of the island,
and laid the foundation of their kingdom of Kent, comprehending the
county of that name Middlesex, Essex, and part of Surrey. He fixed his
royal seat at Canterbury, where he governed about forty years, and he
died in or near the year 488, leaving his new-acquired dominions to his
posterity.

The success of Hengist excited the avidity of the other northern
Germans; and at different times, and under different leaders, they
flocked over in multitudes to the invasion of mis island. These
conquerors were chiefly composed of three tribes, the Saxons, Angles,
and Jutes,[*] who all passed under the common appellation, sometimes,
of _Saxons_, sometimes of _Angles_; and speaking the same
language, and being governed by the same institutions, they were
naturally led, from these causes, as well as from their common interest,
to unite themselves against the ancient inhabitants. The resistance,
however, though unequal, was still maintained by the Britons; but became
every day more feeble; and their calamities admitted of few intervals,
till they were driven into Cornwall and Wales, and received protection
from the remote situation or inaccessible mountains of those countries.

The first Saxon state, after that of Kent, which was established in
Britain, was the kingdom of South Saxony. In the year 477,[**] Ælla,
a Saxon chief, brought over an army from Germany; and, landing on
the southern coast, proceeded to take possession of the neighboring
territory. The Britons, now armed, did not tamely abandon their
possessions; nor were they expelled till defeated in many battles
by their war-like invaders. The most memorable action, mentioned by
historians, is that of Mearcredes Burn;[***] where, though the Saxons
seem to have obtained the victory, they suffered so considerable a loss,
as somewhat retarded the progress of their conquests.

     [* Bede, lib. i. cap. 15. Ethelwerd, p. 833, edit.
     Camdeni. Chron. Sax. p. 12. Alured. Beverl. p. 78. The
     inhabitants of Kent and the Isle of Wight were Jutes. Essex,
     Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, and all the southern counties to
     Cornwall, were peopled by Saxons: Mercis mud other parts of
     the kingdom were inhabited by Angles.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p.14. Alured Beverl. p. 81.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. A. D. 485. Flor. Wigron]

But Ælla, reénforced by fresh numbers of his countrymen, again took the
field against the Britons; and laid siege to Ancired Ceaster, which was
defended by the garrison and inhabitants with desperate valor.[*] The
Saxons, enraged by this resistance, and by the fatigues and dangers
which they had sustained, redoubled their efforts against the place;
and, when masters of it, put all their enemies to the sword without
distinction. This decisive advantage secured the conquests of Ælla, who
assumed the name of king, and extended his dominion over Sussex and a
great part of Surrey He was stopped in his progress to the east by the
kingdom of Kent; in that to the west by another tribe of Saxons, who had
taken possession of that territory.

These Saxons, from the situation of the country in which they settled,
were called the _West Saxons_, and landed in the year 495, under
the command of Cerdic, and of his son Kenric.[**] The Britons were, by
past experience, so much on their guard, and so well prepared to receive
the enemy, that they gave battle to Cerdic the very day of his landing;
and, though vanquished, still defended, for some time, their liberties
against the invaders. None of the other tribes of Saxons met with such
vigorous resistance, or exerted such valor and perseverance in pushing
their conquests. Cerdic was even obliged to call for the assistance of
his countrymen from the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex, as well as from
Germany, and he was thence joined by a fresh army under the command
of Porte, and of his sons Bleda and Megla.[***] Strengthened by these
succors, he fought, in the year 508, a desperate battle with the
Britons, commanded by Nazan Leod, who was victorious in the beginning of
the action, and routed the wing in which Cerdic himself commanded. But
Kenric, who had prevailed in the other wing, brought timely assistance
to his father, and restored the battle, which ended in a complete
victory gained by the Saxons.[****] Nazan Leod perished, with
five thousand of his army; but left the Britons more weakened than
discouraged by his death. The war still continued, though the success
was commonly on the side of the Saxons, whose short swords and manner
of fighting gave them great advantage over the missile weapons of the
Britons.

     [* H. Hunting, lib. ii.]

     [** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. I, p. 12. Chron. Sax. p.
     15.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 17.]

     [**** H. Hunting, lib ii. Ethelwerd, lib. i. Chron.
     Sax. p. 17.]

Cerdic was not wanting to in good fortune; and in order to extend
his conquests, he laid siege to Mount Badon or Banesdowne, near Bath,
whither the most obstinate of the discomfited Britons had retired. The
southern Britons, in this extremity, applied for assistance to Arthur,
prince of the Silures, whose heroic valor now sustained the declining
fate of his country.[*] This is that Arthur so much celebrated in the
songs of Thaliessin, and the other British bards, and whose military
achievements have been blended with so many fables, as even to give
occasion for entertaining a doubt of his real existence. But poets,
though they disfigure the most certain history by their fictions, ana
use strange liberties with truth where they are the sole historians, as
among the Britons, have commonly some foundation for their wildest
exaggerations. Certain it is, that the siege of Badon was raised by the
Britons in the year 520; and the Saxons were there discomfited in a
great battle.[**] This misfortune stopped the progress of Cerdic; but
was not sufficient to wrest from him the conquests which he had already
made. He and his son Kenric, who succeeded him, established the kingdom
of the West Saxons, or of Wessex, over the counties of Hants, Dorset,
Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight, and left their new-acquired
dominions to their posterity. Cerdic died in 534, Kenric in 560.


While the Saxons made this progress in the south, their countrymen were
not less active in other quarters. In the year 527, a great tribe of
adventurers, under several leaders, landed on the east coast of Britain;
and after fighting many battles, of which history has preserved no
particular account, they established three new kingdoms in this island.
Uffa assumed the title of king of the East Angles in 575; Crida, that of
Mercia in 585;[***] and Erkenwin, that of East Saxony, or Essex, nearly
about the same time; but the year is uncertain. This latter kingdom was
dismembered from that of Kent, and comprehended Essex, Middlesex,
and part of Hertfordshire; that of the East Angles, the counties of
Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk: Mercia was extended over all the middle
counties from the banks of the Severn to the frontiers of these two
kingdoms.

     [* H. Hunting, lib. ii.]

     [** Gildas, Chron. Sax. H. Hunting, lib. ii.]

     [*** M. West. H. Hunting, lib. ii.]

The Saxons, soon after the landing of Hengist, had been planted in
Northumberland; but as they met with an obstinate resistance, and made
but small progress in subduing the inhabitants, their affairs were in
so unsettled a condition, that none of their princes for a long time
assumed the appellation of king. At last, in 547,[*] Ida, a Saxon prince
of great valor,[**] who claimed a descent, as did all the other princes
of that nation, from Woden, brought over a reénforcement from Germany,
and enabled the Northumbrians to carry on their conquests over the
Britons. He entirely subdued the county now called Northumberland,
the bishopric of Durham, as well as some of the south-east counties of
Scotland; and he assumed the crown under the title of king of Bernicia.
Nearly about the same time, Ælla, another Saxon prince, having conquered
Lancashire and the greater part of Yorkshire, received the appellation
of king of Deïri.[***] These two kingdoms were united in the person of
Ethelfrid, grandson of Ida, who married Acca, the daughter of Ælla; and
expelling her brother Edwin, established one of the most powerful of the
Saxon kingdoms, by the title of Northumberland. How far his dominions
extended into the country now called Scotland is uncertain: but it
cannot be doubted, that all the lowlands, especially the east coast of
that country, were peopled in a great measure from Germany; though the
expeditions, made by the several Saxon adventurers, have escaped the
records of history. The language spoken in those countries, which is
purely Saxon, is a stronger proof of this event than can be opposed by
the imperfect, or rather fabulous annals, which are obtruded on us by
the Scottish historians.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 19.]

     [** W. Malms, p. 19.]

     [*** Alured, Beverl. p. 78].




THE HEPTARCHY

Thus was established, after a violent contest of near a hundred and
fifty years, the Heptarchy, or seven Saxon kingdoms, in Britain; and
the whole southern part of the island, except Wales and Cornwall,
had totally changed its inhabitants, language, customs, and political
institutions. The Britons, under the Roman dominion, had made
such advances towards arts and civil manners, that they had built
twenty-eight considerable cities within their province, besides a great
number of villages and country seats; [*] but the fierce conquerors,
by whom they were now subdued, threw every thing back into ancient
barbarity; and those few natives, who were not either massacred or
expelled their habitations, were reduced to the most abject slavery.

     [* Gildas, Sede, lib, i.]

None of the other northern conquerors, the Franks, Goths, Vandals, or
Burgundians, though they overran the southern provinces of the
empire like a mighty torrent, made such devastations in the conquered
territories, or were inflamed into so violent an animosity against the
ancient inhabitants. As the Saxons came over at intervals in separate
bodies, the Britons, however at first unwarlike, were tempted to make
resistance; and hostilities, being thereby prolonged, proved more
destructive to both parties, especially to the vanquished. The first
invaders from Germany, instead of excluding other adventurers, who must
share with them the spoils of the ancient inhabitants, were obliged to
solicit fresh supplies from their own country; and a total extermination
of the Britons became the sole expedient for providing a settlement and
subsistence to the new planters. Hence there have been found in history
few conquests more ruinous than that of the Saxons, and few revolutions
more violent than that which they introduced.


So long as the contest was maintained with the natives, the several
Saxon princes preserved a union of counsels and interests; but after the
Britons were shut up in the barren countries of Cornwall and Wales, and
gave no further disturbance to the conquerors, the band of alliance was
in a great measure dissolved among the princes of the Heptarchy. Though
one prince seems still to have been allowed, or to have assumed, an
ascendant over the whole, his authority, if it ought ever to be deemed
regular or legal, was extremely limited; and each state acted as if it
had been independent, and wholly separate from the rest Wars, therefore,
and revolutions and dissensions, were unavoidable among a turbulent and
military people; and these events, however intricate or confused, ought
now to become the objects of our attention But, added to the difficulty
of carrying on at once the history of seven independent kingdoms, there
is great discouragement to a writer, arising from the uncertainty, at
least barrenness, of the accounts transmitted to us. The monks, who were
the only annalists during those ages, lived remote from public
affairs, considered the civil transactions as entirely subordinate the
ecclesiastical, and, besides partaking of the ignorance and barbarity
which were then universal, were strongly infected with credulity, with
the love of wonder, and with a propensity to imposture; vices almost
inseparable from their profession and manner of life. The history of
that period abounds in names, but is extremely barren of events; or the
events are related so much without circumstances and causes, that the
most profound or most eloquent writer must despair of rendering them
either instructive or entertaining to the reader. Even the great
learning and vigorous imagination of Milton sunk under the weight; and
this author scruples not to declare, that the skirmishes of kites
or crows as much merited a particular narrative, as the confused
transactions and battles of the Saxon Heptarchy.[*] In order, however,
to connect the events in some tolerable measure, we shall give a
succinct account of the successions of kings, and of the more remarkable
revolutions in each particular kingdom; beginning with that of Kent,
which was the first established.

     [* Milton in Kennet, p. 50]




THE KINGDOM OF KENT

Escus succeeded his father, Hengist, in the kingdom of Kent; but seems
not to have possessed the military genius of that conqueror, who first
made way for the entrance of the Saxon arms into Britain. All the
Saxons, who sought either the fame of valor, or new establishments by
arms, flocked to the standard of Ælla, king of Sussex, who was carrying
on successful war against the Britons, and laying the foundations of a
new kingdom. Escus was content to possess in tranquillity the kingdom
of Kent, which he left in 512 to his son Octet, in whose time the East
Saxons established their monarchy, and dismembered the provinces of
Essex and Middlesex from that of Kent. His death, after a reign of
twenty two years, made room for his son Hermenric in 534, who performed
nothing memorable during a reign of thirty-two years; excepting
associating with him his son Ethelbert in the government, that he might
secure the succession hi his family, and prevent such revolutions as are
incident to a turbulent and barbarous monarchy.

Ethelbert revived the reputation of his family, which had languished for
some generations. The inactivity of his predecessors, and the situation
of his country, secured from all hostility with the Britons, seem
to have much enfeebled the warlike genius of the Kentish Saxons;
and Ethelbert, in his first attempt to aggrandize his country, and
distinguish his own name, was unsuccessful.[*] He was twice discomfited
in battle by Ceaulin, king of Wessex, and obliged to yield the
superiority in the Heptarchy to that ambitious monarch, who preserved
no moderation in his victory, and by reducing the kingdom of Sussex to
subjection, excited jealousy in all the other princes. An association
was formed against him; and Ethelbeit, intrusted with the command of the
allies, gave him battle, and obtained a decisive victory.[**] Ceaulin
died soon after; and Ethelbert succeeded as well to his ascendant among
the Saxon states, as to his other ambitious projects. He reduced all the
princes, except the king of Northumberland, to a strict dependence upon
him; and even established himself by force on the throne of Mercia,
the most extensive of the Saxon kingdoms. Apprehensive, however, of a
dangerous league against him, like that by which he himself had been
enabled to overthrow Ceaulin, he had the prudence to resign the kingdom
of Mercia to Webba, the rightful heir, the son of Crida, who had first
founded that monarchy. But governed still by ambition more than by
justice, he gave Webba possession of the crown on such conditions, as
rendered him little better than a tributary prince under his artful
benefactor.

But the most memorable event which distinguished the reign of this great
prince, was the introduction of the Christian religion among the English
Saxons. The superstition of the Germans, particularly that of the
Saxons, was of the grossest and most barbarous kind; and being founded
on traditional tales, received from their ancestors, not reduced to
any system, not supported by political institutions, like that of the
druids, it seems to have made little impression on its votaries, and to
have easily resigned its place to the new doctrine promulgated to them.
Woden, whom they deemed the ancestor of all their princes, was regarded
as the god of war, and, by a natural consequence, became their supreme
deity, and the chief object of their religious worship. They believed
that, if they obtained the favor of this divinity by their valor, (for
they made less account of the other virtues,) they should be admitted
after their death into his hall; and reposing on couches, should satiate
themselves with ale from the skulls of their enemies, whom they had
slain in battle. Incited by this idea of paradise, which gratified
at once the passion of revenge and that of intemperance, the ruling
inclinations of barbarians, they despised the dangers of war, and
increased their native ferocity against the vanquished by their
religious prejudices.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 21.]

     [** H. Hunting, lib ii.]

We know little of the other theological tenets of the Saxons; we only
learn that they were polytheists; that they worshipped the sun and moon;
that they adored the god of thunder, under the name of Thor; that they
had images in their temples; that they practised sacrifices; believed
firmly in spells and enchantments; and admitted in general a system
of doctrines which they held as sacred, but which, like all other
superstition must carry the air of the wildest extravagance, if
propounded to those who are not familiarized to it from their earliest
infancy.

The constant hostilities which the Saxons maintained against the
Britons, would naturally indispose them for receiving the Christian
faith, when preached to them by such inveterate enemies; and perhaps the
Britons, as is objected to them by Gildas and Bede, were not over-fond
of communicating to their cruel invaders the doctrine of eternal life
and salvation. But as a civilized people, however subdued by arms, still
maintain a sensible superiority over barbarous and ignorant nations,
all the other northern conquerors of Europe had been already induced to
embrace the Christian faith, which they found established in the empire;
and it was impossible but the Saxons, informed of this event, must have
regarded with some degree of veneration a doctrine which had acquired
the ascendant over all their brethren. However limited in their news,
they could not but have perceived a degree of cultivation in the
southern countries beyond what they themselves possessed; and it was
natural for them to yield to that superior knowledge, as well as zeal,
by which the inhabitants of the Christian kingdoms were even at that
time distinguished.

But these causes might long have failed of producing any considerable
effect, had not a favorable incident prepared the means of introducing
Christianity into Kent. Ethelbert, in his father's lifetime, had married
Bertha, the only daughter of Cariben, king of Paris,[*] one of the
descendants of Clovis, the conqueror of Gaul.

     [* Greg, of Tours, lib, ix. cap. 26. H. Hunting,
     lib. ii.]

But before he was admitted to this alliance, he was obliged to
stipulate, that the princess should enjoy the free exercise of her
religion; a concession not difficult to be obtained from the idolatrous
Saxons.[*] Bertha brought over a French bishop to the court of
Canterbury; and being zealous for the propagation of her religion, she
had been very assiduous in her devotional exercises, had supported the
credit of her faith by an irreproachable conduct, and had employed every
an of insinuation and address to reconcile her husband to her religious
principles. Her popularity in the court, and her influence over
Ethelbert, had so well paved the way for the reception of the Christian
doctrine, that Gregory, surnamed the Great, then Roman pontiff, began
to entertain hopes of effecting a project which lie himself, before he
mounted the papal throne, had once embraced, of converting the British
Saxons.

It happened that this prelate, at that time in a private station, had
observed in the market place of Rome some Saxon youth exposed to sale,
whom the Roman merchants, in their trading voyages to Britain, had
bought of their mercenary parents. Struck with the beauty of their fair
complexions and blooming countenances, Gregory asked to what country
they belonged; and being told they were "Angles," he replied that they
ought more properly to be denominated "angels." it were a pity that the
prince of darkness should enjoy so fair a prey, and that so beautiful
a frontispiece should cover a mind destitute of internal grace and
righteousness. Inquiring further concerning the name of their province,
he was Informed, that it was "Deïri," a district of Northumberland.
"Deïri!" replied he, "that is good! They are called to the mercy of God
from his anger--_de ira_. But what is the name of the king of that
province?" He was told it was "Ælla," or "Alia." "Alleluiah;" cried he,
"we must endeavor that the praises of God be sung in their country."
Moved by these allusions, which appeared to him so happy, he deter mined
to undertake himself a mission into Britain; and having obtained the
pope's approbation, he prepared for that perilous journey; but his
popularity at home was so great, that the Romans, unwilling to expose
him to such dangers, opposed his design, and he was obliged for the
present to lay aside all further thoughts of executing that pious
purpose.[**]

     [* Bede, lib. i. cap. 25. Brompton, p. 729.]

     [** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 1. Spell. Concil. p. 91.]

The controversy between the pagans and the Christians was not entirely
cooled in that age; and no pontiff before Gregory had ever carried to
greater excess an intemperate zeal against the former religion. He had
waged war with all the precious monuments of the ancients, and even with
their writings, which, as appears from the strain of his own wit, as
well as from the style of his compositions, he had not taste or genius
sufficient to comprehend. Ambitious to distinguish his pontificate by
the conversion of the British Saxons, he pitched on Augustine, a Roman
monk, and sent him with forty associates to preach the gospel in this
island. These missionaries, terrified with the dangers which might
attend their proposing a new doctrine to so fierce a people, of whose
language they were ignorant, stopped some time in France, and sent back
Augustine to lay the hazards and difficulties before the pope, and crave
his permission to desist from the undertaking. But Gregory exorted them
to persevere in their purpose, advised them to choose some interpreters
from among the Franks, who still spoke the same language with the
Saxons,[*] and recommended them to the good offices of Queen Brunehaut,
who had at this time usurped the sovereign power in France. This
princess, though stained with every vice of treachery and cruelty,
either possessed or pretended great zeal for the cause; and Gregory
acknowledged, that to her friendly assistance was, in a great measure,
owing the success of that undertaking.[**]

Augustine, on his arrival in Kent in the year 597,[***] found the danger
much less than he had apprehended. Ethelbert, already well disposed
towards the Christian faith, assigned him a habitation in the Isle
of Thanet, and soon after admitted him to a conference. Apprehensive,
however, lest spells or enchantments might be employed against him by
priests, who brought an unknown worship from a distant country, he had
the precaution to receive them in the open air, where, he believed,
the force of their magic would be more easily dissipated,[****] Here
Augustine, by means of his interpreters, delivered to him the tenets of
the Christian faith, and promised him eternal joys above, and a kingdom
in heaven without end, if he would be persuaded to receive that salutary
doctrine.

     [* Bede, lib. i. cap. 23.]

     [** Greg. Epist. lib. ix. epist. 56. Spell. Concil.
     p. 82.]

     [*** Higden Polychron. lib. v. Chron. Sax. p. 23.]

     [**** Bede, lib. i. cap. 25. H. Hunting, lib. iii.
     Brompton, p. 729 Parker, Antiq. Brit. Eccel. p 61.]

"Our words and promises,"[*] replied Ethelbert, "are fair; but because
they are new and uncertain, I cannot entirely yield to them, and
relinquish the principles which I and my ancestors have so long
maintained. You are welcome, however, to remain here in peace; and as
you have undertaken so long a journey, solely, as it appears, for
what you believe to be for our advantage, I will supply you with
all necessaries, and permit you to deliver your doctrine to my
subjects."[**]

Augustine, encouraged by this favorable reception, and seeing now a
prospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the gospel
to the Kentish Saxons. He attracted their attention by the austerity of
his manners, by the severe penances to which he subjected himself, by
the abstinence find self-denial which he practised; and having excited
then wonder by a course of life which appeared so contrary to nature, he
procured more easily their belief of miracles, which, it was pretended,
he wrought for their conversion. Influenced by these motives, and
by the declared favor of the court, numbers of the Kentish men were
baptized; and the king himself was persuaded to submit to that rite of
Christianity. His example had great influence with his subjects; but
he employed no force to bring them over to the new doctrine. Augustine
thought proper, in the commencement of his mission, to assume the
appearance of the greatest lenity; he told Ethelbert, that the service
of Christ must be entirely voluntary, and that no violence ought ever to
be used in propagating so salutary a doctrine.[****]

The intelligence received of these spiritual conquests afforded great
joy to the Romans, who now exulted as much in those peaceful trophies as
their ancestors had ever done in their most sanguinary triumphs and most
splendid victories. Gregory wrote a letter to Ethelbert, in which, after
informing him that the end of the world was approaching, he exhorted him
to display his zeal in the conversion of his subjects, to exert rigor
against the worship of idols, and to build up the good work of
holiness by every expedient of exhortation, terror, blandishment, or
correction;[*****] a doctrine more suitable to that age, and to the
usual papal maxims, than the tolerating principles which Augustine had
thought it prudent to inculcate.

     [* Bede, lib. i. cap. 25. Chron. W. Thorn, p.
     1759.]

     [** Bede, lib. i. cap. 25. H. Hunting, lib. iii.
     Brompton, p. 729]

     [*** Bede, lib. i. cap. 26.]

     [**** Bede, cap 26. H. Hunting, lib. iii.]

     [***** Bede, lib. i. cap. 32. Brompton, p. 732 Spell.
     Concil, 785]

The pontiff also answered some questions, which the missionary had
put concerning the government of the new church of Kent. Besides other
queries, which it is not material here to relate, Augustine asked,
"Whether cousins-german might be allowed to marry." Gregory answered,
that that liberty had indeed been formerly granted by the Roman law;
but that experience had shown that no issue could ever come from such
marriages; and he therefore prohibited them. Augustine asked, "Whether
a woman pregnant might be baptized." Gregory answered, that he saw no
objection. "How soon after the birth the child might receive baptism."
It was answered, immediately, if necessary. "How soon a husband might
have commerce with his wife after her delivery." Not till she had given
suck to her child; a practice to which Gregory exhorts all women. "How;
soon a man might enter the church, or receive the sacrament, after
having had commerce with his wife." It was replied, that, unless he had
approached her without desire, merely for the sake of propagating his
species, he was not without sin; but in all cases it was requisite for
him, before he entered the church, or communicated, to purge himself
by prayer and ablution; and he ought not, even after using these
precautions, to participate immediately of the sacred duties.[*] There
are some other questions and replies still more indecent and more
ridiculous.[**] And on the whole it appears that Gregory and his
missionary, if sympathy of manners have any influence, were better
calculated than men of more refined understandings, for making a
progress with the ignorant and barbarous Saxons.

The more to facilitate the reception of Christianity, Gregory enjoined
Augustine to remove the idols from the heathen altars, but not to
destroy the altars themselves; because the people, he said, would be
allured to frequent the Christian worship, when they found it celebrated
in a place which they were accustomed to revere.

     [* Bede, lib. i. cap. 27. Spell. Concil. p. 97,
     98, 99, &c.]

     [** Augustine asks, "Si mulier menstrua
     consuetudine tenetur, an ecclesiam intrare et licet, aut
     sacræ communionis sacramenta percipere?" Gregory answers,
     "Santæ communionis mysterium in eisdem diebus percipere non
     debet prohiberi. Si autem ex veneratione magna percipere non
     præsumitur, laudanda est." Augustine asks, "Si post
     illusionem, quae par somnum solet accidere, vel corpus
     Domini quilibet accipere valeat; vel, si sacerdos sit, sacra
     mysteria celebrare?" Gregory answers this learned question
     by many learned distinctions.]

And as the pagans practised sacrifices, and feasted with the priests on
their offerings, he also exhorted the missionary to persuade them, on
Christian festivals, to kill their cattle in the neighborhood of the
church, and to indulge themselves in those cheerful entertainments to
which they had been habituated.[*] These political compliances
show that, notwithstanding his ignorance and prejudices, he was
not unacquainted with the arts of governing mankind. Augustine was
consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory with
authority over all the British churches, and received the pall, a badge
of ecclesiastical honor, from Rome.[**] Gregory also advised him not
to be too much elated with his gift of working miracles;[***] and as
Augustine, proud of the success of his mission, seemed to think himself
entitled to extend his authority over the bishops of Gaul, the
pope informed him that they lay entirely without the bounds of his
jurisdiction.[****]

The marriage of Ethelbert with Bertha, and, much more his embracing
Christianity, begat a connection of his subjects with the French,
Italians, and other nations on the continent, and tended to reclaim them
from that gross ignorance and barbarity, in which all the Saxon tribes
had been hitherto involved.[*****] Ethelbert also enacted,[******] with
the consent of the states of his kingdom, a body of laws, the first
written laws promulgated by any of the northern conquerors; and his
reign was in every respect glorious to himself and beneficial to his
people. He governed the kingdom of Kent fifty years; and dying in 616,
left the succession to his son, Eadbald. This prince, seduced by a
passion for his mother-in-law, deserted, for some time, the Christian
faith, which permitted not these incestuous marriages: his whole people
immediately returned with him to idolatry. Laurentius, the successor of
Augustine found the Christian worship wholly abandoned, and was prepared
to return to France, in order to escape the mortification of preaching
the gospel without fruit to the infidels.

     [* Bede lib. i. cap. 30. Spell. Concil. p. 89.
     Greg. Epist. lib. ix. epist. 71.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 23,24.]

     [*** H. Hunting, lib. iii. Spell. Concil. p. 83.
     Bede, lib. i. Greg Epist. lib. ix. epist. 60.]

     [**** Bede, lib. i. cap. 27.]

     [***** W. Malms, p. 10.]

     [****** Wilkins, Leges Sax. p. 13.]

Mellitus and Justus, who had been consecrated bishops of London and
Rochester, had already departed the kingdom,[*] when Laurentius, before
he should entirely abandon his dignity, made one effort to reclaim the
king. He appeared before that prince, and, throwing off his vestments,
showed his body all torn with bruises and stripes which he had received.
Eadbald, wondering that any man should have dared to treat in that
manner a person of his rank, was told by Laurentius, that he had
received this chastisement from St. Peter, the prince of the apostles,
who had appeared to him in a vision, and severely reproving him for his
intention to desert his charge, had inflicted on him these visible marks
of his displeasure.[**] Whether Eadbald was struck with the miracle,
or influenced by some other motive, he divorced himself from his
mother-in-law, and returned to the profession of Christianity:[***]
his whole people returned with him. Eadbald reached not the fame or
authority of his father, and died in 640, after a reign of twenty-five
years, leaving two sons, Erminfrid and Ercombert.

     [* Bede, lib. ii. cap 5.]

     [** Bede, lib. ii cap. 2. Chron. Sax. p. 26.
     Higden, lib. v]

     [*** Brompton, p 739.]

Ercombert, though the younger son, by Emma, a French princess,
found means to mount the throne. He is celebrated by Bede for two
exploits--for establishing the fast of Lent in his kingdom, and for
utterly extirpating idolatry, which, notwithstanding the prevalence of
Christianity, had hitherto been tolerated by the two preceding monarchs.
He reigned twenty-four years, and left the crown to Egbert, his son,
who reigned nine years. This prince is renowned for his encouragement of
learning; but infamous for putting to death his two cousins-german, sons
of Erminfrid, his uncle. The ecclesiastical writers praise him for his
bestowing on his sister, Domnona, some lands in the Isle of Thanet,
where she founded a monastery.


The bloody precaution of Egbert could not fix the crown on the head of
his son Edric. Lothaire, brother of the deceased prince, took possession
of the kingdom; and in order to secure the power in his family, he
associated with him Richard, his son, in the administration of the
government. Edric, the dispossessed prince, had recourse to Edilwach,
king of Sussex, for assistance; and being supported by that prince,
fought a battle with his uncle, who was defeated and slain. Richard fled
into Germany, and afterwards died in Lucca, a city of Tuscany. William
of Malmsbury ascribes Lothaire's bad fortune to two crimes--his
concurrence in the murder of his cousins, and his contempt for
relics.[*]

Lothaire reigned eleven years; Edric, his successor, only two. Upon the
death of the latter, which happened in 686 Widred, his brother, obtained
possession of the crown. But as the succession had been of late so much
disjointed by revolutions and usurpations, faction began to prevail
among the nobility; which invited Cedwalla, king of Wessex, with his
brother Mollo, to attack the kingdom. These invaders committed great
devastations in Kent; but the death of Mollo, who was slain in a
skirmish,[**] gave a short breathing time to that kingdom. Widred
restored the affairs of Kent, and, after a reign of thirty-two
years,[***] left the crown to his posterity. Eadbert, Ethelbert, and
Alric, his descendants, successively mounted the throne. After the
death of the last, which happened in 794, the royal family of Kent was
extinguished; and every factious leader, who could entertain hopes of
ascending the throne, threw the state into confusion.[****] Egbert, who
first succeeded, reigned but two years; Cuthred, brother to the king of
Mercia, six years; Baldred, an illegitimate branch of the royal family,
eighteen; and after a troublesome and precarious reign, he was, in the
year 823, expelled by Egbert, king of Wessex, who dissolved the Saxon
Heptarchy, and united the several kingdoms under his dominion.

     [* W. Malms, p. 11.]

     [** Higden, lib. v.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 52.]

     [**** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 1, p.11.]




THE KINGDOM OF NORTHUMBERLAND

Adelfrid, king of Bernicia, having married Acca, the daughter of Ælla,
king of Deïri, and expelled her infant brother, Edwin, had united all
the counties north of Humber into one monarchy, and acquired a great
ascendant in the Heptarchy. He also spread the terror of the Saxon
arms to the neighboring people; and by his victories over the Scots
and Picts, as well as Welsh, extended on all sides the bounds of his
dominions. Having laid siege to Chester, the Britons marched out with
all their forces to engage him; and they were attended by a body of
twelve hundred and fifty monks from the monastery of Bangor, who stood
at a small distance from the field of battle, in order to encourage the
combatants by their presence and exhortations. Adelfrid, inquiring into
the purpose of this unusual appearance, was told that these priests had
come to pray against him: "Then are they as much our enemies," said he,
"as those who intend to fight against us;"[*] and he immediately sent a
detachment, who fell upon them, and did such execution, that only fifty
escaped with their lives.[**] The Britons, astonished at this event,
received a total defeat: Chester was obliged to surrender; and Adelfrid,
pursuing his victory, made himself master of Bangor, and entirely
demolished the monastery, a building so extensive, that there was a
mile's distance from one gate of it to another; and it contained two
thousand one hundred monks, who are said to have been there maintained
by their own labor.[***] Notwithstanding Adelfrid's success in war,
he lived in inquietude on account of young Edwin, whom he had unjustly
dispossessed of the crown of Deïri. This prince, now grown to man's
estate, wandered from place to place, in continual danger from the
attempts of Adelfrid; and received at last protection in the court
of Redwald, king of the East Angles; where his engaging and gallant
deportment procured him general esteem and affection. Redwald, however,
was strongly solicited, by the king of Northumberland, to kill or
deliver up his guest: rich presents were promised him if he would
comply, and war denounced against him in case of his refusal. After
rejecting several messages of this kind, his generosity began to yield
to the motives of interest; and he retained the last ambassador, till
he should come to a resolution in a case of such importance. Edwin,
informed of his friend's perplexity, was yet determined at all hazards
to remain in East Anglia; and thought, that if the protection of that
court failed him, it were better to die than prolong a life so much
exposed to the persecutions of his powerful rival. This confidence in
Redwald's honor and friendship, with his other accomplishments, engaged
the queen on his side; and she effectually represented to her husband
the infamy of delivering up to certain destruction their royal guest,
who had fled to them for protection against his cruel and jealous
enemies.[****] Redwald, embracing more generous resolutions, thought
it safest to prevent Adelfrid, before that prince was aware of his
intention, and to attack him while he was yet unprepared for defence.

     [* Brompton, p. 779.]

     [** Trivet, apud Spell. Concil. p. 111.]

     [*** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 2. W. Malms, lib. i. cap.
     3.]

     [**** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 3. H. Hunting, lib.
     iii. Bede.]


He marched suddenly with an army into the kingdom of Northumberland, and
fought a battle with Adelfrid; in which that monarch was defeated
and killed, after revenging himself by the death of Regner, son of
Redwald.[*] His own sons, Eanfrid. Oswald, and Oswy, yet infants, were
carried into Scotland; and Edwin obtained possession of the crown of
Northumberland.

Edwin was the greatest prince of the Heptarchy in that age,
and distinguished himself, both by his influence over the other
kingdoms,[**] and by the strict execution of justice in his own
dominions. He reclaimed his subjects from the licentious life to which
they had been accustomed; and it was a common saying, that during his
reign a woman or child might openly carry every where a purse of
gold, without any danger of violence or robbery. There is a remarkable
instance, transmitted to us, of the affection borne him by his servants.
Cuichelme, king of Wessex, was his enemy; but finding himself unable
to maintain open war against so gallant and powerful a prince, he
determined to use treachery against him, and he employed one Eumer for
that criminal purpose, The assassin, having obtained admittance, by
pretending to deliver a message from Cuichelme, drew his dagger, and
rushed upon the king. Lilla, an officer of his army, seeing his master's
danger, and having no other means of defence, interposed with his own
body between the king and Burner's dagger, which was pushed with such
violence, that, after piercing Lilla, it even wounded Edwin; but before
the assassin could renew his blow, he was despatched by the king's
attendants.


The East Angles conspired against Redwald, their king; and having put
him to death, they offered their crown to Edwin, of whose valor and
capacity they had had experience, while he resided among them. But
Edwin, from a sense o£ gratitude towards his benefactor, obliged them
to submit to Earpwold, the son of Redwald; and that prince preserved his
authority, though on a precarious footing, under the protection of the
Northumbrian monarch.[***]

     [* Bede, lib. ii. cap. 12. Bromton, p. 781.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 27.]

     [*** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 3]

Edwin, after his accession to the crown, married Ethelburga, the
daughter of Ethelbert, king of Kent. This princess, emulating the glory
of her mother, Bertha, who had been the instrument for converting her
husband and his people to Christianity, carried Paullinus, a learned
bishop, along with her;[*] and besides stipulating a toleration for the
exercise of her own religion, which was readily granted her, she used
every reason to persuade the king to embrace it. Edwin, like a
prudent prince, hesitated on the proposal, but promised to examine
the foundations of that doctrine, and declared that, if he found them
satisfactory, he was willing to be converted.[**] Accordingly he held
several conferences with Paullinus; canvassed the arguments propounded
with the wisest of his counsellors; retired frequently from company, in
order to revolve alone that important question; and, after a serious
and long inquiry, declared in favor of the Christian religion;[***]
the people soon after imitated his example. Besides the authority and
influence of the king, they were moved by another striking example.
Coifi, the high priest, being converted after a public conference with
Paullinus, led the way in destroying the images, which he had so long
worshipped, and was forward in making this atonement for his past
idolatry.[****]

This able prince perished with his son Osfrid, in a great battle which
he fought against Penda, king of Mercia, and Caedwalla, king of the
Britons.[*****] That event, which happened in the forty-eighth year of
Edwin's age and seventeenth of his reign,[******] divided the monarchy
of Northumberland, which that prince had united in his person. Eanfrid,
the son of Adelfrid, returned with his brothers, Oswald and Oswy, from
Scotland, and took possession of Bernicia, his paternal kingdom; Osric,
Edwin's cousin-german, established himself in Deïri, the inheritance
of his family, but to which the sons of Edwin had a preferable title.
Eanfrid, the elder surviving son, fled to Penda, by whom he was
treacherously slain. The younger son, Vuscfraea, with Yffi, the
grandson of Edwin, by Osfrid, sought protection in Kent, and not finding
themselves in safety there, retired into France to King Dagobert, where
they died.[*******]

     [* H. Hunting, lib. iii.]

     [** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 9.]

     [*** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 9. W. Malms, lib. i. cap.
     3.]

     [**** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 13. Brompton, Higden,
     lib. v.]

     [***** M. West. p. 114. Chron. Sax. p. 29.]

     [****** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 3.]

     [******* Bede, lib. ii, cap. 29.]

Osric, king of Deïri and Eanfrid of Bernicia, returned to paganism; and
the whole people seem to have returned with them; since Paullinus, who
was the first archbishop of York; and who had converted them, thought
proper to retire with Ethelburga, the queen dowager, into Kent. Both
these Northumbrian kings perished soon after, the first in battle
against Caedwalla, the Briton; the second by the treachery of that
prince. Oswald, the brother of Eanfrid, of the race of Bernicia, united
again the kingdom of Northumberland in the year 634, and restored
the Christian religion in his dominions. He gained a bloody and
well-disputed battle against Caedwalla; the last vigorous effort which
the Britons made against the Saxons. Oswald is much celebrated for his
sanctity and charity by the monkish historians; and they pretend that
his relics wrought miracles, particularly the curing of a sick horse,
which had approached the place of his interment.[*]

     [* Bede, lib. iii. cap. 9.]

He died in battle against Penda, king of Mercia, and was succeeded by
his brother Oswy, who established himself in the government of the whole
Northumbrian kingdom, by putting to death Oswin, the son of Osric,
the last king of the race of Deïri. His son Egfrid succeeded him; who
perishing in battle against the Picts, without leaving any children,
because Adelthrid, his wife, refused to violate her vow of chastity,
Alfred, his natural brother, acquired possession of the kingdom, which
he governed for nineteen years; and he left it to Osred, his son, a boy
of eight years of age. This prince, after a reign of eleven years, was
murdered by Kenred, his kinsman, who, after enjoying the crown only a
year, perished by a like fate. Osric, and after him Celwulph, the son
of Kenred, next mounted the throne, which the latter relinquished in
the year 738, in favor of Eadbert, his cousin-german, who, imitating
his predecessor, abdicated the crown, and retired into a monastery.
Oswolf, son of Eadbert, was slain in a sedition, a year after his
accession to the crown; and Mollo, who was not of the royal family,
seized the crown. He perished by the treachery of Ailred, a prince of
the blood; and Ailred, having succeeded in his design upon the throne,
was soon after expelled by his subjects. Ethelred, his successor, the
son of Mollo, underwent a like fate. Celwold, the next king, the brother
of Ailred, was deposed and slain by the people; and his place was filled
by Osred, his nephew, who, after a short reign of a year, made way for
Ethelbert, another son of Mollo whose death was equally tragical
with that of almost all his predecessors. After Ethelbert's death, a
universal anarchy prevailed in Northumberland; and the people having, by
so many fatal revolutions, lost all attachment to their government and
princes, were well prepared for subjection to a foreign yoke; which
Egbert, king of Wessex, finally imposed upon them.




THE KINGDOM OF EAST ANGLIA

The history of this kingdom contains nothing memorable except the
conversion of Earpwold, the fourth king, and great-grandson of Una, the
founder of the monarchy. The authority of Edwin, king of Northumberland,
on whom that prince entirety depended, engaged him to take this step;
but soon after, his wife, who was an idolatress, brought him back to her
religion; and he was found unable to resist those allurements which have
seduced the wisest of mankind. After his death, which was violent,
like that of most of the Saxon princes that did not early retire into
monasteries, Sigebert, his successor and half-brother, who had been
educated in France, restored Christianity, and introduced learning
among the East Angles. Some pretend that he founded the university
of Cambridge, or rather some schools in that place. It is almost
impossible, and quite needless, to be more particular in relating the
transactions of the East Angles. What instruction or entertainment can
it give the reader, to hear a long bead-roll of barbarous names,
Egric, Annas, Ethelbert, Ethelwald, Aldulf, Elfwald, Beorne, Ethelred,
Ethelbert, who successively murdered, expelled, or inherited from each
other, and obscurely filled the throne of that kingdom? Ethelbert,
the last of these princes, was treacherously murdered by Offa, king of
Mercia, in the year 792, and his state was thenceforth [*mited] with
that of Offa, as we shall relate presently.




THE KINGDOM OF MERCIA

Mercia, the largest, if not the most powerful, kingdom of the Heptarchy,
comprehended all the middle counties of England; and as its frontiers
extended to those of all the other kingdoms, as well as to Wales,
it received its name from that circumstance. Wibba, the son of Crida,
founder of the monarchy, being placed on the throne by Ethelbert, king
of Kent, governed his paternal dominions by a precarious authority;
and after his death, Ceorl, his kinsman, was, by the influence of the
Kentish monarch, preferred to his son Penda, whose turbulent character
appeared dangerous to that prince. Penda was thus fifty years of age
before he mounted the throne; and his temerity and restless disposition
were found nowise abated by time, experience, or reflection. He engaged
in continual hostilities against all the neighboring states; and, by
his injustice and violence, rendered himself equally odious to his own
subjects and to strangers. Sigebert, Egric, and Annas, three kings of
East Anglia, perished successively in battle against him; as did
also Edwin and Oswald, the two greatest princes that had reigned over
Northumberland. At last Oswy, brother to Oswald, having defeated and
slain him in a decisive battle, freed the world from this sanguinary
tyrant. Peada, his son, mounted the throne of Mercia in 655, and lived
under the protection of Oswy, whose daughter he had espoused. This
princess was educated in the Christian faith, and she employed her
influence, with success, in converting her husband and his subjects to
that religion. Thus the fair sex have had the merit of introducing the
Christian doctrine into all the most considerable kingdoms of the Saxon
Heptarchy. Peada died a violent death.[*] His son Wolfhere succeeded to
the government; and, after having reduced to dependence the kingdoms of
Essex and East Anglia, he left the crown to his brother Ethelred,
who, though a lover of peace, showed himself not unfit for military
enterprises. Besides making a successful expedition into Kent, he
repulsed Egfrid, king of Northumberland, who had invaded his dominions;
and he slew in battle Elswin, the brother of that prince. Desirous,
however, of composing all animosities with Egfrid, he paid him a sum of
money as a compensation for the loss of his brother. After a prosperous
reign of thirty years, he resigned the crown to Kendred, son of
Wolfhere, and retired into the monastery of Bardney.[**]

     [* Hugo Candidas (p. 4) says, that he was
     treacherously murdered by his queen, by whose persuasion he
     had embraced Christianity; but this account of the matter is
     found in that historian alone.]

     [** Bede, lib. v.]
Kendred returned the present of the crown to Ceolred, the son of
Ethelred; and making a pilgrimage to Rome, passed his life there in
penance and devotion. The place of Ceolred was supplied by Ethelbald,
great-grand-nephew to Penda, by Alwy, his brother; and this prince,
being slain in a mutiny, was succeeded by Offa, who was a degree more
remote from Penda, by Eawa, another brother.

This prince, who mounted the throne in 755,[*] had some great qualities,
and was successful in his warlike enterprises against Lothaire, king of
Kent, and Kenwulph, king of Wessex, He defeated the former in a bloody
battle, at Otford upon the Darent, and reduced his kingdom to a state
of dependence; he gained a victory over the latter at Bensington, in
Oxfordshire; and conquering that county, together with that of
Glocester, annexed both to his dominions. But all these successes were
stained by his treacherous murder of Ethelbert, king of the East Angles,
and his violent seizing of that kingdom. This young prince, who is said
to have possessed great merit, had paid his addresses to Elfrida, the
daughter of Offa, and was invited with all his retinue to Hereford, in
order to solemnize the nuptials: amidst the joy and festivity of these
entertainments, he was seized by Offa, and secretly beheaded; and though
Elfrida, who abhorred her father's treachery, had time to give warning
to the East Anglian nobility, who escaped into their own country,
Offa, having extinguished the royal family, succeeded in his design
of subduing that kingdom.[**] The perfidious prince, desirous of
reestablishing his character in the world, and perhaps of appeasing
the remorses of his own conscience, paid great court to the clergy, and
practised all the monkish devotion so much esteemed in that ignorant and
superstitious age. He gave the tenth of his goods to the church;[***]
bestowed rich donations on the cathedral of Hereford, and even made a
pilgrimage to Rome, where his great power and riches could not fail of
procuring him the papal absolution. The better to ingratiate himself
with the sovereign pontiff, he engaged to pay him a yearly donation for
the support of an English college at Rome,[****] and in order to raise
the sum, he imposed a tax of a penny on each house possessed of thirty
pence a year. This imposition, being afterwards levied on all England,
was commonly denominated _Peter's pence_;[*****] and though
conferred at first as a gift, was afterwards claimed as a tribute by the
Roman pontiff.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 59.]

     [** Brompton, p. 750, 751, 752.]

     [*** Spell. Concil. p 308. Brompton, p. 776.]

     [**** Spell. Concil. p. 230, 310, 312.]

     [***** Higden, lib. v.]

Carrying his hypocrisy still further, Offa, feigning to be directed by
a vision from heaven, discovered at Verulam the relics of St Alban, the
martyr, and endowed a magnificent monastery in that place.[*] Moved by
al these acts of piety, Malmsbury, one of the best of the old English
historians, declares himself at a loss to determine[**] whether the
merits or crimes of this prince preponderated. Offa died, after a reign
of thirty-nine years, in 794.[***]

This prince was become so considerable in the Heptarchy, that the
emperor Charlemagne entered into an alliance and friendship with him;
a circumstance which did honor to Offa; as distant princes at that time
had usually little communication with each other. That emperor being a
great lover of learning and learned men, in an age very barren of that
ornament, Offa, at his desire, sent him over Alcuin, a clergyman
much celebrated for his knowledge, who received great honors from
Charlemagne, and even became his preceptor in the sciences. The chief
reason why he had at first desired the company of Alcuin, was that he
might oppose his learning to the heresy of Felix, bishop of Urgel, in
Catalonia; who maintained that Jesus Christ, considered in his human
nature, could more properly be denominated the adoptive than the natural
son of God.[****] This heresy was condemned in the council of Francfort,
held in 794, and consisting of three hundred bishops. Such were the
questions which were agitated in that age, and which employed the
attention not only of cloistered scholars, but of the wisest and
greatest princes.[*****]

Egfrith succeeded to his father Offa, but survived him only five
months;[******] when he made way for Kenulph, a descendant of the royal
family. This prince waged war against Kent, and taking Egbert, the king,
prisoner, he cut off his hands, and put out his eyes; leaving Cuthred,
his own brother, in possession of the crown of that kingdom. Kenulph
was killed in an insurrection of the East Anglians, whose crown his
predecessor, Offa, had usurped. He left his son Kenelm, a minor; who was
murdered the same year by his sister Quendrade, who had entertained the
ambitious views of assuming the government.[*******]

     [* Ingulph. p. 5. W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 4.]

     [** Lib. i. cap. 4.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 65.]

     [**** Dupin, cent. viii. chap. 4].

     [***** Offa, in order to protect his country from
     Wales, drew a rampart or ditch of a hundred miles in length,
     from Basinwerke in Flintshire to the south sea near Bristol.
     See Speed's Description of Wales.]

     [****** Ingulph. p. 6]

     [******* Ingulph, p. 7. Brompton, p. 776.]

But she was supplanted by her uncle Ceolulf; who, two years after, was
dethroned by Beornulf The reign of this usurper, who was not of the
royal family, was short and unfortunate; he was defeated by the West
Saxons, and killed by his own subjects, the East Angles.[*] Ludican, his
successor, underwent the same fate;[**] and Wiglaff, who mounted this
unstable throne, and found everything in the utmost confusion, could not
withstand the fortune of Egbert, who united all the Saxon kingdoms into
one great monarchy.

     [* Ingulph. p. 7.]

     [** Alured. Beverl. p. 87.]




THE KINGDOM OF ESSEX.

This kingdom made no great figure in the Heptarchy; and the history
of it is very imperfect. Sleda succeeded to his father, Erkinwin, the
founder of the monarchy; and made way for his son Sebert, who, being
nephew to Ethelbert, king of Kent, was persuaded by that prince to
embrace the Christian faith.[***] His sons and conjunct successors,
Sexted and Seward, relapsed into idolatry, and were soon after slain in
a battle against the West Saxons. To show the rude manner of living
in that age, Bede tells us,[****] that these two kings expressed great
desire to eat the white bread, distributed by Mellitus, the bishop, at
the communion.[*****] But on his refusing them, unless they would submit
to be baptized, they expelled him their dominions. The names of the
other princes, who reigned successively in Essex, are Sigebert the
little, Sigebert the good, who restored Christianity, Swithelm, Sigheri,
Offa. This last prince, having made a vow of chastity, notwithstanding
his marriage with Keneswitha, a Mercian princess, daughter to Penda,
went in pilgrimage to Rome, and shut himself up during the rest of his
life in a cloister. Selred, his successor, reigned thirty-eight years;
and was the last of the royal line; the failure of which threw the
kingdom into great confusion, and reduced it to dependence under
Mercia.[******] Switherd first acquired the crown, by the concession of
the Mercian princes; and his death made way for Sigeric, who ended his
life in a pilgrimage to Rome. His successor. Sigered, unable to defend
his kingdom, submitted to the victorious arms of Egbert.

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 24].

     [**** Lib. ii. cap. 5.]

     [***** H. Hunting, lib. iii. Brompton, p. 738,
     743. Bede.]

     [****** W Malms, lib. i. cap. 6.]




THE KINGDOM OF SUSSEX.

The history of this kingdom, the smallest in the Heptarchy, is still more
imperfect than that of Essex. Ælla, the founder of the monarchy, left
the crown to his son Cissa, who is chiefly remarkable for his long reign
of seventy-six years. During his time, the South Saxons fell almost into
a total dependence on the kingdom of Wessex; and we scarcely know the
names of the princes who were possessed of this titular sovereignty.
Adelwalch, the last of them, was subdued in battle by Ceadwalla, king
of Wessex, and was slain in the action; leaving two infant sons, who,
falling into the hand of the conqueror, were murdered by him. The abbot
of Bedford opposed the order for this execution; but could only prevail
on Ceadwalla to suspend it till they should be baptized. Bercthun and
Audhum, two noblemen of character, resisted some time the violence
of the West Saxons; but their opposition served only to prolong the
miseries of their country; and the subduing of this kingdom was the
first step which the West Saxons made towards acquiring the sole
monarchy of England.[*]

     [* Brompton, p. 800.]




THE KINGDOM OF WESSEX.

The kingdom of Wessex, which finally swallowed up all the other Saxon
states, met with great resistance on its first establishment; and
the Britons, who were now inured to arms, yielded not tamely their
possessions to those invaders. Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, and
his son Kenric, fought many successful, and some unsuccessful battles,
against the natives; and the martial spirit, common to all the Saxons,
was, by means of these hostilities, carried to the greatest height among
this tribe. Ceaulin, who was the son and successor of Kenric, and who
began his reign in 560, was still, more ambitious and enterprising than
his predecessors; and by waging continual war against the Britons, he
added a great part of the counties of Devon and Somerset to his other
dominions. Carried along by the tide of success, he invaded the other
Saxon states in his neighborhood, and becoming terrible to all, he
provoked a general confederacy against him. This alliance proved
successful under the conduct of Ethelbert, king of Kent; and Ceaulin,
who had lost the affections of his own subjects by his violent
disposition, and had now fallen into contempt from his misfortunes, was
expelled the throne,[**]and died in exile and misery. Cuichelme, and
Cuthwin, his sons, governed jointly the kingdom, till the expulsion
of the latter in 591, and the death of the former in 593, made way
for Cealric, to whom succeeded Ceobaîd in 593, by whose death, which
happened in 611, Kynegils inherited the crown.

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 22.]

This prince embraced Christianity,[*] through the persuasion of Oswald,
king of Northumberland, who had married his daughter, and who had
Attained a great ascendant in the Heptarchy. Kenwalch next succeeded to
the monarchy, and dying in 672, left the succession so much disputed,
that Sexburga, his widow, a woman of spirit,[**] kept possession of the
government till her death, which happened two years after. Escwin then
peaceably acquired the crown; and, after a short reign of two years,
made way for Kentwin, who governed nine years. Ceodwalla, his successor,
mounted not the throne without opposition; but proved a great prince,
according to the ideas of those times; that is, he was enterprising,
warlike, and successful. He entirely subdued the kingdom of Sussex, and
annexed it to his own dominions He made inroads into Kent; but met with
resistance from Widred, the king, who proved successful against Mollo,
brother to Ceodwalla, and slew him in a skirmish. Ceodwalla at last,
tired with wars and bloodshed, was seized with a fit of devotion;
bestowed several endowments on the church; and made a pilgrimage to
Rome, where he received baptism, and died in 689. Ina, his successor,
inherited the military virtues of Ceodwalla, and added to them the more
valuable ones of justice, policy, and prudence. He made war upon the
Britons in Somerset; and, having finally subdued that province, he
treated the vanquished with a humanity hitherto unknown to the Saxon
conquerors. He allowed the proprietors to retain possession of their
lands, encouraged marriages and alliances between them and his ancient
subjects, and gave them the privilege of being governed by the same
laws. These laws he augmented and ascertained; and though he was
disturbed by some insurrections at home, his long reign of thirty-seven
years may be regarded as one of the most glorious and most prosperous of
the Heptarchy. In the decline of his age he made a pilgrimage to Rome;
and after his return, shut himself up in a cloister, where he died.

     [* Higden, lib. v. Chron. Sax. p. 15. Alured
     Beverl p. 94.]

     [** Bede, lib. iv. cap., 12. Chron. Sax. p. 41.]

Though the kings of Wessex had always been princes of the blood,
descended from Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, the order of
succession had been far from exact; and a more remote prince had often
found means to mount the throne, in preference to one descended from a
nearer branch of the royal family. Ina, therefore, having no children
of his own and lying much under the influence of Ethelburga, his queen,
left by will the succession to Adelard, her brother, who was his
remote kinsman; but this destination did not take place without some
difficulty. Oswald, a prince more nearly allied to the crown, took arms
against Adelard; but he being suppressed, and dying soon after, the
title of Adelard was not any further disputed; and in the year 741,
he was succeeded by his cousin Cudred. The reign of this prince was
distinguished by a great victory, which he obtained by means of Edelhun,
his general, over Ethelbald, king of Mercia. His death made way for
Sigebert, his kinsman, who governed so ill, that his people rose in
an insurrection, and dethroned him, crowning Cenulph in his stead. The
exiled prince found a refuge with Duke Cumbran, governor of Hampshire;
who, that he might add new obligations to Sigebert, gave him many
salutary counsels for his future conduct, accompanied with some
reprehensions for the past. But these were so much resented by the
ungrateful prince, that he conspired against the life of his protector,
and treacherously murdered him. After this infamous action, he was
forsaken by all the world; and skulking about in the wilds and forests,
was at last discovered by a servant of Cumbran's, who instantly took
revenge upon him for the murder of his master.[*]


Cenulph, who had obtained the crown on the expulsion of Sigebert, was
fortunate in many expeditions against the Britons of Cornwall; but
afterwards lost some reputation by his ill success against Offa, king
of Mercia.[**] Kynehard also, brother to the deposed Sigebert, gave
him disturbance; and though expelled the kingdom, he hovered on the
frontiers, and watched an opportunity for attacking his rival. The king
had an intrigue with a young woman, who lived at Merton, in Surrey,
whither having secretly retired, he was on a sudden environed, in the
night time, by Kynehard and his followers, and after making a vigorous
resistance, was murdered, with all his attendants. The nobility and
people of the neighborhood, rising next day in arms, took revenge on
Kynehard for the slaughter of their king, and put every one to the sword
who had been engaged in that criminal enterprise. This event happened in
784.

     [* Higden, lib. v. W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 2.]

     [** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 2.]

Brthric next obtained possession of the government, though remotely
descended from the royal family; but he enjoyed not that dignity without
inquietude. Eoppa, nephew to King Ina, by his brother Ingild, who died
before that prince, had begot Eata, father to Alchmond, from whom sprung
Egbert,[*] a young man of the most promising hopes, who gave great
jealousy to Brithric, the reigning prince, both because he seemed by his
birth better entitled to the crown, and because he had acquired, to an
eminent degree, the affections of the people. Egbert, sensible of
his danger from the suspicions of Brithric, secretly withdrew into
France;[**] where he was well received by Charlemagne. By living in the
court, and serving in the armies of that prince, the most able and most
generous that had appeared in Europe during several ages, he acquired
those accomplishments which afterwards enabled him to make such a
shining figure on the throne. And familiarizing himself to the manners
of the French, who, as Malmsbury observes,[***] were eminent both for
valor and civility above all the western nations, he learned to polish
the rudeness and barbarity of the Saxon character: his early misfortunes
thus proved of singular advantage to him.


It was not long ere Egbert had opportunities of displaying his natural
and acquired talents. Brithric, king of Wessex, had married Eadburga,
natural daughter of Offa, king of Mercia, a profligate woman, equally
infamous for cruelty and for incontinence. Having great influence over
her husband, she often instigated him to destroy such of the nobility as
were obnoxious to her; and where this expedient failed, she scrupled not
being herself active in traitorous attempts against them. She had mixed
a cup of poison for a young nobleman, who had acquired her husband's
friendship, and had on that account become the object of her jealousy;
but unfortunately the king drank of the fatal cup along with his
favorite, and soon after expired.[****] This tragical incident, joined
to her other crimes, rendered Eadburga so odious, that she was obliged
to fly into France; whence Egbert was at the same time recalled by the
nobility, in order to ascend the throne of his ancestors.[*****] He
attained that dignity in the last year of the eighth century.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 16.]

     [** H. Hunting. lib. iv.]

     [*** Lib. ii. cap. 11.]

     [**** Higden, lib. v. M West. p. 152. Asser. in
     vita Alfiredi, p, 3. ex edit, Camdeni.]

     [***** Chron. Sax. A.D. 800. Brompton, p. 801]

In the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, an exact rule of succession was either
unknown or not strictly observed; and thence the reigning prince was
continually agitated with jealousy against all the princes of the blood,
whom he still considered as rivals, and whose death alone could give him
entire security in his possession of the throne. From this fatal cause,
together with the admiration of the monastic life, and the opinion of
merit attending the preservation of chastity even in a married state,
the royal families had been entirely extinguished in all the kingdoms
except that of Wessex; and the emulations, suspicions, and conspiracies,
which had formerly been confined to the princes of the blood alone, were
now diffused among all the nobility in the several Saxon states. Egbert
was the sole descendant of those first conquerors who subdued Britain,
and who enhanced their authority by claiming a pedigree from Woden, the
supreme divinity of their ancestors. But that prince, though invited by
this favorable circumstance to make attempts on the neighboring Saxons,
gave them for some time no disturbance, and rather chose to turn his
arms against the Britons in Cornwall, whom he defeated in several
battles.[*] He was recalled from the conquest of that country by an
invasion made upon his dominions by Bernulf, king of Mercia.

The Mercians, before the accession of Egbert, had very nearly attained
the absolute sovereignty in the Heptarchy: they had reduced the East
Angles under subjection, and established tributary princes in the
kingdoms of Kent and Essex. Northumberland was involved in anarchy; and
no state of any consequence remained but that of Wessex, which,
much inferior in extent to Mercia, was supported solely by the great
qualities of its sovereign. Egbert led his army against the invaders;
and encountering them at Ellandun, in Wiltshire, obtained a complete
victory, and by the great slaughter which he made of them in their
flight, gave a mortal blow to the power of the Mercians. Whilst he
himself, In prosecution of his victory, entered their country on the
side of Oxfordshire, and threatened the heart of their dominions, he
sent an army into Kent, commanded by Ethelwolph, his eldest son,[**]
and, expelling Baldred. The tributary king, soon made himself master of
that county.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 69.]

     [** Ethelwerd, lib iii. cap. 2.]

The kingdom of Essex was conquered with equal facility; and the East
Angles, from their hatred to the Mercian gov ernment, which had been
established over them by treachery and violence, and probably exercised
with tyranny, immediately rose in arms, and craved the protection of
Egbert.[*] Bernulf, the Mercian king, who marched against them, was
feated and siain; and two years after, Ludican, his successor, met
with the same fate. These insurrections and calamities facilitated
the enterprises of Egbert, who advanced into the centre of the Mercian
territories, and made easy conquests over a dispirited and divided
people. In order to engage them more easily to submission, he allowed
Wiglef, their countryman, to retain the title of king, whilst he
himself exercised the real powers of sovereignty.[**] The anarchy which
prevailed in Northumberland tempted him to carry still farther his
victorious arms; and the inhabitants, unable to resist his power,
and desirous of possessing some established form of government, were
forward, on his first appearance, to send deputies, who submitted to
his authority, and swore allegiance to him as their sovereign. Egbert,
however, still allowed to Northumberland, as he had done to Mercia, and
East Anglia, the power of electing a king, who paid him tribute, and was
dependent on him.

Thus were united all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy in one great state,
near four hundred years after the first arrival of the Saxons in
Britain; and the fortunate arms and prudent policy of Egbert at
last effected what had been so often attempted in vain by so many
princes.[***] Kent, Northumberland, and Mercia, which had successively
aspired to general dominion, were now incorporated in his empire; and
the other subordinate kingdoms seemed willingly to share the same fate.
His territories were nearly of the same extent with what is now
properly called England; and a favorable prospect was afforded to
the Anglo-Saxons of establishing a civilized monarchy, possessed of
tranquillity within itself, and secure against foreign invasion. This
great event happened in the year 827.[****]

     [* Ethelwerd, lib. iii. cap. 2.]

     [** Ingulph. p. 7, 8, 19.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 71.]

     [**** Chron. Sax. p. 71.]

The Saxons, though they had been so long settled in the island, seem not
as yet to have been much improved beyond their German ancestors, either
hi arts, civility, knowledge, humanity, justice, or obedience to the
laws. Even Christianity, though it opened the way to connections between
their and the more polished states of Europe, had not hitherto been very
effectual in banishing their ignorance, or softening their barbarous
manners. As they received that doctrine through the corrupted channels
of Rome, it carried along with it a great mixture of credulity and
superstition, equally destructive to the understanding and to morals.
The reverence towards saints and relics seems to have almost supplanted
the idoration of the Supreme Being; monastic observances were esteemed
more meritorious than the active virtues; the knowledge of natural
causes was neglected, from the universal belief of miraculous
interpositions and judgments; bounty to the church atoned for every
violence against society; and the remorses for cruelty, murder,
treachery, assassination, and the more robust vices, were appeased, not
by amendment of life, but by penances, servility to the monks, and an
abject and illiberal devotion.[*] The reverence for the clergy had
been carried to such a height, that, wherever a person appeared in a
sacerdotal habit, though on the highway, the people flocked around him,
and, showing him all marks of profound respect, received every word he
uttered as the most sacred oracle.[**] Even the military virtues,
so inherent in all the Saxon tribes, began to be neglected; and the
nobility, preferring the security and sloth of the cloister to the
tumults and glory of war, valued themselves chiefly on endowing
monasteries, of which they assumed the government.[***] The several
kings too, being extremely impoverished by continual benefactions to the
church, to which the states of their kingdoms had weakly assented, could
bestow no rewards on valor or military services, and retained not even
sufficient influence to support their government.[****]

     [* These abuses were common to all the European
     churches; but the priests in Italy, Spain, and Gaul, made
     some atonement for them by other advantages which they
     rendered society. For several ages, they were almost all
     Romans, or, in other words, the ancient natives; and they
     preserved the Roman language and laws, with some remains of
     the former civility. But the priests in the Heptarchy, after
     the first missionaries, were wholly Saxons, and almost as
     ignorant and Barbarous as the laity. They contributed,
     therefore, little to no improvement of society in knowledge
     or the arts.]

     [** Bede, lib. iii. cap. 26.]

     [*** Bede, lib. v. cap. 23. Bedae Epist. ad
     Egbert.]

     [**** Bedse Epist. ad Egbert.]

Another inconvenience which attended this corrupt species of
Christianity, was the superstitious attachment to Rome, and the gradual
subjection of the kingdom to a foreign jurisdiction. The Britons, having
never acknowledged any subordination to the Roman pontiff, had conducted
all ecclesiastical government by their domestic synods and councils;[*]
but the Saxons, receiving their religion from Roman monks, were taught
at the same time a profound reverence for that see, and were naturally
led to regard it as the capital of their religion. Pilgrimages to Rome
were represented as the most meritorious acts of devotion. Not only
noblemen and ladies of rank undertook this tedious journey,[**] but
kings themselves, abdicating their crowns, sought for a secure passport
to heaven at the feet of the Roman pontiff. New relics, perpetually sent
from that endless mint of superstition, and magnified by lying miracles,
invented in convents, operated on the astonished minds of the multitude.
And every prince has attained the eulogies of the monks, the only
historians of those ages, not in proportion to his civil and military
virtues, but to his devoted attachment towards their order, and his
superstitious reverence for Rome.

The sovereign pontiff, encouraged by this blindness and submissive
disposition of the people, advanced every day in his encroachments
on the independence of the English churches. Wilfrid, bishop of
Lindisferne, the sole prelate of the Northumbrian kingdom, increased
this subjection in the eighth century, by his making an appeal to
Rome against the decisions of an English synod, which had abridged his
diocese by the erection of some new bishoprics.[***] Agatho, the pope,
readily embraced this precedent of an appeal to his court; and Wilfrid,
though the haughtiest and most luxurious prelate of his age,[****]
having obtained with the people the character of sanctity, was thus able
to lay the foundation of this papal pretension.

     [* Append, to Bede, numb. 10, ex edit. 1722.
     Spehn. Concil p.108, 109.]

     [** Bede. lib. v. cap. 7.]

     [*** See Appendix to Bede, numb. 19. Higden, lib.
     v.]

     [**** Eddius, vita Vilfr. sect. 24, 60]

The great topic by which Wilfrid confounded the imaginations of men,
was, that St. Peter, to whos custody the keys of heaven were intrusted,
would certainly refuse admittance to every one who should be wanting
in respect to his successor, This conceit, well suited to vulgar
conceptions, made great impression on the people during several
ages, and has act even at present lost all influence in the Catholic
countries. Had this abject superstition produced general peace and
tranquillity, it had made some atonement for the ills attending it;
but besides the usual avidity of men for power and riches, frivolous
controversies in theology were engendered by it, which were so much
the more fatal, as they admitted not, like the others, of any final
determination from established possession. The disputes, excited in
Britain, were of the most ridiculous kind, and entirely worthy of those
ignorant and barbarous ages. There were some intricacies, observed by
all the Christian churches, in adjusting the day of keeping Easter;
which depended on a complicated consideration of the course of the sun
and moon; and it happened that the missionaries, who had converted the
Scots and Britons, had followed a different calendar from that which was
observed at Rome, in the age when Augustine converted the Saxons. The
priests also of all the Christian churches were accustomed to shave part
of their head; but the form given to this tonsure was different in the
former from what was practised in the latter. The Scots and Britons
pleaded the antiquity of _their_ usages; the Romans and their
disciples, the Saxons, insisted on the universality of _theirs_.
That Easter must necessarily be kept by a rule, which comprehended both
the day of the year and age of the moon, was agreed by all; that the
tonsure of a priest could not be omitted without the utmost impiety, was
a point undisputed; but the Romans and Saxons called their antagonists
schismatics, because they celebrated Easter on the very day of the full
moon in March, if that day fell on a Sunday, instead of waiting till the
Sunday following; and because they shaved the fore part of their head
from ear to ear, instead of making that tonsure on the crown of the
head, and in a circular form. In order to render their antagonists
odious, they affirmed that, once in seven years, they concurred with the
Jews in the time of celebrating that festival;[*] and that they might
recommend their own form of tonsure, they maintained, that it imitated
symbolically the crown of thorns worn by Christ in his passion; whereas
the other form was invented by Simon Magus, without any regard to that
representation.[**]

     [* Bede, lib. ii. cap. 19.]

     [** Bede, lib. v. cap. 21. Eddius, sect. 24]

These controversies had, from the beginning, excited such animosity
between the British and Romish priests that, instead of concurring
in their endeavors to convert the idolatrous Saxons, they refused all
communion together, and each regarded his opponent as no better than
a pagan.[*] The dispute lasted more than a century; and was at last
finished, not by men's discovering the folly of it, which would have
been too great an effort for human reason to accomplish, but by the
entire prevalence of the Romish ritual over the Scotch and British.[**]
Wilfrid, bishop of Lindisferne, acquired great merit, both with the
court of Rome and with all the southern Saxons, by expelling the
quartodeciman schism, as it was called, from the Northumbrian kingdom,
into which the neighborhood of the Scots had formerly introduced
it.[***]

Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, called, in the year 680, a synod
at Hatfield, consisting of all the bishops in Britain,[****] where was
accepted and ratified the decree of the Lateran council, summoned by
Martin, against the heresy of the Monothelites. The council and synod
maintained, in opposition to these heretics, that, though the divine
and human nature in Christ made but one person, yet had they different
inclinations, wills, acts, and sentiments, and that the unity of the
person implied not any unity in the consciousness.[*****] This opinion
it seems somewhat difficult to comprehend; and no one, unacquainted with
the ecclesiastical history of those ages, could imagine the height of
zeal and violence with which it was then inculcated. The decree of
the Lateran council calls the Monothelites impious, execrable, wicked,
abominable, and even diabolical; and curses and anathematizes them to
all eternity.[******]

     [* Bede, lib. ii. cap. 2, 4, 20. Eddius, sect.
     12.]

     [** Bede, lib. v. cap. 16, 22.]

     [*** Bede, lib. iii. cap. 25. Eddius, sect. 12.]

     [**** Spell. Concil. vol. i. p. 168.]

     [***** Spell. Concil. vol. i. p. 171.]

     [****** Spell. Concil. vol. i. p. 172, 173, 174.]





CHAPTER II.

The Saxons, from the first introduction of Christianity among them, had
admitted the use of images; and perhaps that religion, without some of
those exterior ornaments, had lot made so quick a progress with these
idolaters; but they had not paid any species of worship or address
to images; and this abuse never prevailed among Christians, till it
received the sanction of the second council of Nice.




EGBERT.

[Sidenote: 827.] The kingdoms of the Heptarchy, though united by a
recent conquest, seemed to be firmly cemented into one state under
Egbert; and the inhabitants of the several provinces had lost all desire
of revolting from that monarch, or of restoring their former independent
governments. Their language was every where nearly the same, their
customs, laws, institutions, civil and religious; and as the race of
the ancient kings was totally extinct in all the subjected states, the
people readily transferred their allegiance to a prince who seemed
to merit it by the splendor of his victories, the vigor of hia
administration, and the superior nobility of his birth. A union also in
government opened to them the agreeable prospect of future tranquillity;
and it appeared more probable that they would thenceforth become
formidable to their neighbors, than be exposed to their inroads and
devastations. But these flattering views were soon overcast by
the appearance of the Danes, who, during some centuries, kept the
Anglo-Saxons in perpetual inquietude, committed the most barbarous
ravages upon them, and at last reduced them to grievous servitude.

The emperor Charlemagne, though naturally generous and humane, had been
induced by bigotry to exercise great severities upon the pagan Saxons in
Germany, whom he subdued; and besides often ravaging their country with
fire and sword, he had, in cool blood, decimated all the inhabitants
for their revolts, and had obliged them, by the most rigorous edicts,
to make a seeming compliance with the Christian doctrine. That religion,
which had easily made its way among the British Saxons by insinuation
and address, appeared shocking to their German brethren, when imposed on
them by the violence of Charlemagne; and the more generous and warlike
of these pagans had fled northward into Jutland, in order to escape
the fury of his persecutions. Meeting there with a people of similar
manners, they were readily received among them; and they soon stimulated
the natives to concur in enterprises which both promised revenge on
the haughty conqueror, and afforded subsistence to those numerous
inhabitants with which the northern countries were now overburdened.[*]
They invaded the provinces of France, which were exposed by the
degeneracy and dissensions of Charlemagne's posterity; and being there
known under the general name of Normans, which they received from their
northern situation, they became the terror of all the maritime and even
of the inland countries. They were also tempted to visit England in
their frequent excursions; and being able, by sudden inroads, to make
great progress over a people who were not defended by any naval force,
who had relaxed their military institutions, and who were sunk into a
superstition which had become odious to the Danes and ancient Saxons,
they made no distinction in their hostilities between the French and
English kingdoms. Their first appearance in this island was in the year
787,[**] when Brithric reigned in Wessex. A small body of them landed in
that kingdom, with a view of learning the state of the country; and when
the magistrate of the place questioned them concerning their enterprise,
and summoned them to appear before the king, and account for their
intentions, they killed him, and, flying to, their ships, escaped into
their own country. The next alarm was given to Northumberland in the
year 794,[***] when a body of these pirates pillaged a monastery; but
their ships being much damaged by a storm, and their leader slain in
a skirmish, they were at last defeated by the inhabitants, and the
remainder of them put to the sword. [Sidenote: 832] Five years after
Egbert had established his monarchy over England, the Danes landed in
the Isle of Shepey, and having pillaged it, escaped with impunity.[****]
They were not so fortunate in their next year's enterprise, when they
disembarked from thirty-five ships, and were encountered by Egbert, at
Charmouth, in Dorsetshire. The battle was bloody; but though the Danes
lost great numbers, they maintained the post which they had taken, and
thence made good their retreat to their ships.[*****]

     [* Ypod. Neust. p. 414.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 64.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 66. Alured. Beveri. p. 108.]

     [**** Chron. Sax. p. 72]

     [***** Chiron. Sax. p. 72. Ethelwerd,lib. iii.
     cap. 2.]

Having learned, by experience, that they must expect a vigorous
resistance from this warlike prince, they entered into an alliance with
the Britons of Cornwall; and, landing two years after in that country,
made an inroad with their confederates into the county of Devon, but
were met at Hengesdown by Egbert, and totally defeated.[*] While England
remained in this state of anxiety, and defended itself more by temporary
expedients than by any regular plan of administration, Egbert, who alone
was able to provide effectually against this new evil, unfortunately
died, and left the government to his son Ethelwolf.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 72.]




ETHELWOLF.

This prince had neither the abilities nor the vigor of his father, and
was better qualified for governing a convent than a kingdom.[*] He began
his reign with making a partition of his dominions, and delivering over
to his eldest son, Athelstan, the new-conquered provinces of Essex,
Kent, and Sussex. But no inconveniences seem to have arisen from this
partition as the continual terror of the Danish invasions prevented
all domestic dissension. A fleet of these ravagers, consisting of
thirty-three sail, appeared at Southampton, but were repulsed with loss
by Wolfhere, governor of the neighboring country.[**] The same year,
Æthelhelm, governor of Dorsetshire, routed another band, which had
disembarked at Portsmouth; but he obtained the victory after a furious
engagement, and he bought it with the loss of his life.[***]

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap 2.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 73. Ethelwerd, lib. iii. cap.
     3.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 73. H. Hunting, lib. v.]

Next year, the Danes made several inroads into England, and fought
battles, or rather skirmishes, in East Anglia and Lindesey and Kent;
where, though they were sometimes repulsed and defeated, they always
obtained their end, of committing spoil upon the country, and carrying
off their booty. They avoided coming to a general engagement, which was
not suited to their plan of operations. Their vessels were small, and
ran easily up the creeks and rivers, where they drew them ashore, and,
having formed an intrenchment round them, which they guarded with part
of their number, the remainder scattered themselves every where, and
carrying off the inhabitants, and cattle, and goods, they hastened
to their ships, and quickly disappeared. If the military force of the
county were assembled, (for there was no time for troops to march from
a distance,) the Danes either were able to repulse them, and to continue
their ravages with impunity, or they betook themselves to their vessels,
and, setting sail, suddenly invaded some distant quarter, which was not
prepared for their reception.

Every part of England was held in continual alarm; and the inhabitants
of one county durst not give assistance to those of another, lest their
own families and property should in the mean time be exposed by their
absence to the fury of these barbarous ravagers.[*]

[* Alured. Beverl. p. 108.]

All orders of men were involved in this calamity; and the priests and
monks, who had been commonly spared in the domestic quarrels of
the Heptarchy, were the chief objects on which the Danish idolaters
exercised their rage and animosity. Every season of the year was
dangerous, and the absence of the enemy was no reason why any man could
esteem himself a moment in safety.

These incursions had now become almost annual; when the Danes,
encouraged by their successes against France as well as England, (for
both kingdoms were alike exposed to this dreadful calamity,) invaded
the last in so numerous a body as seemed to threaten it with universal
subjection. But the English, more military than the Britons, whom a few
centuries before they had treated with like violence, roused themselves
with a vigor proportioned to the exigency. Ceorle, governor of
Devonshire, fought a battle with one body of the Danes at Wiganburgh,[*]
and put them to rout with great slaughter.

     [* H. Hunting, lib. v. Ethelwerd, lib. iii. cap 3.
     Sim. Dunelm. p. 120.]

King Athelstan attacked another at sea, near Sandwich, sunk nine of
their ships, and put the rest to flight.[*]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 74. Asser. p. 2.]

A body of them, however, ventured, for the first time, to take up winter
quarters in England; and receiving in the spring a strong reënforcement
of their countrymen, in three hundred and fifty vessels, they advanced
from the Isle of Thanet, where they had stationed themselves, burnt the
cities of London and Canterbury, and having put to flight Brichtric, who
now governed Mercia under the title of king, they marched into the heart
of Surrey, and laid every place waste around them. Ethelwolf, impelled
by the urgency of the danger, marched against them at the head of the
West Saxons; and, carrying with him his second son, Ethelbald, gave them
battle at Okely, and gained a bloody victory over them. This advantage
procured but a short respite to the English. The Danes still maintained
their settlement in the Isle of Thanet; and, being attacked by Ealher
and Huda, governors of Kent and Surrey, though defeated in the beginning
of the action, they finally repulsed the assailants, and killed both
the governors, removed thence to the Isle of Shepey, where they took up
their winter quarters, that they might farther extend their devastation
and ravages.


This unsettled state of England hindered not Ethelwolf from making a
pilgrimage to Rome, whither he carried his fourth and favorite son,
Alfred, then only six years of age.[*] He passed there a twelvemonth
in exercises of devotion; and failed not in that most essential part of
devotion, liberality to the church of Rome. Besides giving presents to
the more distinguished ecclesiastics, he made a perpetual grant of three
hundred mancuses[**] a year to that see; one third to support the
lamps of St. Peter's, another those of St. Paul's, a third to the pope
himself.[***] In his return home, he married Judith, daughter of the
emperor Charles the Bald; but, on his landing in England, he met with an
opposition which he little looked for.


His eldest son, Athelstan, being dead, Ethelbald, his second, who had
assumed the government, formed, in concert with many of the nobles, the
project of excluding his father from a throne which his weakness and
superstition seem to have rendered him so ill qualified to fill. The
people were divided between the two princes, and a bloody civil war,
joined to all the other calamities under which the English labored,
appeared inevitable, when Ethelwolf had the facility to yield to the
greater part of his son's pretensions. He made with him a partition of
the kingdom; and, taking to himself the eastern part, which was always,
at that time, esteemed the least considerable, as well as the most
exposed,[****] he delivered over to Ethelbald the sovereignty of the
western. Immediately after, he summoned the states of the whole kingdom,
and with the same facility conferred a perpetual and important donation
on the church.

     [* Asser. p. 2. Chron. Sax. 76. H. Hunting, lib.
     v.]

     [** A mancus was about the weight of our present
     half crown. See Spelman's Glossary, in verbo Mancus.]

     [*** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 2.]

     [**** Asser. p. 3. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 2. M.
     West. p. 7, 8.]

The ecclesiastics, in those days of ignorance, made rapid advances in
the acquisition of power and grandeur; and, inculcating the most absurd
and most interested doctrines, though they sometimes met, from the
contrary interests of the laity, with an opposition which it required
time and address to overcome, they found no obstacle in their reason or
understanding. Not content with the donations of land made them by the
Saxon princes and nobles, and with temporary oblations from the devotion
of the people, they had cast a wishful eye on a vast revenue, which they
claimed as belonging to them by a sacred and indefeasible title. However
little versed in the Scriptures, they had been able to discover that,
under the Jewish law, a tenth of all the produce of land was conferred
on the priesthood; and, forgetting what they themselves taught, that the
moral part only of that law was obligatory on Christians, they insisted
that this donation conveyed a perpetual property, inherent by divine
right in those who officiated at the altar. During some centuries, the
whole scope of sermons and homilies was directed to this purpose; and
one would have imagined, from the general tenor of these discourses,
that all the practical parts of Christianity were comprised in the exact
and faithful payment of tithes to the clergy.[*] Encouraged by their
success in inculcating these doctrines, they ventured farther than they
were warranted even by the Levitical law, and pretended to draw the
tenth of all industry, merchandise, wages of laborers, and pay of
soldiers;[**] nay, some canonists went so far as to affirm that the
clergy were entitled to the tithe of the profits made by courtesans
in the exercise of their profession.[***] Though parishes had been
instituted in England by Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, near two
centuries before,[****] the ecclesiastics had never yet been able to get
possession of the tithes; they therefore seized the present favorable
opportunity of making that acquisition; when a weak, superstitious
prince filled the throne, and when the people, discouraged by their
losses from the Danes, and terrified with the fear of future invasions,
were susceptible of any impression which bore the appearance of
religion.[*****] So meritorious was this concession deemed by the
English, that, trusting entirely to supernatural assistance, they
neglected the ordinary means of safety; and agreed, even in the present
desperate extremity, that the revenues of the church should be
exempted from all burdens, though imposed for national defence and
security.[******]

     [* Padre Paolo, sopra beneficii ecclesiastici, p.
     51, 52, edit. Colon. 1675.]

     [** Spell. Concil. vol. i. p. 268.]

     [*** Padre Paolo, p. 132.]

     [**** Parker, p. 77.]

     [***** Ingulph. p. 862. Selden's Hist. of Tithes,
     c. 8.]

     [****** Asser. p. 2. Chron. Sax. p. 76. W. Malms,
     lib. ii. cap. 2. Ethelwerd, lib. iii. cap. 3. M. West. p.
     158. Ingulph. p. 17. Alured. Beverl. p. 95.]




ETHELBALD AND ETHELBERT.

Ethelwolf lived only two years after making this grant; and by his will
he shared England between his two eldest sons, Ethelbald and Ethelbert;
the west being assigned to the former, the east to the latter. Ethelbald
was a profligate prince; and marrying Judith, his mother-in-law, gave
great offence to the people; but moved by the remonstrances of Swithun,
bishop of Winchester, he was at last prevailed on to divorce her.
His reign was short; and Ethelbert, his brother, succeeding to the
government, behaved himself, during a reign of five years, in a manner
more worthy of his birth and station. The kingdom, however, was still
infested by the Danes, who made an inroad and sacked Winchester, but
were there defeated. A body also of these pirates, who were quartered
in the Isle of Thanet, having deceived the English by a treaty,
unexpectedly broke into Kent, and committed great outrages.




ETHERED

Ethelbert was succeeded by his brother Ethered, who, though he defended
himself with bravery, enjoyed, during his whole reign, no tranquillity
from those Danish irruptions. His younger brother, Alfred, seconded him
in all his enterprises, and generously sacrificed to the public good all
resentment, which he might entertain on account of his being excluded by
Ethered from a large patrimony which had been left him by his father.

The first landing of the Danes, in the reign of Ethered, was among the
East Angles, who, more anxious for their present safety than for the
common interest, entered into a separate treaty with the enemy, and
furnished them with horses, which enabled them to make an irruption by
land into the kingdom of Northumberland. They there seized the city
of York, and defended it against Osbricht and Ælia, two Northumbrian
princes, who perished in the assault.[*] Encouraged by these successes,
and by the superiority which they had acquired in arms, they now
ventured, under the command of Hinguar and Hubba, to leave the
sea-coast, and penetrating into Mercia, they took up their winter
quarters at Nottingham, where they threatened the kingdom with a final
subjection.

     [* Asser, p. 6. Chron. Sax. p. 79.]

The Mercians, in this extremity, applied to Ethered for succor; and that
prince, with his brother Alfred, conducting a great army to Nottingham,
obliged the enemy to dislodge, and to retreat into Northumberland.
{870.} Their restless disposition, and their avidity for plunder,
allowed them not to remain long in those quarters; they broke into East
Anglia, defeated and took prisoner Edmund, the king of that country,
whom they afterwards murdered in cool blood; and, committing the most
barbarous ravages on the people, particularly on the monasteries, they
gave the East Angles cause to regret the temporary relief which they had
obtained, by assisting the common enemy.

The next station of the Danes was at Reading; whence they infested
the neighboring country by their incursions. The Mercians, desirous of
shaking off their dependence on Ethered, refused to join him with
their forces; and that prince, attended by Alfred, was obliged to march
against the enemy with the West Saxons alone, his hereditary subjects.
The Danes, being defeated in an action, shut themselves up in their
garrison; but quickly making thence an irruption, they routed the West
Saxons, and obliged them to raise the siege. An action soon after ensued
at Aston, in Berkshire, where the English, in the beginning of the day,
were in danger of a total defeat. Alfred, advancing with one division
of the army, was surrounded by the enemy in disadvantageous ground;
and Ethered, who was at that time hearing mass, refused to march to his
assistance till prayers should be finished;[*] but, as he afterwards
obtained the victory, this success, not the danger of Alfred, was
ascribed by the monks to the piety of that monarch.

     [* Asser. p. 7. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 3 Sim.
     Dunelm. p. 125. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 205.]

[Illustration: 035.jpg ALFRED BEFORE THE DANISH GENERAL]




ALFRED.

This battle of Aston did not terminate the war; another battle was a
little after fought at Basing, where the Danes were more successful; and
being reënforced by a new army from their own country, they became every
day more terrible to the English. Amidst these confusions, Ethered died
of a wound which he had received in an action with the Danes; and
left the inheritance of his cares and misfortunes, rather than of his
grandeur, to his brother Alfred, who was now twenty-two years of age.

This prince gave very early marks of those great virtues and shining
talents, by which, during the most difficult times, he saved his country
from utter ruin and subversion. Ethelwolf, his father, the year after
his return with Alfred from Rome, had again sent the young prince
thither with a numerous retinue; and a report being spread of the king's
death, the Pope, Leo III., gave Alfred the royal unction;[*] whether
prognosticating his future greatness from the appearances of his
pregnant genius, or willing to pretend, even in that age, to the right
of conferring kingdoms. Alfred, on his return home, became every day
more the object of his father's affections; but being indulged in all
youthful pleasures, he was much neglected in his education; and he had
already reached his twelfth year, when he was yet totally ignorant of
the lowest elements of literature. His genius was first roused by
the recital of Saxon poems, in which the queen took delight; and this
species of erudition, which is sometimes able to make a considerable
progress even among barbarians, expanded those noble and elevated
sentiments which he had received from nature.[**] Encouraged by the
queen, and stimulated by his own ardent inclination, he soon learned to
read those compositions; and proceeded thence to acquire the knowledge
of the Latin tongue, in which he met with authors that better prompted
his heroic spirit, and directed his generous views. Absorbed in these
elegant pursuits, he regarded his accession to royalty rather as an
object of regret than of triumph;[***] but being called to the throne,
in preference to his brother's children, as well by the will of
his father,--a circumstance which had great authority with the
Anglo-Saxons[****]--as by the vows of the whole nation, and the urgency
of public affairs, he shook off his literary indolence, and exerted
himself in the defence of his people. He had scarcely buried his
brother, when he was obliged to take the field, in order to oppose the
Danes, who had seized Wilton, and were exercising their usual ravages on
the countries around.

     [* Asser. p. 2. W. Malms, lib. ii. chap. 2.
     Ingulph. p. 869. Sim. Dunelm. p. 120, 139.]

     [** Asser. p. 5. M. West, p. 167.]

     [*** Asser. p. 7.]

     [**** Asser. p. 22. Sim. Dunelm. p. 121.]

He marched against them with the few troops which he could assemble on
a sudden, and, giving them battle, gained at first an advantage;
but, by his pursuing the victory too far, the superiority of the enemy's
numbers prevailed, and recovered them the day. Their loss, however,
in the action, was so considerable, that, fearing Alfred would receive
daily reënforcements from his subjects, they were content to stipulate
for a safe retreat, and promised to depart the kingdom. For that
purpose, they were conducted to London, and allowed to take up winter
quarters there; but, careless of their engagements, they immediately
set themselves to the committing of spoil on the neighboring country.
Burrhed, king of Mercia, in whose territories London was situated, made
a new stipulation with them, and engaged them, by presents of money, to
remove to Lindesey, in Lincolnshire, a country which they had already
reduced to ruin and desolation. Finding, therefore, no object in that
place, either for their rapine or violence, they suddenly turned
back upon Mercia, in a quarter where they expected to find it without
defence; and fixing their station at Repton, in Derbyshire, they laid
the whole country desolate with fire and sword. Burrhed, despairing of
success against an enemy whom no force could resist, and no treaties
bind, abandoned his kingdom, and, flying to Rome, took shelter in a
cloister.[*] He was brother-in-law to Alfred, and the last who bore the
title of king in Mercia.

The West Saxons were now the only remaining power in England; and though
supported by the vigor and abilities of Alfred, they were unable to
sustain the efforts of those ravagers, who from all quarters invaded
them. A new swarm of Danes came over this year under three princes,
Guthrum, Oscitel, and Amund; and having first joined their countrymen at
Repton, they soon found the necessity of separating, in order to provide
for their subsistence. Part of them, under the command of Haldene,
their chieftain,[**] marched into Northumberland, where they fixed
their residence; part of them took quarters at Cambridge, whence they
dislodged in the ensuing summer and seized Wereham, in the county of
Dorset, the very centre of Alfred's dominions. That prince so straitened
them in these quarters, that they were content to come to a treaty with
him, and stipulated to depart his country. Alfred, well acquainted with
their usual perfidy, obliged them to swear upon the holy relics to the
observance of the treaty;[***] not that he expected they would pay any
veneration to the relics; but he hoped that, if they now violated this
oath, their impiety would infallibly draw down upon them the vengeance
of Heaven.

     [* Asser. p. 8. Chron. Sax. p. 82. Ethelwerd, lib.
     iv. cap. 4.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 83.]

     [*** Asser. p 8.]

But the Danes, little apprehensive of the danger suddenly, without
seeking any pretence, fell upon Alfred's army; and having put it to
rout, marched westward, and took possession of Exeter. The prince
collected new forces, and exerted such vigor, that he fought in one
year eight battles with the enemy,[*] and reduced them to the utmost
extremity. He hearkened, however, to new proposals of peace, and was
satisfied to stipulate with them, that they would settle somewhere in
England,[**] and would not permit the entrance of more ravagers into the
kingdom. But while he was expecting the execution of this treaty, which
it seemed the interest of the Danes themselves to fulfil, he heard that
another body had landed, and, having collected all the scattered troops
of their country men, had surprised Chippenham, then a considerable
town, and were exercising their usual ravages all around them.


This last incident quite broke the spirit of the Saxons, and reduced
them to despair. Finding that, after all the miserable havoc which they
had undergone in their persons and in their property, after all the
vigorous actions which they had exerted in their own defence, a new
band, equally greedy of spoil and slaughter, had disembarked among
them, they believed themselves abandoned by Heaven to destruction, and
delivered over to those swarms of robbers which the fertile north thus
incessantly poured forth against them. Some left their country and
retired into Wales, or fled beyond sea; others submitted to
the conquerors, in hopes of appeasing their fury by a servile
obedience.[***] And every man's attention being now engrossed in concern
for his own preservation, no one would hearken to the exhortations of
the king, who summoned them to make, under his conduct, one effort more
in defence of their prince, their country, and their liberties. Alfred
himself was obliged to relinquish the ensigns of his dignity, to dismiss
his servants, and to seek shelter in the meanest disguises from the
pursuit and fury of his enemies. He concealed himself under a peasant's
habit, and lived some time in the house of a neat-herd, who had been
intrusted with the care of some of his cows.[****]

     [* Asser. p. 8. The Saxon Chronicle, p. 82, says
     nine battles.]

     [** Asser. p. 9. Alured. Beverl. p. 104.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 84. Alured. Beverl. p. 105.]

     [**** Asser. p. 9.]

There passed here an incident, which has been recorded by all the
historians, and was long preserved by popular tradition, though
it contains nothing memorable in itself, except so far as every
circumstance is interesting which attends so much virtue and dignity
reduced to such distress. The wife of the neat-herd was ignorant of the
condition of her royal guest; and observing him one day busy, by the
fireside, in trimming his bow and arrows, she desired him to take care
of some cakes which were toasting, while she was employed elsewhere
in other domestic affairs. But Alfred, whose thoughts were otherwise
engaged, neglected this injunction; and the good woman, on her return,
finding her cakes all burnt, rated the king very severely, and upbraided
him, that he always seemed very well pleased to eat her warm cakes
though he was thus negligent in toasting them.[*]


By degrees, Alfred, as he found the search of the enemy become more
remiss, collected some of his retainers, and retired into the centre
of a bog, formed by the stagnating waters of the Thone and Parret, in
Somersetshire. He here found two acres of firm ground; and building a
habitation on them, rendered himself secure by its fortifications, and
still more by the unknown and inaccessible roads which led to it, and
by the forests and morasses with which it was every way environed. This
place he called Æthelingay, or the Isle of Nobles;[**] and it now bears
the name of Athelney. He thence made frequent and unexpected sallies
upon the Danes, who often felt the vigor of his arm, but knew not from
what quarter the blow came. He subsisted himself and his followers by
the plunder which he acquired; he procured them consolation by
revenge; and from small successes, he opened their minds to hope that,
notwithstanding his present low condition, more important victories
might at length attend his valor.

    [* Asser. p. 9. M. West. p. 170.]

    [** Chron. Sax. p. 85. W Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4. Ethelwerd,
     lib iv. cap. 4. Ingulph. p. 26.]

Alfred lay here concealed, but not inactive, during a twelvemonth; when
the news of a prosperous event reached his ears, and called him to the
field. Hubba the Dane, having spread devastation, fire, and slaughter
over Wales, had landed in Devonshire from twenty-three vessels, and laid
siege to the castle of Kinwith, a place situated near the mouth of the
small river Tau. Oddune, earl of Devonshire, with his followers, had
taken shelter there; and being ill supplied with provisions, and
even with water, he determined, by some vigorous blow, to prevent the
necessity of submitting to the barbarous enemy. He made a sudden sally
on the Danes before sun-rising; and taking them unprepared, he put them
to rout, pursued them with great slaughter, killed Hubba himself, and
got possession of the famous Reafen, or enchanted standard, in which the
Danes put great confidence.[*] It contained the figure of a raven, which
had been inwoven by the three sisters of Hinguar and Hubba, with
many magical incantations, and which, by its different movements,
prognosticated, as the Danes believed, the good or bad success of any
enterprise.[**]


When Alfred observed this symptom of successful resistance in his
subjects, he left his retreat; but before he would assemble them in
arms, or urge them to any attempt, which, if unfortunate, might, in
their present despondency, prove fatal, he resolved to inspect himself
the situation of the enemy, and to judge of the probability of success.
For this purpose he entered their camp under the disguise of a harper,
and passed unsuspected through every quarter. He so entertained
them with his music and facetious humors, that he met with a welcome
reception, and was even introduced to the tent of Guthrum, their prince,
where he remained some days.[***] He remarked the supine security of the
Danes, their contempt of the English, their negligence in foraging and
plundering, and their dissolute wasting of what they gained by rapine
and violence. Encouraged by these favorable appearances, he secretly
sent emissaries to the most considerable of his subjects, and summoned
them to a rendezvous, attended by their warlike followers, at Brixton,
on the borders of Selwood Forest.[****] The English, who had hoped to
put an end to their calamities by servile submission, now found the
insolence and rapine of the conqueror more intolerable than all past
fatigues and dangers; and at the appointed day, they joyfully resorted
to their prince. On his appearance, they received him with shouts of
applause,[*****] and could not satiate their eyes with the sight of this
beloved monarch, whom they had long regarded as dead, and who now, with
voice and looks expressing his confidence of success, called them to
liberty and to vengeance.

    [* Asser. p. 10. Chron. Sax. p. 84. Abbas Rieval. p. 395.
     Alured. Beverl. p. 105.]

    [** Asser. p. 10.]

    [*** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4.]

    [**** Chron Sax. p. 85.]

    [***** Asser. p. 10. Chron. Sax. p. 85. Sim. Dunelm. p. 128.
     Alured. Beverl. p. 105. Abbas Rieval. p. 354.]

He instantly conducted them to Eddington, where the Danes were encamped;
and taking advantage of his previous knowledge of the place, he directed
his attack against the most unguarded quarter of the enemy. The Danes,
surprised to see an army of English, whom they considered as totally
subdued, and still more astonished to hear that Alfred was at their
head, made but a faint resistance, notwithstanding their superiority of
number, and were soon put to flight with great slaughter. The remainder
of the routed army, with their prince, was besieged by Alfred in a
fortified camp to which they fled; but being reduced to extremity by
want and hunger, they had recourse to the clemency of the victor, and
offered to submit on any conditions. The king, no less generous than
brave, gave them their lives, and even formed a scheme for converting
them from mortal enemies into faithful subjects and confederates. He
knew that the kingdoms of East Anglia and Northumberland were totally
desolated by the frequent inroads of the Danes, and he now proposed to
repeople them, by settling there Guthrum and his followers. He hoped
that the new planters would at last betake themselves to industry, when,
by reason of his resistance, and the exhausted condition of the country,
they could no longer subsist by plunder; and that they might serve him
as a rampart against any future incursions of their countrymen. But
before he ratified these mild conditions with the Danes, he required
that they should give him one pledge of their submission, and of
their inclination to incorporate with the English, by declaring their
conversion to Christianity.[*] Guthrum and his army had no aversion to
the proposal; and, without much instruction, or argument, or conference,
they were all admitted to baptism. The king answered for Guthrum at the
font, gave him the name of Athelstan, and received him as his adopted
son.[**]

    [* Chron. Sax. p. 85.]

    [** Asser. p. 10. Chron. Sax. p. 90.]

The success of this expedient seemed to correspond to Alfred's hopes:
the greater part of the Danes settled peaceably in their new quarters:
some smaller bodies of the same nation, which were dispersed in Mercia,
were distributed into the five cities of Derby, Leicester, Stamford,
Lincoln, and Nottingham, and were thence called the Fif or Five-burgers.
The more turbulent and unquiet made an expedition into France, under the
command of Hastings;[*] and except by a short incursion of Danes, who
sailed up the Thames, and landed at Fulham, but suddenly retreated to
their ships, on finding the country in a posture of defence, Alfred was
not for some years infested by the inroads of those barbarians.[**]

    [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4. Ingulph. p. 26.]

    [** Asser. p. 11.]

The king employed this interval of tranquillity in restoring order to
the state, which had been shaken by so many violent convulsions; in
establishing civil and military institutions; in composing the minds of
men to industry and justice; and in providing against the return of like
calamities. He was, more properly than his grandfather Egbert, the sole
monarch of the English, (for so the Saxons were now universally called,)
because the kingdom of Mercia was at last incorporated in his state,
and was governed by Ethelbert, his brother-in-law, who bore the title of
earl; and though the Danes, who peopled East Anglia and Northumberland,
were for some time ruled immediately by their own princes, they all
acknowledged a subordination to Alfred, and submitted to his superior
authority. As equality among subjects is the great source of concord,
Alfred gave the same laws to the Danes and English, and put them
entirely on a like footing in the administration both of civil and
criminal justice. The fine for the murder of a Dane was the same with
that for the murder of an Englishman; the great symbol of equality in
those ages.

The king, after rebuilding the ruined cities, particularly London,[*]
which had been destroyed by the Danes in the reign of Ethelwolf,
established a regular militia for the defence of the kingdom. He
ordained that all his people should be armed and registered; he assigned
them a regular rotation of duty; he distributed part into the castles
and fortresses, which he built at proper places;[**] he required another
part to take the field on any alarm, and to assemble at stated places of
rendezvous; and he left a sufficient number at home, who were employed
in the cultivation of the land, and who afterwards took their turn in
military service.[***]

    [* Asser. p. 15. Chron. Sax. p. 88. M. West. p. 171. Sim.
     Dunelm. p. 131. Brompton, p. 812. Alured. Beverl. ex edit.
     Hearns, p. 106.]

    [** Asser. p 18. Ingulph. p. 27.]

    [*** Chron. Sax. p. 92, 93.]

The whole kingdom was like one great garrison; and the Danes could no
sooner appear in one place, than a sufficient number was assembled
to oppose them, without leaving the other quarters defenceless or
disarmed.[*]

    [* Spelman's Life of Alfred, p. 147, edit. 1709.]

But Alfred, sensible that the proper method of opposing an enemy who
made incursions by sea, was to meet them on their own element, took care
to provide himself with a naval force,[*] which, though the most
natural defence of an island, had hitherto been totally neglected by
the English. He increased the shipping of his kingdom both in number and
strength, and trained his subjects in the practice as well of sailing
as of naval action. He distributed his armed vessels in proper stations
around the island, and was sure to meet the Danish ships, either before
or after they had landed their troops, and to pursue them in all their
incursions. Though the Danes might suddenly, by surprise, disembark
on the coast, which was generally become desolate by their frequent
ravages, they were encountered by the English fleet in their retreat;
and escaped not, as formerly, by abandoning their booty, but paid, by
their total destruction, the penalty of the disorders which they had
committed.

    [* Asser. p. 9. M. West. p. 179.]

In this manner Alfred repelled several inroads of these piratical
Danes, and maintained his kingdom, during some years, in safety and
tranquillity. A fleet of a hundred and twenty ships of war was stationed
upon the coast; and being provided with warlike engines, as well as
with expert seamen, both Frisians and English, (for Alfred supplied the
defects of his own subjects by engaging able foreigners in his service,)
maintained a superiority over those smaller bands, with which England
had so often been infested.[*]

    [* Asser. p. 11. Chiron Sax p. 86, 87. M. West. p. 176.]

But at last Hastings, the famous Danish chief, having ravaged all the
provinces of France, both along the sea-coast and the Loire and Seine,
and being obliged to quit that country, more by the desolation which
he himself had occasioned, than by the resistance of the inhabitants,
appeared off the coast of Kent with a fleet of three hundred and thirty
sail. The greater part of the enemy disembarked in the Rother and seized
the fort of Apuldore. Hastings himself, commanding a fleet of eighty
sail, entered the Thames, and fortifying Milton, in Kent, began to
spread his forces over the country, and to commit the most destructive
ravages. But Alfred, on the first alarm of this descent, flew to the
defence of his people, at the head of a select band of soldiers, whom he
always kept about his person,[*] and, gathering to him the armed militia
from all quarters, appeared in the field with a force superior to the
enemy. All straggling parties, whom necessity, or love of plunder, had
drawn to a distance from their chief encampment, were cut off by the
English;[**] and these pirates, instead of increasing their spoil, found
themselves cooped up in their fortifications, and obliged to subsist by
the plunder which they had brought from France. Tired of this situation,
which must in the end prove ruinous to them, the Danes at Apuldore rose
suddenly from their encampment, with an intention of marching towards
the Thames, and passing over into Essex: but they escaped not the
vigilance of Alfred, who encountered them at Farnham, put them to
rout,[***] seized all their horses and baggage, and chased the runaways
on board their ships, which carried them up the Colne to Mersey, in
Essex, where they intrenched themselves. Hastings, at the same time, and
probably by concert, made a like movement; and deserting Milton,
took possession of Bamflete, near the Isle of Canvey, in the same
county,[****] where he hastily threw up fortifications for his defence
against the power of Alfred.

    [* Asser. p. 19.]

    [** Chron. Sax. p. 92.]

    [*** Chron. Sax. p. 93. Flor. Wigorn. p. 595.]

    [**** Chron. Sax. p. 93.]

Unfortunately for the English, Guthrum, prince of the East Anglian
Danes, was now dead; as was also Guthred, whom the king had appointed
governor of the Northumbrians; and those restless tribes, being
no longer restrained by the authority of their princes, and being
encouraged by the appearance of so great a body of their countrymen,
broke into rebellion, shook off the authority of Alfred, and yielding to
their inveterate habits of war and depredation,[*] embarked on board two
hundred and forty vessels, and appeared before Exeter, in the west of
England. Alfred lost not a moment in opposing this new enemy. Having
left some forces at London to make head against Hastings and the other
Danes, he marched suddenly to the west,[**] and, falling on the
rebels before they were aware, pursued them to their ships with great
slaughter.

    [* Chron. Sax. p. 92.]

    [** Chron. Sax. p. 93.]

These ravagers, sailing next to Sussex, began to plunder the country
near Chichester; but the order which Alfred had everywhere established,
sufficed here, without his presence, for the defence of the place,
and the rebels, meeting with a new repulse, in which many of them were
killed, and some of their ships taken,[*] were obliged to put again to
sea, and were discouraged from attempting any other enterprise.

    [* Chron. Sax p. 96. Flor. Wigorn. p. 596.]

Meanwhile the Danish invaders in Essex, having united their force under
the command of Hastings, advanced into the inland country, and made
spoil of all around them; but soon had reason to repent of their
temerity. The English army left in London, assisted by a body of the
citizens, attacked the enemy's intrenchments at Bamflete, overpowered
the garrison, and having done great execution upon them, carried off
the wife and two sons of Hastings.[*] Alfred generously spared these
captives, and even restored them to Hastings,[**] on condition that he
should depart the kingdom.

    [* Chron. Sax. p. 94. M. West. w 178.]

    [** M. West, p. 179.]

But though the king had thus honorably rid himself of this dangerous
enemy, he had not entirely subdued or expelled the invaders. The
piratical Danes willingly followed in an excursion any prosperous
leader who gave them hopes of booty, but were not so easily induced to
relinquish their enterprise, or submit to return, baffled and without
plunder, into their native country. Great numbers of them, after the
departure of Hastings, seized and fortified Shobury, at the mouth of the
Thames; and having left a garrison there, they marched along the river,
till they came to Boddington, in the county of Glocester; where, being
reënforced by some Welsh, they threw up intrenchments, and prepared for
their defence. The king here surrounded them with the whole force of
his dominions; [*] and as he had now a certain prospect of victory, he
resolved to trust nothing to chance, but rather to master his enemies by
famine than assault. They were reduced to such extremities, that
having eaten their own horses, and having many of them perished with
hunger,[**] they made a desperate sally upon the English; and though
the greater number fell in the action, a considerable body made their
escape.[***]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 94.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 94. M. West. p. 179. Flor.
     Wigorn. p. 596.]

     [*** Chron. Sax p. 96.]

These roved about for some time in England, still pursued by the
vigilance of Alfred; they attacked Leicester with success, defended
themselves in Hartford, and then fled to Quatford, where they were
finally broken and subdued. The small remains of them either dispersed
themselves among their countrymen in Northumberland and East Anglia,[*]
or had recourse again to the sea, where they exercised piracy, under the
command of Sigefert, a Northumbrian.

    [* Chron. Sax. p. 97.]

This freebooter, well acquainted with Alfred's naval preparations, had
framed vessels of a new construction, higher, and longer, and swifter
than those of the English; but the king soon discovered his superior
skill, by building vessels still higher, and longer, and swifter than
those of the Northumbrians; and falling upon them, while they were
exercising their ravages in the west, he took twenty of their ships; and
having tried all the prisoners at Winchester, he hanged them as pirates,
the common enemies of mankind.


The well-timed severity of this execution, together with the excellent
posture of defence established every where, restored full tranquillity
in England, and provided for the future security of the government. The
East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes, on the first appearance of Alfred
upon their frontiers, made anew the most humble submissions to him;
and he thought it prudent to take them under his immediate government,
without establishing over them a viceroy of their own nation.[*] The
Welsh also acknowledged his authority; and this great prince had now, by
prudence, and justice, and valor, established his sovereignty over
all the southern parts of the island, from the English Channel to the
frontiers of Scotland; when he died, {901.} in the vigor of his age
and the full strength of his faculties, after a glorious reign of
twenty-nine years and a half,[**] in which he deservedly attained the
appellation of Alfred the Great, and the title of founder of the English
monarchy.

    [* Flor. Wigorn. p. 598.]

    [** Asser. p. 21. Chron. Sax. p. 95.]

The merit of this prince, both in private and public life, may with
advantage be set in opposition to that of any monarch, or citizen,
which the annals of any age, or any nation, can present to us. He seems,
indeed, to be the model of that perfect character, which, under the
denomination of a sage or wise man, philosophers have been fond of
delineating, rather as a fiction of their imagination, than in hopes of
ever seeing it really existing; so happily were all his virtues tempered
together, so justly were they blended, and so powerfully did each
prevent the other from exceeding its proper boundaries. He knew how to
reconcile the most enterprising spirit with the coolest moderation;
the most obstinate perseverance with the easiest flexibility: the
most severe justice with the gentlest lenity; the greatest vigor in
commanding with the most perfect affability of deportment;[*] the
highest capacity and inclination for science with the most shining
talents for action.

    [* Asser. p. 13.]

His civil and his military virtues are almost equally the objects of
our admiration; excepting only that the former, being more rare among
princes, as well as more useful, seem chiefly to challenge our applause.
Nature, also, as if desirous that so bright a production of her skill
should be set in the fairest light, had bestowed on him every bodily
accomplishment--vigor of limbs, dignity of shape and air, with a
pleasing, engaging, and open countenance. Fortune alone, by throwing him
into that barbarous age, deprived him of historians worthy to transmit
his fame to posterity; and we wish to see him delineated in more lively
colors, and with more particular strokes, that we may at least perceive
some of those small specks and blemishes, from which, as a man, it is
impossible he could be entirely exempted.

But we should give but an imperfect idea of Alfred's merit, were we
to confine our narration to his military exploits, and were not more
particular in our account of his institutions for the execution of
justice, and of his zeal for the encouragement of arts and sciences.

After Alfred had subdued, and had settled or expelled the Danes, he
found the kingdom in the most wretched condition; desolated by the
ravages of those barbarians, and thrown into disorders which were
calculated to perpetuate its misery. Though the great armies of the
Danes were broken, the country was full of straggling troops of that
nation, who, being accustomed to live by plunder, were become incapable
of industry; and who, from the natural ferocity of their manners,
indulged themselves in committing violence, even beyond what was
requisite to supply their necessities. The English themselves, reduced
to the most extreme indigence by those continued depredations, had
shaken off all bands of government; and those who had been plundered
to-day, betook themselves next day to a like disorderly life, and,
from despair, joined the robbers in pillaging and ruining their
fellow-citizens. These were the evils for which it was necessary that
the vigilance and activity of Alfred should provide a remedy.

That he might render the execution of justice strict and regular, he
divided all England into counties: these counties he subdivided
into hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings. Every householder was
answerable for the behavior of his family and slaves, and even of his
guests, if they lived above three days in his house. Ten neighboring
householders were formed into one corporation, who, under the name of
a tithing, decennary, or fribourg, were answerable for each other's
conduct, and over whom, one person, called a tithing-man, headbourg,
or borsholder, was appointed to preside. Every man was punished as an
outlaw who did not register himself in some tithing. And no man
could change his habitation without a warrant or certificate from the
borsholder of the tithing to which he formerly belonged.

When any person, in any tithing or decennary, was guilty of a crime, the
borsholder was summoned to answer for him; and if he were not willing to
be surety for his appearance, and his clearing himself, the criminal
was committed to prison, and there detained till his trial. If he fled,
either before or after finding sureties, the borsholder and decennary
became liable to inquiry, and were exposed to the penalties of law.
Thirty-one days were allowed them for producing the criminal; and if
that time elapsed without their being able to find him, the borsholder,
with two other members of the decennary, was obliged to appear, and,
together with three chief members of the three neighboring decennaries,
(making twelve in all,) to swear that his decennary was free from all
privity, both of the crime committed, and of the escape of the criminal.
If the borsholder could not find such a number to answer for their
innocence, the decennary was compelled by fine to make satisfaction to
the king, according to the degree of the offence.[*]

    [* Leges St. Edw. cap. 20, apud Wilkins, p. 202.]

By this institution, every man was obliged, from his own interest, to
keep a watchful eye over the conduct of his neighbors; and was in
a manner surety for the behavior of those who were placed under the
division to which he belonged; whence these decennaries received the
name of frank-pledges.

Such a regular distribution of the people, with such a strict
confinement in their habitation, may not be necessary in times when
men are more inured to obedience and justice; and it might, perhaps, be
regarded as destructive of liberty and commerce in a polished state; but
it was well calculated to reduce that fierce and licentious people under
the salutary restraint of law and government. But Alfred took care to
temper these rigors by other institutions favorable to the freedom of
the citizens; and nothing could be more popular and liberal than his
plan for the administration of justice. The borsholder summoned together
his whole decennary to assist him in deciding any lesser differences
which occurred among the members of this small community. In affairs
of greater moment, in appeals from the decennary, or in controversies
arising between members of different decennaries, the cause was brought
before the hundred, which consisted of ten decennaries, or a hundred
families of freemen, and which was regularly assembled once in four
weeks, for the deciding of causes.[*] Their method of decision deserves
to be noted, as being the origin of juries; an institution admirable in
itself, and the best calculated for the preservation of liberty and
the administration of justice that ever was devised by the wit of man.
Twelve freeholders were chosen, who, having sworn, together with the
hundreder, or presiding magistrate of that division, to administer
impartial justice,[**] proceeded to the examination of that cause which
was submitted to their jurisdiction. And beside these monthly meetings
of the hundred, there was an annual meeting, appointed for a more
general inspection of the police of the district; for the inquiry into
crimes, the correction of abuses in magistrates, and the obliging of
every person to show the decennary in which he was registered. The
people, in imitation of their ancestors, the ancient Germans, assembled
there in arms; whence a hundred was sometimes called a wapentake, and
its courts served both for the support of military discipline and for
the administration of civil justice.[***]

    [* Leges St. Edw. cap. 2.]

    [** Foedus Alfred. et Gothurn. apud Wilkins, cap. 3, p. 47.
     Leg. Ethelstani cap. 2, apud Wilkins, p. 58. LL. Ethelr.
     sect. 4. Wilkins, p. 117.]

    [*** Spelman, in voce Wapentake.]

The next superior court to that of the hundred was the county court,
which met twice a year, after Michaelmas and Easter, and consisted
of the freeholders of the county, who possessed an equal vote in the
decision of causes. The bishop presided in this court, together with
the alderman; and the proper object of the court was, the receiving
of appeals from the hundreds and decennaries, and the deciding of such
controversies as arose between men of different hundreds. Formerly, the
alderman possessed both the civil and military authority; but Alfred,
sensible that this conjunction of powers rendered the nobility dangerous
and independent, appointed also a sheriff in each county, who enjoyed
a coördinate authority with the former in the judicial function.[*]
His office also impowered him to guard the rights of the crown in the
county, and to levy the fines imposed, which in that age formed no
contemptible part of the public revenue.

     [* Ingulph. p. 870.]

There lay an appeal, in default of justice, from all these courts, to
the king himself in council; and as the people, sensible of the equity
and great talents of Alfred, placed their chief confidence in him, he
was soon overwhelmed with appeals from all parts of England. He was
indefatigable in the despatch of these causes;[*] but finding that his
time must be entirely engrossed by this branch of duty, he resolved to
obviate the inconvenience, by correcting the ignorance or corruption of
the inferior magistrates, from which it arose.[**] He took care to have
his nobility instructed in letters and the laws; [***] he chose the
earls and sheriffs from among the men most celebrated for probity and
knowledge; he punished severely all malversation in office;[****] and
he removed all the earls whom he found unequal to the trust;[*****]
allowing only some of the more elderly to serve by a deputy, till their
death should make room for more worthy successors.

     [* Asser. p. 20.]

     [** Asser. p. 18, 21. Flor. Wigorn. p. 594. Abbas
     Rieval. p. 355.]

     [*** Flor. Wigorn. p. 594. Brompton, p. 814.]

     [**** Le Miroir de Justice, chap. 2.]

     [***** Asser, p. 20.]

The better to guide the magistrates in the administration of justice,
Alfred framed a body of laws, which, though now lost, served long as the
basis of English jurisprudence, and is generally deemed the origin of
what is denominated the COMMON LAW. He appointed regular meetings of the
states of England twice a year, in London,[*] a city which he himself
had repaired and beautified, and which he thus rendered the capital of
the kingdom.

     [* Le Miroir de Justice.]

The similarity of these institutions to the customs of the ancient
Germans, to the practice of the other northern conquerors, and to the
Saxon laws during the Heptarchy, prevents us from regarding Alfred
as the sole author of this plan of government, and leads us rather
to think, that, like a wise-man, he contented himself with reforming,
extending, and executing the institutions which he found previously
established. But, on the whole, such success attended his legislation,
that everything bore suddenly a new face in England. Robberies and
iniquities of all kinds were repressed by the punishment or reformation
of the criminals;[*] and so exact was the general police, that Alfred,
it is said, hung up, by way of bravado, golden bracelets near the
highways, and no man dared to touch them.[**] Yet, amidst these rigors
of justice, this great prince preserved the most sacred regard to the
liberty of his people; and it is a memorable sentiment preserved in
his will, that it was just the English should forever remain as free as
their own thoughts.[***]

    [* Ingulph. p. 27.]

    [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4.]

    [* Asset, p. 24.]

As good morals and knowledge are almost inseparable, in every age,
though not in every individual, the care of Alfred for the encouragement
of learning among his subjects was another useful branch of his
legislation, and tended to reclaim the English from their former
dissolute and ferocious manners; but the king was guided, in this
pursuit, less by political views than by his natural bent and propensity
towards letters. When he came to the throne, he found the nation sunk
into the grossest ignorance and barbarism, proceeding from the continued
disorders in the government, and from the ravages of the Danes. The
monasteries were destroyed, the monks butchered or dispersed, their
libraries burnt; and thus the only seats of erudition in those ages were
totally subverted. Alfred himself complains, that on his accession he
knew not one person, south of the Thames, who could so much as interpret
the Latin service, and very few in the northern parts who had reached
even that pitch of erudition. But this prince invited over the most
celebrated scholars from all parts of Europe; he established schools
every where for the instruction of his people; he founded, at least
repaired, the University of Oxford, and endowed it with many privileges
revenues, and immunities; he enjoined by law all freeholders possessed
of two hides[*] of land, or more, to send their children to school, for
their instruction; he gave preferment both in church and state to
such only as had made some proficiency in knowledge; and by all these
expedients he had the satisfaction, before his death, to see a great
change in the face of affairs; and in a work of his, which is still
extant, he congratulates himself on the progress which learning, under
his patronage, had already made in England.

    [* A hide contained land sufficient to employ one plough. See
     H. Hunting, lib. vi. in A. D. 1008. Annal. Waverl. in A. D.
     1083. Gervase of Tilbury says, it commonly contained about
     one hundred acres.]

But the most effectual expedient, employed by Alfred for the
encouragement of learning, was his own example, and the constant
assiduity with which, notwithstanding the multiplicity and urgency
of his affairs, he employed himself in the pursuits of knowledge. He
usually divided his time into three equal portions: one was employed in
sleep, and the refection of his body by diet and exercise; another, in
the despatch of business; a third, in study and devotion; and that he
might more exactly measure the hours, he made use of burning tapers of
equal length, which he fixed in lanterns,[*] an expedient suited to that
rude age, when the geometry of dialling, and the mechanism of clocks and
watches, were totally unknown. And by such a regular distribution of his
time though he often labored under great bodily infirmities,[**]
this martial hero, who fought in person fifty-six battles by sea and
land,[***] was able, during a life of no extraordinary length, to
acquire more knowledge, and even to compose more books, than most
studious men, though blessed with the greatest leisure and application,
have, in more fortunate ages, made the object of their uninterrupted
industry.

    [* Asser. p. 20. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4. Ingulph. p. 870.]

    [** Asser. p.4, 12, 13, 17, J W. Malms, lib. iv. cap. 4.]

    [*** Asser. p. 13.]

Sensible that the people, at all times, especially when their
understandings are obstructed by ignorance and bad education, are not
much susceptible of speculative instruction, Alfred endeavored to convey
his morality by apologues, parables, stories, apothegms, couched in
poetry; and besides propagating among his subjects former compositions
of that kind, which he found in the Saxon tongue,[*] he exercised
his genius in inventing works of a like nature,[**] as well as in
translating from the Greek the elegant Fables of Æsop. He also gave
Saxon translations of Orosius's and Bede's histories; and of Boethius
concerning the consolation of philosophy.[***] And he deemed it nowise
derogatory from his other great characters of sovereign, legislator,
warrior, and politician, thus to lead the way to his people in the
pursuits of literature.

    [* Spelruan, p. 124.]

    [** Abbas Rieval. p. 355.]

    [*** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4, Brompton, p. 814.]

Meanwhile, this prince was not negligent in encouraging the vulgar
and mechanical arts, which have a more sensible, though not a closer
connection with the interests of society. He invited, from all quarters,
industrious foreigners to re-people his country, which had been
desolated by the ravages of the Danes.[*] He introduced and encouraged
manufactures of all kinds, and no inventor or improver of any ingenious
art did he suffer to go unrewarded.[**] He prompted men of activity to
betake themselves to navigation, to push commerce into the most remote
countries, and to acquire riches by propagating industry among their
fellow-citizens. He set apart a seventh portion of his own revenue
for maintaining a number of workmen, whom he constantly employed in
rebuilding the ruined cities, castles, palaces, and monasteries.[***]
Even the elegances of life were brought to him from the Mediterranean
and the Indies;[****] and his subjects, by seeing those productions of
the peaceful arts, were taught to respect the virtues of justice and
industry, from which alone they could arise. Both living and dead,
Alfred was regarded by foreigners, no less than by his own subjects,
as the greatest prince, after Charlemagne, that had appeared in Europe
during several ages, and as one of the wisest and best that had ever
adorned the annals of any nation.

     [* Asser. p. 13. Flor. Wigorn. p. 588.]

     [** Asser. p. 20.]

     [*** Asser. p. 20. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4.]

     [**** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4.]


Alfred had, by his wife Ethelswitha, daughter of a Mercian earl, three
sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Edmund, died without issue,
in his father's lifetime. The third, Ethelward, inherited his father's
passion for letters, and lived a private life. The second, Edward,
succeeded to his power, and passes by the appellation of Edward the
Elder, being the first of that name who sat on the English throne.




EDWARD THE ELDER.


This prince, who equalled his father in military talents, though
inferior to him in knowledge and erudition,[*] found immediately on his
accession, a specimen of that turbulent life to which all princes, and
even all individuals, were exposed, in an age when men, less restrained
by law or justice, and less occupied by industry, had no aliment for
their inquietude out wars, insurrections, convulsions, rapine, and
depredation.

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii cap. 4, Hoveden, p. 421.]

Ethelwald, his cousin-german, son of King Ethelbert, the elder
brother of Alfred, insisted on his preferable title;[*] and arming his
partisans, took possession of Winburne, where he seemed determined to
defend himself to the last extremity, and to await the issue of his
pretensions.[**] But when the king approached the town with a great
army, Ethelwald, having the prospect of certain destruction, made his
escape, and fled first into Normandy, thence into Northumberland, where
he hoped that the people, who had been recently subdued by Alfred, and
who were impatient of peace, would, on the intelligence of that great
prince's death, seize the first pretence or opportunity of rebellion.
The event did not disappoint his expectations: the Northumbrians
declared for him,[***] and Ethelwald, having thus connected his
interests with the Danish tribes, went beyond sea, and collecting a body
of these freebooters, he excited the hopes of all those who had been
accustomed to subsist by rapine and violence.[****]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 99, 100.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 100. H. Hunting, lib. v. p.
     352.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 100. H. Hunting, lib. v. p.
     352.]

     [**** Chron. Sax. p. 100. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de
     Burgo, p. 24.]

The East Anglian Danes joined his party; the Five-burgers, who were
seated in the heart of Mercia, began to put themselves in motion; and
the English found that they were again menaced with those convulsions
from which the valor and policy of Alfred had so lately rescued them.
The rebels, headed by Ethelwald, made an incursion into the counties
of Glocester, Oxford, and Wilts; and having exercised their ravages in
these places, they retired with their booty, before the king, who had
assembled an army, was able to approach them. Edward, however, who was
determined that his preparations should not be fruitless, conducted
his forces into East Anglia, and retaliated the injuries which the
inhabitants had committed, by spreading the like devastation among them.
Satiated with revenge, and loaded with booty, he gave orders to retire;
but the authority of those ancient kings, which was feeble in peace, was
not much better established in the field; and the Kentish men, greedy of
more spoil, ventured, contrary to repeated orders, to stay behind him,
and to take up their quarters in Bury. This disobedience proved, in the
issue, fortunate to Edward. The Danes assaulted the Kentish men, but
met with so vigorous a resistance, that, though they gained the field of
battle, they bought that advantage by the loss of their bravest
leaders, and, among the rest, by that of Ethelwald, who perished in the
action.[*] The king, freed from the fear of so dangerous a competitor,
made peace on advantageous terms with the East Angles.[**]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 101. Brompton, p. 832.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 102. Brompton, p. 832. M West.
     p. 181.]

In order to restore England to such a state of tranquillity as it was
then capable of attaining, nought was wanting but the subjection of
the Northumbrians, who, assisted by the scattered Danes in Mercia,
continually infested the bowels of the kingdom. Edward, in order to
divert the force of these enemies, prepared a fleet to attack them by
sea, hoping that when his ships appeared on their coast, they must
at least remain at home, and provide for their defence. But the
Northumbrians were less anxious to secure their own property, than
greedy to commit spoil on their enemy; and, concluding that the chief
strength of the English was embarked on board the fleet, they thought
the opportunity favorable, and entered Edward's territories with all
their forces. The king, who was prepared against this event, attacked
them, on their return, at Tetenhall in the county of Stafford, put them
to rout, recovered all the booty, and pursued them with great slaughter
into their own country.

All the rest of Edward's reign was a scene of continued and successful
action against the Northumbrians, the East Angles, the Five-burgers, and
the foreign Danes, who invaded him from Normandy and Brittany. Nor was
he less provident in putting his kingdom in a posture of defence, than
vigorous in assaulting the enemy. He fortified the towns of Chester,
Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Buckingham, Towcester, Maldon, Huntingdon,
and Colchester. He fought two signal battles at Temsford and Maldon.[*]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 10, Flor. Wigorn. p. 6.]

He vanquished Thurketill, a great Danish chief, and obliged him to
retire with his followers into France, in quest of spoil and adventures.
He subdued the East Angles, and forced them to swear allegiance to
him: he expelled the two rival princes of Northumberland, Reginald and
Sidroc, and acquired, for the present, the dominion of that province:
several tribes of the Britons were subjected by him; and even the Scots,
who, during the reign of Egbert, had, under the conduct of Kenneth,
their king, increased their power by the final subjection of the Picts,
were nevertheless obliged to give him marks of submission.[*] In all
these fortunate achievements, he was assisted by the activity and
prudence of his sister Ethelfleda, who was widow of Ethelbert, earl of
Mercia, and who after her husband's death, retained the government
of that province. This princess, who had been reduced to extremity in
childbed, refused afterwards all commerce with her husband; not from any
weak superstition, as was common in that age, but because she deemed all
domestic occupations unworthy of her masculine and ambitious spirit.[**]
She died before her brother; and Edward, during the remainder of his
reign, took upon himself the immediate government of Mercia, which
before had been intrusted to the authority of a governor.[***] The Saxon
Chronicle fixes the death of this prince in 925 his kingdom devolved to
Athelstan, his natural son.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 110. Hoveden, p. 421.]

     [** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 5. M. West. p. 182.
     Ingulph. p. 28. Higgen p. 261.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 110. Brompton, p. 831.]




ATHELSTAN.

{925.} The stain in this prince's birth was not, in those times, deemed
so considerable as to exclude him from the throne; and Athelstan, being
of an age, as well as of a capacity, fitted for government, obtained the
preference to Edward's younger children, who, though legitimate, were
of too tender years to rule a nation so much exposed both to foreign
invasion and to domestic convulsions. Some discontents, however,
prevailed on his accession; and Alfred, a nobleman of considerable
power, was thence encouraged to enter into a conspiracy against him.
This incident is related by historians, with circumstances which the
reader, according to the degree of credit he is disposed to give them,
may impute either to the invention of monks, who forged them, or to
their artifice, who found means of making them real. Alfred, it is said,
being seized upon strong suspicions, but without any certain proof,
firmly denied the conspiracy imputed to him; and, in order to justify
himself, he offered to swear to his innocence before the pope, whose
person, it was supposed, contained such superior sanctity, that no one
could presume to give a false oath in his presence, and yet hope to
escape the immediate vengeance of Heaven. The king accepted of the
condition, and Alfred was conducted to Rome, where, either conscious of
his innocence, or neglecting the superstition to which he appealed, he
ventured to make the oath required of him, before John, who then filled
the papal chair; but no sooner had he pronounced the fatal words, than
he fell into convulsions, of which, three days after, he expired. The
king, as if the guilt, of the conspirator were now fully ascertained,
confiscated his estate, and made a present of it to the monastery
of Malmesbury,[*] secure that no doubts would ever thenceforth be
entertained concerning the justice of his proceedings.

     [* W. Malms. lib. ii. cap. 6. Spel. Concil. p. 407.]

The dominion of Athelstan was no sooner established over his English
subjects, than he endeavored to give security to the government, by
providing against the insurrections of the Danes, which had created so
much disturbance to his predecessors. He marched into Northumberland;
and, finding that the inhabitants bore with impatience the English yoke,
he thought it prudent to confer on Sithric, a Danish nobleman, the title
of king, and to attach him to his interests by giving him his sister
Editha in marriage. But this policy proved by accident the source of
dangerous consequences. Sithric died in a twelvemonth after; and his two
sons by a former marriage, Anlaf and Godfrid, founding pretensions on
their father's elevation, assumed the sovereignty, without waiting
for Athelstan's consent. They were soon expelled by the power of that
monarch; and the former took shelter in Ireland, as the latter did
in Scotland, where he received, during some time, protection from
Constantine, who then enjoyed the crown of that kingdom. The Scottish
prince, however, continually solicited, and even menaced by Athelstan,
at last promised to deliver up his guest; but secretly detesting this
treachery, he gave Godfrid warning to make his escape;[*] and that
fugitive, after subsisting by piracy for some years, freed the king, by
his death, from any further anxiety. Athelstan, resenting Constantine's
behavior, entered Scotland with an army, and ravaging the country with
impunity,[**] he reduced the Scots to such distress, that their king was
content to preserve his crown by making submissions to the enemy. The
English historians assert,[***] that Constantine did homage to Athelstan
for his kingdom; and they add, that the latter prince, being urged by
his courtiers to push the present favorable opportunity, and entirely
subdue Scotland, replied, that it was more glorious to confer than
conquer kingdoms.[****]

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 111. Hoveden, p. 422. H. Hunting, lib. v.
     p. 354.]

     [*** Hoveden, p. 422.]

     [**** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6. Anglia Sacra,
     vol. i. p. 212.]

But those annals, so uncertain and imperfect in themselves, lose all
credit when national prepossessions and animosities have place; and,
on that account, the Scotch historians, who, without having any more
knowledge of the matter, strenuously deny the fact, seem more worthy of
belief.

Constantine, whether he owed the retaining of his crown to the
moderation of Athelstan, who was unwilling to employ all his advantages
against him, or to the policy of that prince who esteemed the
humiliation of an enemy a greater acquisition than the subjection of
a discontented and mutinous people thought the behavior of the English
monarch more an object of resentment than of gratitude. He entered
into a confederacy with Anlaf, who had collected a great body of Danish
pirates, whom he found hovering in the Irish seas, and with some Welsh
princes, who were terrified at the growing power of Athelstan; and
all these allies made by concert an irruption with a great army into
England. Athelstan, collecting his forces, met the enemy hear Brunsbury,
in Northumberland, and defeated them in a general engagement. This
victory was chiefly ascribed to the valor of Turketul, the English
chancellor; for, in those turbulent ages, no one was so much occupied in
civil employments as wholly to lay aside the military character.[*]

     [* The office of chancellor, among the Anglo-
     Saxons, resembled more that of a secretary of state than
     that of our present chancellor See Spelman in voce
     Cancellarius.]

There is a circumstance, not unworthy of notice, which historians
relate, with regard to the transactions of this war. Anlaf, on the
approach of the English army, thought that he could not venture too
much to insure a fortunate event, and employing the artifice formerly
practised by Alfred against the Danes, he entered the enemy's camp, in
the habit of a minstrel. The stratagem was, for the present, attended
with like success. He gave such satisfaction to the soldiers, who
flocked about him, that they introduced him to the king's tent; and
Anlaf, having played before that prince and his nobles during their
repast, was dismissed with a handsome reward. His prudence kept him from
refusing the present; Dut his pride determined him, on his departure,
to bury it while he fancied that he was unespied by all the world. But
a soldier in Athelstan's camp, who had formerly served under Anlaf, had
been struck with some suspicion on the first appearance of the minstrel,
and was engaged by curiosity to observe all his motions. He regarded
this last action as a full proof of Anlaf's disguise; and he immediately
carried the intelligence to Athelstan, who blamed him for not sooner
giving him information, that he might have seized his enemy. But the
soldier told him, that, as he had formerly sworn fealty to Anlaf, he
could never have pardoned himself the treachery of betraying and ruining
his ancient master; and that Athelstan himself, after such an instance
of his criminal conduct, would have had equal reason to distrust his
allegiance. Athelstan, having praised the generosity of the soldier's
principles, reflected on the incident, which he foresaw might be
attended with important consequences. He removed his station in the
camp; and as a bishop arrived that evening with a reënforcement of
troops, (for the ecclesiastics were then no less warlike than the civil
magistrates,) he occupied with his train that very place which had been
left vacant by the king's removal. The precaution of Athelstan was found
prudent; for no sooner had darkness fallen, than Anlaf broke into the
camp, and hastening directly to the place where he had left the king's
tent, put the bishop to death, before he had time to prepare for his
defence.[*]


There fell several Danish and Welsh princes in the action of
Brunsbury;[**] and Constantine and Anlaf made their escape with
difficulty, leaving the greater part of their army on the field of
battle. After this success, Athelstan enjoyed his crown in tranquillity;
and he is regarded as one of the ablest and most active of those ancient
princes. He passed a remarkable law, which was calculated for the
encouragement of commerce, and which it required some liberality of mind
in that age to have devised--that a merchant, who had made three long
sea voyages on his own account, should be admitted to the rank of a
thane or gentleman. This prince died at Glocester, in the year 94l,[***]
after a reign of sixteen years, and was succeeded by Edmund, his
legitimate brother.

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6. Higden, p. 263.]

     [** Brompton, p. 839 Ingulph. p. 29.]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 114]




EDMUND.

{941.} Edmund, on his accession, met with disturbance from the restless
Northumbrians, who lay in wait for every opportunity of breaking into
rebellion. But marching suddenly with his forces into their country, he
so overawed the rebels that they endeavored to appease him by the most
humble submissions.[*]

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 7. Brompton, p 857.]

In order to give him the surer pledge of their obedience, they offered to
embrace Christianity; a religion which the English Danes had frequently
professed, when reduced to difficulties, but which, for that very
reason, they regarded as a badge of servitude, and shook off as soon
as a favorable opportunity offered. Edmund, trusting little to their
sincerity in this forced submission, used the precaution of removing the
Five-burgers from the towns of Mercia, in which they had been allowed
to settle; because it was always found that they took advantage of every
commotion, and introduced the rebellious or foreign Danes into the
heart of the kingdom. He also conquered Cumberland from the Britons; and
conferred that territory on Malcolm, king of Scotland, on condition that
he should do him homage for it, and protect the north from all future
incursions of the Danes.

Edmund was young when he came to the crown; yet was his reign short, as
his death was violent. One day, as he was solemnizing a festival in the
county of Glocester, he remarked that Leolf, a notorious robber, whom
he had sentenced to banishment, had yet the boldness to enter the hall
where he himself dined, and to sit at table with his attendants. Enraged
at this insolence, he ordered him to leave the room; but on his refusing
to obey, the king, whose temper, naturally choleric, was inflamed by
this additional insult, leaped on him himself, and seized him by the
hair; but the ruffian, pushed to extremity, drew his dagger, and gave
Edmund a wound of which he immediately expired. This event happened in
the year 946, and in the sixth year of the king's reign. Edmund left
male issue, but so young, that they were incapable of governing the
kingdom; and his brother, Edred, was promoted to the throne.




EDRED

{946.} The reign of this prince, as those of his predecessors, was
disturbed by the rebellions and incursions of the Northumbrian Danes,
who, though frequently quelled, were never entirely subdued, nor had
ever paid a sincere allegiance to the crown of England. The accession
of a new king seemed to them a favorable opportunity for shaking off the
yoke; but on Edred's appearance with an army, they made him their wonted
submissions; and the king, having wasted the country with fire and
sword, as a punishment of their rebellion, obliged them to renew their
oaths of allegiance; and he straight retired with his forces. The
obedience of the Danes lasted no longer than the present terror.
Provoked at the devastations of Edred, and even reduced by necessity
to subsist on plunder, they broke into a new rebellion, and were again
subdued; but the king, now instructed by experience, took greater
precautions against their future revolt. He fixed English garrisons in
their most considerable towns, and placed over them an English governor,
who might watch all their motions, and suppress any insurrection on its
first appearance. He obliged also Malcolm, king of Scotland, to renew
his homage for the lands which he held in England.

Edred, though not unwarlike, nor unfit for active life, lay under the
influence of the lowest superstition, and had blindly delivered over
his conscience to the guidance of Dunstan commonly called _St.
Dunstan_, abbot of Glastonbury, whom he advanced to the highest
offices, and who covered, under the appearance of sanctity, the most
violent and most insolent ambition. Taking advantage of the implicit
confidence reposed in him by the king, this churchman imported
into England a new order of monks, who much changed the state of
ecclesiastical affairs, and excited, on their first establishment, the
most violent commotions.

From the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons, there had
been monasteries in England; and these establishments had extremely
multiplied by the donations of the princes and nobles, whose
superstition, derived from their ignorance and precarious life, and
increased by remorses for the crimes into which they were so frequently
betrayed, knew no other expedient for appeasing the Deity, than a
profuse liberality towards the ecclesiastics. But the monks had hitherto
been a species of secular priests, who lived after the manner of the
present canons or prebendaries, and were both intermingled, in some
degree, with the world, and endeavored to render themselves useful
to it. They were employed in the education of youth;[*] they had the
disposal of their own time and industry; they were not subjected to
the rigid rules of an order; they had made no vows of implicit to their
superiors;[*] and they still retained the choice, without quitting the
convent, either of a married or a single life.[**]

     [* Osberne in Anglia Sacra, tom. ii. p. 91.]

     [** See Wharton's notes to Anglia Sacra, tom. ii.
     p. 91. Gervase, p 1645. Chron. Wint. MS. apud Spel. Concil.
     p. 434.] The Pope, having cast his eye on the monks as the
     basis of his authority, was determined to reduce them under
     strict rules of obedience, to procure them the credit of
     sanctity by an appearance of the most rigid mortification,
     and to break off all their other ties which might interfere
     with his spiritual policy. Under pretence, therefore, of
     reforming abuses which were in some degree unavoidable in
     the ancient establishments, he had already spread over the
     southern countries of Europe the severe laws of the monastic
     life, and began to form attempts towards a like innovation
     in England. The favorable opportunity offered itself, (and
     it was greedily seized,) arising from the weak superstition
     of Edred, and the violent, impetuous character of Dunstan.
     As the bishops and parochial clergy lived apart with their
     families, and were more connected with the world, the hopes
     of success with them were fainter, and the pretence for
     making them renounce marriage was much less plausible.

But a mistaken piety had produced in Italy a new species of monks,
called Benedictines; who, carrying farther the plan sible principles of
mortification, secluded themselves entirely from the world, renounced
all claim to liberty, and made a merit of the most inviolable chastity.
These practices and principles, which superstition at first engendered,
were greedily embraced and promoted by the policy of the court of Rome.
The Roman pontiff, who was making every day great advances towards an
absolute sovereignty over the ecclesiastics, perceived that the celibacy
of the clergy alone could break off entirely their connection with the
civil power, and, depriving them of every other object of ambition,
engage them to promote, with unceasing industry, the grandeur of their
own order. He was sensible that so long as the monks were indulged
in marriage, and were permitted to rear families, they never could be
subjected to strict discipline, or reduced to that slavery, under their
superiors, which was requisite to procure to the mandates, issued from
Rome, a ready and zealous obedience. Celibacy, therefore, began to be
extolled as the indispensable duty of priests; and the pope undertook to
make all the clergy, throughout the western world, renounce at once
the privilege of marriage; a fortunate policy, but at the same time
an undertaking the most difficult of any, since he had the strongest
propensities of human nature to encounter, and found that the same
connections with the female sex, which generally encourage devotion,
were here unfavorable to the success of his project. It is no wonder,
therefore, that this master-stroke of art should have met with violent
contradiction, and that the interests of the hierarchy, and the
inclinations of the priests, being now placed in this singular
opposition, should, notwithstanding the continued efforts of Rome have
retarded the execution of that bold scheme during the course of near
three centuries.

Dunstan was born of noble parents in the west of England; and being
educated under his uncle Aldhelm, then archbishop of Canterbury, had
betaken himself to the ecclesiastical life, and had acquired some
character in the court of Edmund. He was, however, represented to
that prince as a man of licentious manners;[*] and finding his fortune
blasted by these suspicions, his ardent ambition prompted him to repair
his indiscretions, by running into an opposite extreme. He secluded
himself entirely from the world; he framed a cell so small, that he
could neither stand erect in it, nor stretch out his limbs during his
repose; and he here employed himself perpetually either in devotion
or in manual labor.[**] It is probable that his brain became gradually
crazed by these solitary occupations, and that his head was filled with
chimeras, which, being believed by himself and his stupid votaries,
procured him the general character of sanctity among the people. He
fancied that the devil, among the frequent visits which he paid him,
was one day more earnest than usual in his temptations, till Dunstan,
provoked at his importunity, seized him by the nose with a pair of
red-hot pincers, as he put his head into the cell; and he held him there
till that malignant spirit made the whole neighborhood resound with his
bellowings. This notable exploit was seriously credited and extolled by
the public; it is transmitted to posterity by one, who, considering the
age in which he lived, may pass for a writer of some elegance;[***]
and it insured to Dunstan a reputation which no real piety, much less
virtue, could, even in the most enlightened period, have ever procured
him with the people.

     [* Osberne, p. 95. M. West, p. 187.]

     [** Osberne, p. 96.]

     [*** Osberne, p. 97.]

Supported by the character obtained in his retreat, Dunstan appeared
again in the world; and gained such an ascendent over Edred who had
succeeded to the crown, as made him not only the director of that
prince's conscience, but his counsellor in the most momentous affairs of
government. He was placed at the head of the treasury,[*] and being thus
possessed both of power at court, and of credit with the populace,
he was enabled to attempt with success the most arduous enterprises.
Finding that his advancement had been owing to the opinion of his
austerity, he professed himself a partisan of the rigid monastic
rules; and after introducing that reformation into the convents of
Glastonbury and Abingdon, he endeavored to render it universal in the
kingdom.

The minds of men were already well prepared for this innovation. The
praises of an inviolable chastity had been carried to the highest
extravagance by some of the first preachers of Christianity among the
Saxons: the pleasures of love had been represented as incompatible with
Christian perfection; and a total abstinence from all commerce with the
sex was deemed such a meritorious penance, as was sufficient to atone
for the greatest enormities. The consequence seemed natural, that
those, at least, who officiated at the altar, should be clear of this
pollution; and when the doctrine of transubstantiation, which was now
creeping in,[**] was once fully established, the reverence to the real
body of Christ in the eucharist bestowed on this argument an additional
force and influence.

     [* Osberne, p. 102. "Wallingford," p. 541,]

     [** Spel. Concil. vol. i. p. 452.]

The monks knew how to avail themselves of all these popular topics, and
to set off their own character to the best advantage. They affected the
greatest austerity of life and manners; they indulged themselves in the
highest strains of devotion; they inveighed bitterly against the vices
and pretended luxury of the age; they were particularly vehement against
the dissolute lives of the secular clergy, their rivals; every instance
of libertinism in any individual of that order was represented as a
general corruption; and where other topics of defamation were wanting,
their marriage became a sure subject of invective, and their wives
received the name of concubine, or other more opprobrious appellation.
The secular clergy, on the other hand, who were numerous and rich, and
possessed of the ecclesiastical dignities, defended themselves with
vigor and endeavored to retaliate upon their adversaries. The people
were thrown into agitation; and few instances occur of more violent
dissensions, excited by the most material differences in religion; or
rather by the most frivolous; since it is a just remark, that the more
affinity there is between theological parties, the greater commonly is
their animosity.

The progress of the monks, which was become considerable, was somewhat
retarded by the death of Edred, their partisan, who expired after a
reign of nine years. He left children; but as they were infants, his
nephew Edwy, son of Edmund, was placed on the throne.




EDWY

{955.} Edwy, at the time of his accession, was not above sixteen or
seventeen years of age, was possessed of the most amiable figure,
and was even endowed, according to authentic accounts, with the most
promising virtues.[*] He would have been the favorite of his people, had
he not unhappily, at the commencement of his reign, been engaged in a
controversy with the monks, whose rage neither the graces of the body
nor virtues of the mind could mitigate, and who have pursued his memory
with the same unrelenting vengeance, which they exercised against his
person and dignity during his short and unfortunate reign. There was
a beautiful princess of the royal blood, called Elgiva, who had made
impression on the tender heart of Edwy; and as he was of an age when the
force of the passions first begins to be felt, he had ventured, contrary
to the advice of his gravest counsellors, and the remonstrances of the
more dignified ecclesiastics,[**] to espouse her; though she was within
the degrees of affinity prohibited by the canon law.[***]

     [* Chron. Sax. p, 115.]

     [** H. Hunting, lib. v. p. 356.]

     [*** W. Malms. lib. ii. cap. 7.]

As the austerity affected by the monks made them particularly violent on
this occasion, Edwy entertained a strong prepossession against them;
and seemed, on that account, determined not to second their project
of expelling the seculars from all the convents, and of possessing
themselves of those rich establishments. War was therefore declared
between the king and the monks; and the former soon found reason
to repent his provoking such dangerous enemies. On the day of his
coronation, his nobility were assembled in a great hall, and were
indulging themselves in that riot and disorder, which, from the example
of their German ancestors, had become habitual to the English;[*] when
Edwy, attracted by softer pleasures, retired into the queen's apartment,
and in that privacy gave reins to his fondness towards his wife, which
was only moderately checked by the presence of her mother. Dunstan
conjectured the reason of the king's retreat; and, carrying along with
him Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, over whom he had gained an absolute
ascendant, he burst into the apartment, upbraided Edwy with his
lasciviousness, probably bestowed on the queen the most opprobrious
epithet that can be applied to her sex, and tearing him from her arms,
pushed him back, in a disgraceful manner, into the banquet of the
nobles.[**] Edwy, though young, and opposed by the prejudices of the
people, found an opportunity of taking revenge for this public insult.
He questioned Dunstan concerning the administration of the treasury
during the reign of his predecessor;[***] and when that minister refused
to give any account of money expended, as he affirmed, by orders of the
late king, he accused him of malversation in his office, and banished
him the kingdom. But Dunstan's cabal was not inactive during his
absence: they filled the public with high panegyrics on his sanctity:
they exclaimed against the impiety of the king and queen; and having
poisoned the minds of the people by these declamations, they proceeded
to still more outrageous acts of violence against the royal authority.
Archbishop Odo sent into the palace a party of soldiers, who seized
the queen; and having burned her face with a rod-hot iron, in order to
destroy that fatal beauty which had seduced Edwy, they carried her by
force into Ireland, there to remain in perpetual exile.[****] Edwy,
finding it in vain to resist, was obliged to consent to his divorce,
which was pronounced by Odo;[*****] and a catastrophe still more dismal
awaited the unhappy Elgiva. That amiable princess being cured of her
wounds, and having even obliterated the scars with which Odo had hoped
to deface her beauty, returned into England, and was flying to the
embraces of the king, whom she still regarded as her husband; when she
fell into the hands of a party whom the primate had sent to intercept
her. Nothing but her death could now give security to Odo and the monks,
and the most cruel death was requisite to satiate their vengeance. She
was hamstringed; and expired a few days after at Glocester in the most
acute torments.[******]

     [* Wallingford, p. 542.]

     [** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 7. Osberne, p. 83, 105. M. West.
     p. 195, 196.]

     [*** Wallingford, p. 542. Alured. Beverl. p. 112.]

     [**** Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1644.]

     [***** Hoveden, p. 425.]

     [****** Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1645, 1646]

The English, blinded with superstition, instead of being shocked with
this inhumanity, exclaimed that the misfortunes of Edwy and his consort
were a just judgment for their dissolute contempt of the ecclesiastical
statutes. They even proceeded to rebellion against their sovereign; and
having placed Edgar at their head, the younger brother of Edwy, a boy
of thirteen years of age, they soon put him in possession of Mercia,
Northumberland, East Anglia, and chased Edwy into the southern counties.
That it might not be doubtful at whose instigation this revolt was
undertaken, Dunstan returned into England, and took upon him the
government of Edgar and his party. He was first installed in the see
of Worcester, then in that of London,[**] and, on Odo's death, and
the violent expulsion of Brithelm, his successor, in that of
Canterbury;[***] of all which he long kept possession. Odo is
transmitted to us by the monks under the character of a man of piety:
Dunstan was even canonized; and is one of those numerous saints of the
same stamp, who disgrace the Romish calendar. Meanwhile the unhappy Edwy
was excommunicated,[****] and pursued with unrelenting vengeance; but
his death, which happened soon after, freed his enemies from all
further inquietude, and gave Edgar peaceable possession of the
government.[*****] [2]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 117. Flor. Wigorn. p. 605.
     Wallingford, p. 544]

     [*** Hoveden, p. 425. Osberne, p. 109.]

     [**** Brompton, p. 863.]

     [***** See note B, at the end of the volume.]





EDGAR

{959.} This prince, who mounted the throne in such early youth, soon
discovered an excellent capacity in the administration of affairs, and
his reign is one of the most fortunate that we meet with in the ancient
English history. He showed no aversion to war; he made the wisest
preparations against invaders; and, by this vigor and foresight, he
was enabled without any danger of suffering insults, to indulge his
inclination towards peace, and to employ himself in supporting and
improving the internal government of his kingdom. He maintained a body
of disciplined troops; which he quartered in the north, in order to keep
the mutinous Northumbrians in subjection, and to repel the inroads of
the Scots. He built an supported a powerful navy;[*] and that
he might retain the seamen in the practice of their duty, and always
present a formidable armament to his enemies, he stationed three
squadrons off the coast, and ordered them to make, from time to time,
the circuit of his dominions.[**] [3] The foreign Danes dared not to
approach a country which appeared in such a posture of defence: the
domestic Danes saw inevitable destruction to be the consequence of
their tumults and insurrections: the neighboring sovereigns, the king of
Scotland, the princes of Wales, of the Isle of Man, of the Orkneys, and
even of Ireland,[***] were reduced to pay submission to so formidable
a monarch. He carried his superiority to a great height, and might have
excited a universal combination against him, had not his power been so
well established, as to deprive his enemies of hopes of shaking it It is
said, that residing once at Chester, and having purposed to go by water
to the abbey of St. John the Baptist, he obliged eight of his tributary
princes to row him in a barge upon the Dee.[****] The English historians
are fond of mentioning the name of Kenneth III., king of Scots, among
the number: the Scottish historians either deny the fact, or assert that
their king, if ever he acknowledged himself a vassal to Edgar, did
him homage, not for his crown, but for the dominions which he held in
England.


But the chief means by which Edgar maintained his authority, and
preserved public peace, was the paying of court to Dunstan and the
monks, who had at first placed him on the throne, and who, by their
pretensions to superior sanctity and purity of manners, had acquired an
ascendant over the people. He favored their scheme for dispossessing the
secular canons of all the monasteries;[*****] he bestowed preferment
on none but their partisans; he allowed Dunstan to resign the see of
Worcester into the hands of Oswald, one of his creatures; [******] and
to place Ethelwold, another of them, in that of Winchester;[*******] he
consulted these prelates in the administration of all ecclesiastical
and even in that of many civil affairs; and though the vigor of his own
genius prevented him from being implicitly guided by them, the king and
the bishops found such advantages in their mutual agreement, that they
always acted in concert, and united their influence in preserving the
peace and tranquillity of the kingdom.

     [* Higden, p. 265.]

     [** See note C, at the end of the volume]

     [*** Spel. Concil. p. 432.]

     [**** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 406.
     H. Hunting, lib. v.p. 356].

     [***** Chron. Sax. p. 117, 118. W, Malms, lib. ii.
     cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 425, 426. Osberne, p. 112.]

     [****** W. Malms. lib. ii. cap. 8. Hoveden, p.
     425.]

     [******* Gervase, p. 1646. Brompton, p. 864, Flor.
     Wigorn. p. 606. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 27, 28.]

In order to complete the great work of placing the new order of monks in
all the convents, Edgar summoned a general council of the prelates,
and the heads of the religious orders. He here inveighed against the
dissolute lives of the secular clergy; the smallness of their tonsure,
which, it is probable, maintained no longer any resemblance to the crown
of thorns; their negligence in attending the exercise of their function;
their mixing with the laity in the pleasures of gaming, hunting,
dancing, and singing; and their openly living with concubines, by which
it is commonly supposed he meant their wives. He then turned himself to
Dunstan, the primate; and in the name of King Edred, whom he supposed to
look down from heaven with indignation against all those enormities,
he thus addressed him: "It is you, Dunstan, by whose advice I founded
monasteries, built churches, and expended my treasure in the support of
religion and religious houses. You were my counsellor and assistant in
all my schemes: you were the director of my conscience: to you I was
obedient in all things. When did you call for supplies, which I refused
you? Was my assistance ever wanting to the poor? Did I deny support and
establishments to the clergy and the convents? Did I not hearken to your
instructions, who told me that these charities were, of all others, the
most grateful to my Maker, and fixed a perpetual fund for the support
of religion? And are all our pious endeavors now frustrated by the
dissolute lives of the priests? Not that I throw any blame on you: you
have reasoned, besought, inculcated, inveighed; but it now behoves you
to use sharper and more vigorous remedies; and conjoining your spiritual
authority with the civil power, to purge effectually the temple of God
from thieves and intruders."[*]

     [* Abbas Rieval. p. 360, 361. Spel. Concil. p.
     476, 477, 478.]

It is easy to imagine that this harangue had the desired effect; and
that, when the king and prelates thus concurred with popular prejudices,
it was not long before the monks prevailed, and established their new
discipline in almost all the convents.

We may remark, that the declamations against the secular clergy are,
both here and in all the historians, conveyed in general terms; and
as that order of men are commonly restrained by the decency of their
character, it is difficult to believe that the complaints against their
dissolute manners could be so universally just as is pretended. It is
more probable that the monks paid court to the populace by an affected
austerity of life; and representing the most innocent liberties taken by
the other clergy as great and unpardonable enormities, thereby prepared
the way for the increase of their own power and influence. Edgar,
however, like a true politician, concurred with the prevailing party;
and he even indulged them in pretensions, which, though they might, when
complied with, engage the monks to support royal authority during his
own reign, proved afterwards dangerous to his successors, and gave
disturbance to the whole civil power. He seconded the policy of the
court of Rome, in granting to some monasteries an exemption from
episcopal jurisdiction; he allowed the convents, even those of royal
foundation, to usurp the election of their own abbot; and he admitted
their forgeries of ancient charters, by which, from the pretended grant
of former kings, they assumed many privileges and immunities.[*]


These merits of Edgar have procured him the highest panegyrics from the
monks; and he is transmitted to us, not only under the character of a
consummate statesman and an active prince,--praises to which beseems to
have been justly entitled,--but under that of a great saint and a man of
virtue. But nothing could more betray both his hypocrisy in inveighing
against the licentiousness of the secular clergy, and the interested
spirit of his partisans in bestowing such eulogies on his piety, than
the usual tenor of his conduct, which was licentious to the highest
degree, and violated every law, human and divine. Yet those very monks,
who, as we are told by Ingulf, a very ancient historian, had no idea of
any moral or religious merit, except chastity and obedience, not only
connived at his enormities, but loaded him with the greatest praises.
History, however, has preserved some instances of his amours, from
which, as from a specimen, we may form a conjecture of the rest.

Edgar broke into a convent, carried off Editha, a nun, by force, and
even committed violence on her person.[**]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 118. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8.
     Seldom Spicileg, ad Eadm. p. 149, 157.]

     [** W. Malms, lib. ii cap. 8. Osberne, p. 3.
     Diceto, p. 457. Higden, p. 265, 267, 268. Spel. Concil. p.
     481.]

For this act of sacrilege he was reprimanded by Dunstan; and that he
might reconcile himself to the church, he was obliged, not to separate
from his mistress, but to abstain from wearing his crown during seven
years, and to deprive himself so long of that vain ornament;[*]
a punishment very unequal to that which had been inflicted on the
unfortunate Edwy, who, for a marriage, which in the strictest sense
could only deserve the name of irregular, was expelled his kingdom, saw
his queen treated with singular barbarity, was loaded with calumnies,
and has been represented to us under the most odious colors. Such is the
ascendant which may be attained, by hypocrisy and cabal, over mankind.

     [* Osberne, p. 111.]

There was another mistress of Edgar's, with whom he first formed a
connection by a kind of accident. Passing one day by Andover, he lodged
in the house of a nobleman, whose daughter, being endowed with all the
graces of person and behavior, inflamed him at first sight with the
highest desire; and he resolved by any expedient to gratify it. As
he had not leisure to employ courtship or address for attaining his
purpose, he went directly to her mother, declared the violence of his
passion, and desired that the young lady might be allowed to pass that
very night with him. The mother was a woman of virtue, and determined
not to dishonor her daughter and her family by compliance; but being
well acquainted with the impetuosity of the king's temper, she thought
it would be easier, as well as safer, to deceive than refuse him. She
feigned therefore a submission to his will; but secretly ordered a
waiting maid, of no disagreeable figure, to steal into the king's bed,
after all the company should be retired to rest. In the morning, before
daybreak, the damsel, agreeably to the injunctions of her mistress,
offered to retire; but Edgar, who had no reserve in his pleasures, and
whose love to his bed-fallow was rather inflamed by enjoyment, refused
his consent, and employed force and entreaties to detain her. Elfleda
(for that was the name of the maid) trusting to her own charms, and
to the love with which, she hoped, she had now inspired the king, made
probably but a faint resistance; and the return of light discovered the
deceit to Edgar. He had passed a night so much to his satisfaction, that
he expressed no displeasure with the old lady on account of her fraud;
his love was transferred to Elfleda; she became his favorite mistress,
and maintained her ascendant over him, till his marriage with
Elfrida.[*]

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8. Higden, p. 268.]

The circumstances of his marriage with this lady were more singular
and more criminal. Elfrida was daughter and heir of Olgar, earl of
Devonshire; and though she had been educated in the country, and had
never appeared at court, she had filled all England with the reputation
of her beauty. Edgar himself, who was indifferent to no accounts of this
nature, found his curiosity excited by the frequent panegyrics which he
heard of Elfrida; and reflecting on her noble birth, he resolved, if he
found her charms answerable to their fame, to obtain possession of her
on honorable terms. He communicated his intention to Earl Athelwold, his
favorite, but used the precaution, before he made any advances to her
parents, to order that nobleman, on some pretence, to pay them a visit,
and to bring him a certain account of the beauty of their daughter.
Athelwold, when introduced to the young lady, found general report to
have fallen short of the truth; and being actuated by the most vehement
love, he determined to sacrifice to this new passion his fidelity to his
master, and to the trust reposed in him. He returned to Edgar, and told
him, that the riches alone, and high quality of Elfrida, had been the
ground of the admiration paid her, and that her charms, far from being
any wise extraordinary would have been overlooked in a woman of inferior
station. When he had, by this deceit, diverted the king from his purpose
he took an opportunity, after some interval, of turning again the
conversation on Elfrida; he remarked, that though the parentage and
fortune of the lady had not produced on him, as on others, any illusion
with regard to her beauty, he could not forbear reflecting, that she
would, on the whole, be an advantageous match for him, and might, by her
birth and riches, make him sufficient compensation for the homeliness of
her person. If the king, therefore, gave his approbation he was
determined to make proposals in his own behalf to the earl of
Devonshire, and doubted not to obtain his, as well as the young lady's,
consent to the marriage. Edgar, pleased with an expedient for
establishing his favorite's fortune, not only exhorted him to execute
his purpose but forwarded his success by his recommendations to the
parents of Elfrida; and Athelwold was soon made happy in the possession
of his mistress. Dreading, however, the detection of the artifice, he
employed every pretence for detaining Elfrida in the country, and for
keeping her at a distance from Edgar.

The violent passion of Athelwold had rendered him blind to the necessary
consequences which must attend his conduct, and the advantages which
the numerous enemies, that always pursue a royal favorite, would, by
its means, be able to make against him. Edgar was soon informed of the
truth; but before he would execute vengeance on Athelwold's treachery,
he resolved to satisfy himself, with his own eyes, of the certainty
and full extent of his guilt. He told him that he intended to pay him
a visit in his castle, and be introduced to the acquaintance of his
new-married wife; and Athelwold, as he could not refuse the honor, only
craved leave to go before him a few hours, that he might the better
prepare every thing for his reception. He then discovered the whole
matter to Elfrida; and begged her, if she had any regard either to her
own honor or his life, to conceal from Edgar, by every circumstance
of dress and behavior, that fatal beauty which had seduced him from
fidelity to his friend, and had betrayed him into so many falsehoods.
Elfrida promised compliance, though nothing was farther from her
intentions. She deemed herself little beholden to Athelwold for a
passion which had deprived her of a crown; and knowing the force of her
own charms, she did not despair, even yet, of reaching that dignity, of
which her husband's artifice had bereaved her. She appeared before the
king with all the advantages which the richest attire, and the most
engaging airs, could bestow upon her, and she excited at once in his
bosom the highest love towards herself, and the most furious desire of
revenge against her husband. He knew, however, how to dissemble these
passions; and seducing Athelwold into a wood, on pretence of hunting,
he stabbed him with his own hand, and soon after publicly espoused
Elfrida.[*]

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 426. Brompton, p.
     865, 866. Flor. Wigorn. p. 606. Higden, p. 268.]

Before we conclude our account of this reign, we must mention two
circumstances, which are remarked by historians. The reputation of Edgar
allured a great number of foreigners to visit his court; and he gave
them encouragement to settle in England.[*]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 116. H. Hunting, lib. v. p. 356. Brompton,
     p. 865.]

We are told that they imported all the vices of their respective
countries, and contributed to corrupt the simple manners of the
natives;[*] but as this simplicity of manners so highly and often
so injudiciously extolled, did not preserve them from barbarity and
treachery, the greatest of all vices, and the most incident to a rude,
uncultivated people, we ought perhaps to deem their acquaintance with
foreigners rather an advantage; as it tended to enlarge their views, and
to cure them of those illiberal prejudices and rustic manners to which
islanders are often subject.

Another remarkable incident of this reign was the extirpation of wolves
from England. This advantage was attained by the industrious policy
of Edgar. He took great pains in hunting and pursuing those ravenous
animals; and when he found that all that escaped him had taken shelter
in the mountains and forests of Wales, he changed the tribute of money
imposed on the Welsh princes of Athelstan, his predecessor,[**] into
an annual tribute of three hundred heads of wolves; which produced such
diligence in hunting them, that the animal has been no more seen in this
island.

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8.]

     [** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6. Brompton, p. 838,]

Edgar died after a reign of sixteen years, and in the thirty-third of
his age. He was succeeded by Edward, whom he had by his first marriage
with the daughter of Earl Ordmer.




EDWARD THE MARTYR

{957.} The succession of this prince, who was only fifteen years of age
at his father's death, did not take place without much difficulty and
opposition. Elfrida, his step-mother, had a son, Ethelred, seven years
old, whom she attempted to raise to the throne: she affirmed that
Edgar's marriage with the mother of Edward was exposed to insuperable
objections; and as she had possessed great credit with her husband, she
had found means to acquire partisans, who seconded all her pretensions.
But the title of Edward was supported by many advantages. He was
appointed successor by the will of his father;[*] he was approaching
to man's estate, and might soon be able to take into his own hands the
reins of government; the principal nobility, dreading the imperious
temper of Clirida, were averse to her son's government, which must
enlarge her authority, and probably put her in possession of the
regency; above all, Dunstan, whose character of sanctity had given him
the highest credit with the people, hud espoused the cause of Edward,
over whom he had already acquired a great ascendant;[**] and he was
determined to execute the will of Edgar in his favor. To cut off all
opposite pretensions, Dunstan resolutely anointed and crowned the young
prince at Kingston; and the whole kingdom, without further dispute,
submitted to him.[***]

     [* Hoveden, p. 427. Eadmer p. 3.]

     [** Eadmer, p. 3.]

     [*** W. Malms, lib. ii cap. 9. Hoveden, p. 427.
     Osberne, p. 113.]

It was of great importance to Dunstan and the monks to place on the
throne a king favorable to their cause; the secular clergy had still
partisans in England, who wished to support them in the possession
of the convents, and of the ecclesiastical authority. On the first
intelligence of Edgar's death, Alfere, duke of Mercia, expelled the
new orders of monks from all the monasteries which lay within his
jurisdiction;[***] but Elfwin, duke of East Anglia, and Brithnot,
duke of the East Saxons, protected them within their territories, and
insisted upon the execution of the late laws enacted in their favor. In
order to settle this controversy, there were summoned several synods,
which, according to the practice of those times, consisted partly of
ecclesiastical members, partly of the lay nobility. The monks were able
to prevail in these assemblies; though, as it appears, contrary to the
secret wishes, if not the declared inclination, of the leading men in
he nation.[****] They had more invention in forging miracles to
support their cause; or having been so fortunate as to obtain, by their
pretended austerities, the character of piety, their miracles were more
credited by the populace.

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 123. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap.
     9. Hoveden, p. 427 Brompton, p. 870. Flor. Wigorn. p, 307.]

     [**** W. Malms. lib. ii. cap. 9.]

In one synod, Dunstan, finding the majority of votes against him, rose
up, and informed the audience, that he had that instant received
an immediate revelation in behalf of the monks: the assembly was
so astonished at this intelligence, or probably so overawed by the
populace, that they proceeded no farther in their deliberations. In
another synod, a voice issued from the crucifix, and informed the
members that the establishment of the monks was founded on the will
of Heaven and could not be opposed without impiety.[*] But the miracle
performed in the third synod was still more alarming: the floor of the
hall in which the assembly met, sunk of a sudden, and a great number of
the members were either bruised or killed by the fall. It was remarked,
that Dunstan had that day prevented the king from attending the synod,
and that the beam on which his own chair stood was the only one that did
not sink under the weight of the assembly;[**] but these circumstances,
instead of begetting any suspicion of contrivance, were regarded as the
surest proof of the immediate interposition of Providence in behalf of
those favorites of Heaven.

     [* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 9. Osberne, p. 112.
     Gervase, p. 1647, Brompton, p. 870. Higden, p. 269.]


     [** Chron. Sax. p. 124. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 9.
     Hoveden, p. 427. H. Hunting, lib. v. p. 357. Gervase, p.
     1647. Brompton, p. 870. Flor. Wigorn. p. 607 Higden, p 269.
     Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 29]

Edward lived four years after his accession, and there passed
nothing memorable during his reign. His death alone was memorable and
tragical.[*]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 124.]

This young prince was endowed with the most amiable innocence of
manners; and as his own intentions were always pure, he was incapable
of entertaining any suspicion against others. Though his step-mother had
opposed his succession, and had raised a party in favor of her own
son, he always showed her marks of regard, and even expressed, on all
occasions, the most tender affection towards his brother. He was hunting
one day in Dorsetshire, and being led by the chase near Corfe Castle,
where Elfrida resided, he took the opportunity of paying her visit,
unattended by any of his retinue, and he thereby presented her with
the opportunity which she had long wished for. After he had mounted his
horse, he desired some liquor to be brought him: while he was holding
the cup to his head, a servant of Elfrida approached him, and gave him
a stab behind. The prince, finding himself wounded, put spurs to his
horse; but becoming faint by loss of blood, he fell from the saddle, his
foot stuck in the stirrup, and he was dragged along by his unruly horse
till he expired. Being tracked by the blood, his body was found, and was
privately interred at Wereham by his servants.

The youth and innocence of this prince, with his tragical death, begat
such compassion among the people, that they believed miracles to be
wrought at his tomb; and they gave him the appellation of _martyr_,
though his murder had no connection with any religious principle or
opinion. Elfrida built monasteries, and performed many penances, in
order to atone for her guilt; but could never, by all her hypocrisy
or remorses, recover the good opinion of the public, though so easily
deluded in those ignorant ages.





CHAPTER III.




ETHELRED

{978} THE freedom which England had so long enjoyed from the
depredations of the Danes, seems to have proceeded, partly from the
establishments which that piratical nation had obtained in the north
of France, and which employed all then superfluous hands to people and
maintain them; partly from the vigor and warlike spirit of a long race
of English princes, who preserved the kingdom in a posture of defence,
by sea and land, and either prevented or repelled every attempt of
the invaders. But a new generation of men being now sprung up in the
northern regions, who could no longer disburden themselves on Normandy,
the English had reason to dread that the Danes would again visit an
island to which they were invited, both by the memory of their past
successes, and by the expectation of assistance from their countrymen,
who, though long established in the kingdom, were not yet thoroughly
incorporated with the natives, nor had entirely forgotten their
inveterate habits of war and depredation. And as the reigning prince
was a minor, and even when he attained to man's estate, never discovered
either courage or capacity sufficient to govern his own subjects, much
less to repel a formidable enemy, the people might justly apprehend the
worst calamities from so dangerous a crisis.


{981.} The Danes, before they durst attempt any important enterprise
against England, made an inconsiderable descent by way of trial; and
having landed from seven vessels near Southamptom, they ravaged the
country, enriched themselves by spoil, and departed with impunity. Six
years after, they made a like attempt in the west, and met with like
success. The invaders, having now found affairs in a very different
situation from that in which they formerly appeared, encouraged
their countrymen to assemble a greater force, and to hope for more
considerable advantages.


{991} They landed in Essex, under the command of two leaders; and
having defeated and slain, at Maldon, Brithnot, duke of that county,
who ventured with a small body to attack them, they spread their
devastations over all the neighboring provinces. In this extremity,
Ethelred, to whom historians give the epithet of the _Unready_,
instead of rousing his people to defend with courage their honor and
their property, hearkened to the advice of Siricius, archbishop of
Canterbury, which was seconded by many of the degenerate nobility;
and paying the enemy the sum of ten thousand pounds, he bribed them
to depart the kingdom. This shameful expedient was attended with the
success which might be expected. The Danes next year appeared off the
eastern coast, in hopes of subduing a people who defended themselves
by their money, which invited assailants, instead of their arms, which
repelled them. But the English, sensible of their folly, had in the
interval assembled in a great council, and had determined to collect
at London a fleet able to give battle to the enemy;[*] though that
judicious measure failed of success, from the treachery of Alfric, duke
of Mercia, whose name is infamous in the annals of that age, by the
calamities which his repeated perfidy brought upon his country. This
nobleman had, in 983, succeeded to his father, Alfere, in that extensive
command; but, being deprived of it two years after, and banished the
kingdom, he was obliged to employ all his intrigue, and all his power,
which was too great for a subject, to be restored to his country, and
reinstated in his authority. Having had experience of the credit and
malevolence of his enemies, he thenceforth trusted for security, not to
his services, or to the affections of his fellow-citizens, but to the
influence which he had obtained over his vassals, and to the public
calamities, which he thought must, in every revolution, render his
assistance necessary. Having fixed this resolution, he determined to
prevent all such successes as might establish the royal authority, or
render his own situation dependent or precarious. As the English had
formed the plan of surrounding and destroying the Danish fleet in
harbor, he privately informed the enemy of their danger; and when they
put to sea, in consequence of this intelligence, he deserted to them,
with the squadron under his command, the night before the engagement,
and thereby disappointed all the efforts of his countrymen.[**]
Ethelred, enraged at his perfidy, seized his son Alfgar, and ordered his
eyes to be put out.[***]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 126.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 127. W. Malms, p. 62. Higden,
     p. 270.]

     [*** Chror. Sax. p. 128. W. Malms, p. 62.]

But such was the power of Alfric, that he again forced himself into
authority; and though he had given this specimen of his character, and
received this grievous provocation, it was found necessary to intrust
him anew with the government of Mercia. This conduct of the court,
which, in all its circumstances, is so barbarous, weak, and imprudent
both merited and prognosticated the most grievous calamities.

{993.} The northern invaders, now well acquainted with the defenceless
condition of England, made a powerful descent under the command of
Sweyn, king of Denmark, and Olave king of Norway; and sailing up the
Humber, spread on all sides their destructive ravages. Lindesey was laid
waste; Banbury was destroyed; and all the Northumbrians, though mostly
of Danish descent, were constrained either to join the invaders, or to
suffer under their depredations. A powerful army was assembled to oppose
the Danes, and a general action ensued; but the English were deserted in
the battle, from the cowardice or treachery of their three leaders, all
of them men of Danish race, Frena, Frithegist, and Godwin, who gave the
example of a shameful flight to the troops under their command.

Encouraged by this success, and still more by the contempt which it
inspired for their enemy, the pirates ventured to attack the centre of
the kingdom; and entering the Thames in ninety-four vessels, laid siege
to London, and threatened it with total destruction. But the citizens,
alarmed at the danger, and firmly united among themselves, made a bolder
defence than the cowardice of the nobility and gentry gave the invaders
reason to apprehend; and the besiegers, after suffering the greatest
hardships, were finally frustrated in their attempt. In order to revenge
themselves, they laid waste Essex, Sussex, and Hampshire; and having
there procured horses, they were thereby enabled to spread through the
more inland counties the fury of their depredations. In this extremity,
Ethelred and his nobles had recourse to the former expedient; and
sending ambassadors to the two northern kings, they promised them
subsistence and tribute, on condition they would, for the present, put
an end to their ravages, and soon after depart the kingdom. Sweyn and
Olave agreed to the terms, and peaceably took up their quarters at
Southampton, where the sum of sixteen thousand pounds was paid to them.
Olave even made a journey to Andover, where Ethelred resided; and he
received the rite of confirmation from the English bishops, as well as
many rich presents from the king. He here promised that he would never
more infest the English territories; and he faithfully fulfilled the
engagement. This prince receives the appellation of St. Olave from the
church of Rome; and, notwithstanding the general presumption, which lies
either against the understanding or morals of every one who in those
ignorant ages was dignified with that title, he seems to have been a man
of merit and of virtue, Sweyn, though less scrupulous than Olave, was
constrained, upon the departure of the Norwegian prince, to evacuate
also the kingdom, with all his followers.

{997.} This composition brought only a short interval to the miseries of
the English. The Danish pirates appeared soon after in the Severn; and
having committed spoil in Wales, as well as in Cornwall and Devonshire,
they sailed round to the south coast, and entering the Tamar, completed
the devastation of these two counties. They then returned to the Bristol
Channel; and penetrating into the country by the Avon, spread themselves
over all that neighborhood, and carried fire and sword even into
Dorsetshire. They next changed the seat of war; and after ravaging the
Isle of Wight, they entered the Thames and Medway, and laid siege to
Rochester, where they defeated the Kentish men in a pitched battle.
After this victory, the whole province of Kent was made a scene of
slaughter, fire, and devastation. The extremity of these miseries forced
the English into counsels for common defence, both by sea and land;
but the weakness of the king, the divisions among the nobility, the
treachery of some, the cowardice of others, the want of concert in all,
frustrated every endeavor; their fleets and armies either came too late
to attack the enemy, or were repulsed with dishonor; and the people
were thus equally ruined by resistance or by submission. The English,
therefore, destitute both of prudence and unanimity in council,
of courage and conduct in the field, had recourse to the same weak
expedient which, by experience, they had already found so ineffectual:
they offered the Danes to buy peace, by paying them a large sum of
money, These ravagers rose continually in their demands; and now
required the payment of twenty-four thousand pounds, to which the
English were so mean and imprudent as to submit.[*]

     [* Hoveden, p. 429. Chron. Malm. p. 153.]

The departure of the Danes procured them another short interval of
repose, which they enjoyed as if it were to be perpetual without making
any effectual preparations for a more vigorous resistance upon the next
return of the enemy.

Besides receiving this sum, the Danes were engaged by another motive to
depart a kingdom which appeared so little in a situation to resist their
efforts. They were invited over by their countrymen in Normandy, who at
this time were hard pressed by the arms of Robert, king of France, and
who found it difficult to defend the settlement, which, with so much
advantage to themselves, and glory to their nation, they had made in
that country. It is probable, also, that Ethelred, observing the close
connections thus maintained among all the Danes, however divided in
government or situation, was desirous of forming an alliance with that
formidable people. For this purpose, being now a widower, he made his
addresses to Emma, sister to Richard II., duke of Normandy, and he soon
succeeded in his negotiation. The princess came over this year {1001.}
to England, and was married to Ethelred.[*]

     [* H, Hunting, p. 359. Higden, p. 271.]

In the end of the ninth and beginning of the tenth century--when the
north, not yet exhausted by that multitude of people, or rather nations,
which she had successively emitted, sent forth a new race, not of
conquerors, as before, but of pirates and ravagers, who infested the
countries possessed by her once warlike sons--lived Rollo, a petty
prince or chieftain in Denmark, whose valor and abilities soon en gaged,
the attention of his countrymen. He was exposed in his youth to the
jealousy of the king of Denmark, who attacked his small but independent
principality, and who, being foiled in every assault, had recourse at
last to perfidy for effecting his purpose, which he had often attempted
in vain by force of arms.[**]

     [** Dudo, ex edit. Duchesne, p. 70, 71. Gul.
     Gemeticenia, lib. ii, cap. 2, 3.]

He lulled Rollo into security by an insidious peace and falling suddenly
upon him, murdered his brother and his bravest officers, and forced him
to fly for safety into Scandinavia. Here many of his ancient subjects,
induced partly by affection to their prince, partly by the oppressions
of the Danish monarch, ranged themselves under his standard, and offered
to follow him in every enterprise. Rollo, instead of attempting
to recover his paternal dominions, where he must expect a vigorous
resistance from the Danes, determined to pursue an easier but more
important undertaking, and to make rus fortune, in imitation of his
countrymen, by pillaging the richer and more southern coasts of Europe.
He collected a body of troops, which, like that of all those ravagers,
was composed of Norwegians, Swedes, Frisians, Danes, and adventurers
of all nations, who being accustomed to a roving, unsettled life, took
delight in nothing but war and plunder. His reputation brought him
associates from all quarters; and a vision, which he pretended to have
appeared to him in his sleep, and which, according to his interpretation
of it, prognosticated the greatest successes, proved also a powerful
incentive with those ignorant and superstitious people.[*]

     [* Dudo, p. 71. Gul. Gemet. in epist. ad Gul.
     Conq.]

The first attempt made by Rollo was on England, near the end of Alfred's
reign, when that great monarch, having settled Guthrum and his followers
in East Anglia, and others of those freebooters in Northumberland, and
having restored peace to his harassed country, had established the most
excellent military, as well as civil, institutions among the English.
The prudent Dane, finding that no advantages could be gained over such
a people, governed by such a prince, soon turned his enterprises against
France, which he found more exposed to his inroads;[**] and during the
reigns of Eudes, a usurper, and of Charles the Simple, a weak prince, he
committed the most destructive ravages, both on the inland and maritime
provinces of that kingdom. The French, having no means of defence
against a leader who united all the valor of his countrymen with
the policy of more civilized nations, were obliged to submit to the
expedient practised by Alfred, and to offer the invaders a settlement in
some of those provinces which they had depopulated by their arms.[***]

     [** Gul Gemet lib. ii. cap 6.]

     [*** Dudo, p. 82.]

The reason why the Danes, for many years, pursued measures so different
from those which had been embraced by the Goths, Vandals, Franks,
Burgundians, Lombards, and other northern conquerors, was the great
difference in the method of attack which was practised by these
several nations, and to which the nature of their respective situations
necessarily confined them. The latter tribes, living in an inland
country, made incursions by land upon the Roman empire; and when they
entered far into the frontiers, they were obliged to carry along
with them their wives and families, whom they had no hopes of soon
revisiting, and who could not otherwise participate of their plunder.
This circumstance quickly made them think of forcing a settlement in
the provinces which they had overrun: and these barbarians, spreading
themselves over the country, found an interest in protecting the
property and industry of the people whom they had subdued. But the Danes
and Norwegians, invited by their maritime situation, and obliged to
maintain themselves in their uncultivated country by fishing, had
acquired some experience of navigation; and, in their military
excursions, pursued the method practised against the Roman empire by the
more early Saxons. They made descents in small bodies from their ships,
or rather boats, and ravaging the coasts, returned with the booty to
their families, whom they could not conveniently carry along with them
in those hazardous enterprises. But when they increased their armaments,
made incursions into the inland countries, and found it safe to remain
longer in the midst of the enfeebled enemy, they had been accustomed to
crowd their vessels with their wives and children, and having no longer
any temptation to return to their own country, they willingly embraced
an opportunity of settling in the warm climates and cultivated fields of
the south.

Affairs were in this situation with Rollo and his followers, when
Charles proposed to relinquish to them part of the province formerly
called Neustria, and to purchase peace on these hard conditions. After
all the terms were fully settled, there appeared only one circumstance
shocking to the haughty Dane: he was required to do homage to Charles
for this province, and to put himself in that humiliating posture
imposed on vassals by the rites of the feudal law. He long refused to
submit to this indignity; but, being unwilling to lose such important
advantages for a mere ceremony, he made a sacrifice of his pride to his
interest, and acknowledged himself, in form, the vassal of the French
monarch.[*] Charles gave him his daughter Gisla in marriage; and, that
he might bind him faster to his interests, made him a donation of a
considerable territory, besides that which he was obliged to surrender
to him by his stipulation.

     [* Ypod. Neust. p. 417.]

When some of the French nobles informed him that, in return for so
generous a present, it was expected that he should throw himself at the
king's feet, and make suitable acknowledgments for his bounty, Rollo
replied, that he would rather decline the present; and it was with some
difficulty they could persuade him to make that compliment by one of his
captains. The Dane, commissioned for this purpose, full of indignation
at the order, and despising so unwarlike a prince, caught Charles by the
foot, and pretending to carry it to his mouth, that he might kiss it,
overthrew him before all his courtiers. The French, sensible of their
present weakness, found it prudent to overlook this insult.[*]

     [* Gul. Gemet. lib. ii. cap. 17.]

Rollo, who was now in the decline of life, and was tired of wars and
depredations, applied himself, with mature counsels to the settlement of
his new-acquired territory, which was thenceforth called Normandy; and
he parcelled it out among his captains and followers. He followed,
in this partition, the customs of the feudal law, which was then
universally established in the southern countries of Europe, and which
suited the peculiar circumstances of that age. He treated the French
subjects, who submitted to him, with mildness and justice; he reclaimed
his ancient followers from their ferocious violence; he established law
and order throughout his state; and after a life spent in tumults and
ravages, he died peaceably in a good old age, and left his dominions to
his posterity.[**]

     [** Gul. Gemet. lib. ii. cap. 19, 20, 21.]

William I., who succeeded him, governed the duchy twenty-five years;
and, during that time, the Normans, who were thoroughly intermingled
with the French, had acquired their language, had imitated their
manners, and had made such progress towards cultivation, that, on the
death of William, his son Richard, though a minor,[***] inherited his
dominions; a sure proof that the Normans were already somewhat advanced
in civility, and that their government could now rest secure on its laws
and civil institutions, and was not wholly sustained by the abilities
of the sovereign. Richard, after a long reign of fifty-four years, was
succeeded by his son, of the same name, in the year 996,[****] which
was eighty-five years after the first establishment of the Normans
in France. This was the duke who gave his sister Emma in marriage to
Ethelred, king of England, and who thereby formed connections with a
country which his posterity was so soon after destined to subdue.

     [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 459. Grl. Geinet, lib. iv.
     cup. 1.]

     [**** Order. Vitalis, p. 459.]

The Danes had been established during a longer period in England than in
France; and though the similarity of their original language to that of
the Saxons invited them to a more early coalition with the natives,
they had hitherto found so little example of civilized manners among
the English, that they retained all their ancient ferocity, and valued
themselves only on their national character of military bravery. The
recent, as well as more ancient achievements of their countrymen
tended to support this idea; and the English princes particularly
Athelstan and Edgar, sensible of that superiority had been accustomed
to keep in pay bodies of Danish troops, who were quartered about the
country, and committed many violences upon the inhabitants. These
mercenaries had attained to such a height of luxury, according to the
old English writers,[*] that they combed their hair once a day, bathed
themselves once a week, changed their clothes frequently; and by all
these arts of effeminacy, as well as by their military character, had
rendered themselves so agreeable to the fair sex, that they debauched
the wives and daughters of the English, and dishonored many families.
But what most provoked the inhabitants was, that instead of defending
them against invaders, they were ever ready to betray them to the
foreign Danes, and to associate themselves with all straggling parties
of that nation.

The animosity between the inhabitants of English and Danish race, had,
from these repeated injuries, risen to a great height, when Ethelred,
from a policy incident to weak princes embraced the cruel resolution of
massacring the latter throughout all his dominions.[**] [4]

     [* Wallingford, p. 547.]

     [** See note D, at the end of the volume.]

{1002.}Secret orders were despatched to commence the execution every
where on the same day, and the festival of St. Brice, which fell on
a Sunday, [November 13,] the day on which the Danes usually bathed
themselves, was chosen for that purpose. It is needless to repeat the
accounts transmitted concerning the barbarity of this massacre: the rage
of the populace, excited by so many injuries, sanctioned by authority,
and stimulated by example, distinguished not between innocence and
guilt, spared neither sex nor age, and was not satiated without the
tortures as well as death of the unhappy victims. Even Gunilda, sister
to the king of Denmark, who had married Earl Paling, and had embraced
Christianity, was, by the advice of Edric, earl of Wilts, seized and
condemned to death by Ethelred, after seeing her husband and children
butchered before her face. This unhappy princess foretold, in the
agonies of despair, that her murder would soon be avenged by the total
ruin of the English nation.

{1003.} Never was prophecy better fulfilled; and never did barbarous
policy prove more fatal to the authors. Sweyn and his Danes, who wanted
but a pretence for invading the English, appeared off the western
coast, and threatened to take full revenge for the slaughter of their
countrymen. Exeter fell first into their hands, from the negligence
or treachery of Earl Hugh, a Norman, who had been made governor by the
interest of Queen Emma. They began to spread their devastations over the
country, when the English, sensible what outrages they must now expect
from their barbarous and offended enemy, assembled more early, and
in greater numbers than usual, and made an appearance of vigorous
resistance. But all these preparations were frustrated by the treachery
of Duke Alfric, who was intrusted with the command, and who, feigning
sickness, refused to lead the army against the Danes, till it was
dispirited, and at last dissipated, by his fatal misconduct. Alfric soon
after died, and Edric, a greater traitor than he, who had married the
king's daughter, and had acquired a total ascendant over him, succeeded
Alfric in the government of Mercia, and in the command of the English
armies. A great famine, proceeding partly from the bad seasons, partly
from the decay of agriculture, added to all the other miseries of the
inhabitants.

{1007} The country, wasted by the Danes, harassed by the fruitless
expeditions of its own forces, was reduced to the utmost desolation, and
at last submitted to the infamy of purchasing a precarious peace from
the enemy, by the payment of thirty thousand pounds.

The English endeavored to employ this interval in making preparations
against the return of the Danes, which they had reason soon to expect. A
law was made, ordering the proprietors of eight hides of land to provide
each a horseman and a complete suit of armor, and those of three hundred
and ten hides to equip a ship for the defence of the coast. When this
navy was assembled, which must have consisted of near eight hundred
vessels,[*] all hopes of its success were disappointed by the factions,
animosities, and dissensions of the nobility. Edric had impelled his
brother Brightric to prefer an accusation of treason against Wolfnoth,
governor of Sussex, the father of the famous Earl Godwin; and that
nobleman, well acquainted with the malevolence as well as power of his
enemy, found no means of safety Dut in deserting with twenty ships to
the Danes.

     [* There were two hundred and forty-three thousand
     six hundred hides in England. Consequently, the ships
     equipped must be seven hundred and eighty-five. The cavalry
     was thirty thousand four hundred and fifty men.]

Brightric pursued him with a fleet of eighty sail; but his ships being
shattered in a tempest, and stranded on the coast, he was suddenly
attacked by Wolfnoth, and all his vessels burnt and destroyed. The
imbecility of the king was little capable of repairing this misfortune.
The treachery of Edric frustrated every plan for future defence; and
the English navy, disconcerted, discouraged, and divided, was at last
scattered into its several harbors.

It is almost impossible, or would be tedious, to relate particularly all
the miseries to which the English were henceforth exposed. We hear of
nothing but the sacking and burning of towns; the devastation of the
open country; the appearance of the enemy in every quarter of the
kingdom; their cruel diligence in discovering any corner which had
not been ransacked by their former violence. The broken and disjointed
narration of the ancient historians is here well adapted to the nature
of the war, which was conducted by such sudden inroads, as would have
been dangerous even to a united and well-governed kingdom, but proved
fatal where nothing but a general consternation and mutual diffidence
and dissension prevailed. The governors of one province refused to march
to the assistance of another, and were at last terrified from assembling
their forces for the defence of their own province. General councils
were summoned; but either no resolution was taken, or none was carried
into execution. And the only expedient in which the English agreed, was
the base and imprudent one of buying a new peace from the Danes, by the
payment of forty-eight thousand pounds.


{1011.} This measure did not bring them even that short interval of
repose which they had expected from it. The Danes, disregarding all
engagements, continued their devastations and hostilities; levied a new
contribution of eight thousand pounds upon the county of Kent alone;
murdered the archbishop of Canterbury, who had refused to countenance
this exaction; and the English nobility found no other resource than
that of submitting everywhere to the Danish monarch, swearing allegiance
to him, and delivering him hostages for their fidelity. Ethelred equally
afraid of the violence of the enemy, and the treachery of his own
subjects, fled into Normandy, {1013} whither he had sent before him
Queen Emma, and her two sons, Alfred and Edward. Richard received his
unhappy guests with a generosity that does honor to his memory.

{1014} The king had not been above six weeks in Normandy, when he heard
of the death of Sweyn, who expired at Gainsborough, before he had time
to establish himself in his new-acquired dominions. The English prelates
and nobility, taking advantage of this event, sent over a deputation to
Normandy, inviting Ethelred to return to them, expressing a desire of
being again governed by their native prince, and intimating their hopes
that, being now tutored by experience, he would avoid all those errors
which had been attended with such misfortunes to himself and to his
people. But the misconduct of Ethelred was incurable; and on his
resuming the government, he discovered the same incapacity, indolence,
cowardice, and credulity, which had so often exposed him to the insults
of his enemies. His son-in-law Edric, notwithstanding his repeated
treasons, retained such influence at court, as to instil into the king
jealousies of Sigefert and Morcar, two of the chief nobles of Mercia.
Edric allured them into his house, where he murdered them; while
Ethelred participated in the infamy of the action, by confiscating their
estates, and thrusting into a convent the widow of Sigefert. She was a
woman of singular beauty and merit; and in a visit which was paid her,
during her confinement, by Prince Edmond, the king's eldest son, she
inspired him with so violent an affection, that he released her from the
convent, and soon after married her, without the consent of his father.

Meanwhile the English found in Canute, the son and successor of Sweyn,
an enemy no less terrible than the prince from whom death had so lately
delivered them. He ravaged the eastern coast with merciless fury, and
put ashore all the English hostages at Sandwich, after having cut off
their hands and noses. He was obliged, by the necessity of his affairs,
to make a voyage to Denmark; but, returning soon after, he continued his
depredations along the southern coast He even broke into the counties
of Dorset, Wilts, and Somerset where an army was assembled against him,
under the command of Prince Edmond and Duke Edric. The latter still
continued his perfidious machinations, and after endeavoring in vain to
got the prince into his power, he found means to disperse the army, and
he then openly deserted to Canute with forty vessels. {1015.}

Notwithstanding this misfortune, Edmond was not disconcerted; but
assembling all the force of England, was in a condition to give battle
to the enemy. The king had had such frequent experience of perfidy among
his subjects, that he had lost all confidence in them: he remained at
London, pretending sickness, but really from apprehensions that they
intended to buy their peace, by delivering him into the hands of his
enemies. The army called aloud for their sovereign to march at their
head against the Danes; and, on his refusal to take the field, they were
so discouraged, that those vast preparations became ineffectual for
the defence of the kingdom. Edmond, deprived of all regular supplies to
maintain his soldiers, was obliged to commit equal ravages with those
which were practised by the Danes; and, after making some fruitless
expeditions into the north, which had submitted entirely to Canute's
power, he retired to London, determined there to maintain to the last
extremity the small remains of English liberty. He here found every
thing in confusion by the death of the king, who expired after an
unhappy and inglorious reign of thirty-five years. {1016.} He left two
sons by his first marriage, Edmond, who succeeded him, and Edwy, whom
Canute afterwards murdered. His two sons by the second marriage, Anred
and Edward, were, immediately upon Ethelred's death, conveyed into
Normandy by Queen Emma.




EDMOND IRONSIDE

This prince, who received the name of _Ironside_ from his hardy
valor, possessed courage and abilities sufficient to have prevented his
country from sinking into those calamities, but not to raise it from
that abyss of misery into which it had already fallen. Among the other
misfortunes of the English, treachery and disaffection had crept in
among the nobility and prelates; and Edmond found no better expedient
for stopping the further progress of these fatal evils, than to lead
his army instantly into the field, and to employ them against the
common enemy. After meeting with some success at Gillingnam, he prepared
himself to decide, in one general engagement, the fate of his crown:
and at Scoerston, in the county of Glocester, he offered battle to the
enemy, who were commanded by Canute and Edric. Fortune, in the beginning
of the day, declared for him; but Edric, having cut off the head of one
Osmer, whose countenance resembled that of Edmond fixed it on a spear,
carried it through the ranks in triumph, and called aloud to the
English, that it was time to fly; for, behold! the head of their
sovereign. And though Edmond, observing the consternation of the troops,
took off his helmet, and showed himself to them, the utmost he could
gain by his activity and valor was to leave the victory undecided. Edric
now took a surer method to ruin him, by pretending to desert to him; and
as Edmond was well acquainted with his power, and probably knew no other
of the chief nobility in whom he could repose more confidence, he was
obliged, notwithstanding the repeated perfidy of the man, to give him
a considerable command in the army. A battle soon after ensued at
Assington, in Essex; where Edric, flying in the beginning of the
day, occasioned the total defeat of the English, followed by a great
slaughter of the nobility. The indefatigable Edmond, however, had still
resources. Assembling a new army at Glocester, he was again in condition
to dispute the field; when the Danish and English nobility, equally
harassed with those convulsions obliged their kings to come to a
compromise, and to divide the kingdom between them by treaty. Canute
reserved to himself the northern division, consisting of Mercia, East
Anglia, and Northumberland, which he had entirely subdued. The southern
parts were left to Edmond. The prince survived the treaty about a month.
He was murdered at Oxford by two of his chamberlains, accomplices of
Edric, who thereby made way for the succession of Canute the Dane to the
crown of England.




CANUTE

{1017.} The English, who had been unable to defend their country, and
maintain their independency, under so active and brave a prince as
Edmond, could after his death expect nothing but total subjection from
Canute, who, active and brave himself, and at the head of a great force,
was ready to take advantage of the minority of Edwin and Edward, the
two sons of Edmond. Yet this conqueror, who was commonly so little
scrupulous, showed himself anxious to cover his injustice under
plausible pretences. Before he seized the dominions of the English
princes, he summoned a general assembly of the states, in order to fix
the succession of the kingdom. He here suborned some nobles to depose
that, in the treaty of Glocester it had been verbally agreed, either to
name Canute, in case of Edmond's death, successor to his dominions, or
tutor to hit children, (for historians vary in this particular;) and
that evidence, supported by the great power of Canute, determined
the states immediately to put the Danish monarch in possession of the
government. Canute, jealous of the two princes, but sensible that
he should render himself extremely odious if he ordered them to be
despatched in England, sent them abroad to his ally, the king of Sweden,
whom he desired, as soon as they arrived at his court, to free him,
by their death, from a& farther anxiety. The Swedish monarch was too
generous to comply with the request; but being afraid of drawing on
himself a quarrel with Canute, by protecting the young princes, he
sent them to Solomon, king of Hungary, to be educated in his court.
The elder, Edwin, was afterwards married to the sister of the king of
Hungary; but the English prince dying without issue, Solomon gave his
sister-in-law, Agatha, daughter of the emperor Henry the Second,
in marriage to Edward, the younger brother; and she bore him Edgar,
Atheling, Margaret, afterwards queen of Scotland, and Christina, who
retired into a convent.

Canute, though he had reached the great point of his ambition in
obtaining possession of the English crown, was obliged at first to make
great sacrifices to it; and to gratify the chief of the nobility, by
bestowing on them the most extensive governments and jurisdictions. He
created Thurkill earl or duke of East Anglia, (for these titles were
then nearly of the same import,) Yric of Northumberland, and Edric of
Mercia; reserving only to himself the administration of Wessex. But
seizing afterwards a favorable opportunity, he expelled Thurkill and
Yric from their governments, and banished them the kingdom; he put to
death many of the English nobility, on whose fidelity he could not rely,
and whom he hated on account of their disloyalty to their native prince.
And even the traitor Edric, having had the assurance to reproach him
with his services, was condemned to be executed, and his body to be
thrown into the Thames; a suitable reward for his multiplied acts of
perfidy and rebellion.

Canute also found himself obliged, in the beginning of his reign,
to load the people with heavy taxes, in order to reward his Danish
followers: he exacted from them at one time the sum of seventy-two
thousand pounds; besides eleven thousand pounds which he levied on
London alone. He was probably willing, from political motives, to mulct
severely that city, on account of the affection which it had borne to
Edmond, and the resistance which it had made to the Danish power in two
obstinate sieges.[*] But these rigors were imputed to necessity,
and Canute, like a wise prince, was determined that the English, now
deprived of all their dangerous leaders, should be reconciled to the
Danish yoke, by the justice and impartiality of his administration. He
sent back to Denmark as many of his followers as he could safely spare;
he restored the Saxon customs in a general assembly of the states; he
made no distinction between Danes and English in the distribution of
justice; and he took care, by a strict execution of law, to protect
the lives and properties of all his people. The Danes were gradually
incorporated with his new objects; and both were glad to obtain a little
respite from those multiplied calamities, from which the one, no less
than the other, had, in their fierce contest for power, experienced such
fatal consequences.

The removal of Edmond's children into so distant a country as Hungary,
was, next to their death, regarded by Canute as the greatest security to
his government: he had no further anxiety, except with regard to Alfred
and Edward, who were protected and supported by their uncle Richard,
duke of Normandy. Richard even fitted out a great armament, in order to
restore the English princes to the throne of their ancestors; and though
the navy was dispersed by a storm, Canute saw the danger to which he was
exposed, from the enmity of so warlike a people as the Normans. In order
to acquire the friendship of the duke, he paid his addresses to Queen
Emma, sister of that prince; and promised that he would leave the
children, whom he should have by that marriage, in possession of the
crown of England. Richard complied with his demand, and sent over Emma
to England, where she was soon after married to Canute.[**] The English,
though they disapproved of her espousing the mortal enemy of her former
husband and his family, were pleased to find at court a sovereign to
whom they were accustomed, and who had already formed connections with
them; and thus Canute besides securing, by this marriage, the alliance
of Normandy gradually acquired, by the same means, the confidence of his
own subjects.[***] The Norman prince did not long survive the marriage
of Emma; and he left the inheritance of the duchy to his eldest son
of the same name; who, dying a year after him without children, was
succeeded by his brother Robert, a man of valor and abilities.

     [* W. Malms, p. 72. In one of these sieges, Canute
     diverted the coarse of the Thames, and by that means brought
     his ships above London bridge.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 151. W. Malms, p. 73.]

     [*** W. Malms, p. 73. Higden, p 275.]

Canute, having settled his power in England beyond all danger of a
revolution, made a voyage to Denmark, in order to resist the attacks of
the king of Sweden; and he carried along with him a great body of the
English, under the command of Earl Godwin. This nobleman had here an
opportunity of performing a service, by which he both reconciled the
king's mind to the English nation, and gaining to himself the friendship
of his sovereign, laid the foundation of that immense fortune which
he acquired to his family. He was stationed next the Swedish camp, and
observing a favorable opportunity, which he was obliged suddenly
to seize, he Attacked the enemy in the night, drove them from their
trenches, threw them into disorder, pursued his advantage, and obtained
a decisive victory over them. Next morning, Canute, seeing the English
camp entirely abandoned, imagined that those disaffected troops had
deserted to the enemy: he was agreeably surprised to find that they were
at that time engaged in pursuit of the discomfited Swedes. He was so
pleased with this success, and with the manner of obtaining it that
he bestowed his daughter in marriage upon Godwin, and treated him ever
after with entire confidence and regard.


{1028.} In another voyage, which he made afterwards to Denmark, Canute
attacked Norway, and expelling the just but unwarlike Olaus, kept
possession of his kingdom till the death of that prince. He had now by
his conquests and valor attained the utmost height of grandeur: having
leisure from wars and intrigues, he felt the unsatisfactory nature of
all human enjoyments; and equally weary of the glories and turmoils
of this life, he began to cast his view towards that future existence,
which it is so natural for the human mind, whether satiated by
prosperity or disgusted with adversity, to make the object of its
attention. Unfortunately, the spirit which prevailed in that age gave a
wrong direction to his devotion: instead of making compensation to those
whom he had injured by his former acts of violence, he employed himself
entirely in those exercises of piety which the monks represented as the
most meritorious. He built churches, he endowed monasteries, he enriched
the ecclesiastics, and he bestowed revenues for the support of chantries
at Assington and other places; where he appointed prayers to be said for
the souls of those who had there fallen in battle against him. He even
undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, where he resided a considerable time:
besides obtaining from the pope some privileges for the English school
erected there, he engaged all the princes, through whose dominions he
was obliged to pass, to desist from those heavy impositions and tolls
which they were accustomed to exact from the English pilgrims. By
this spirit of devotion no less than by his equitable and politic
administration, he gained, in a good measure, the affections of his
subjects.

Canute, the greatest and most powerful monarch of his time, sovereign
of Denmark and Norway, as well as of England, could not fail of meeting
with adulation from his courtiers; a tribute which is liberally paid
even to the meanest and weakest princes. Some of his flatterers breaking
out one day in admiration of his grandeur, exclaimed that every thing
was possible for him; upon which the monarch, it is said, ordered his
chair to be set on the sea-shore, while the tide was rising; and as the
waters approached, he commanded them to retire, and to obey the voice
of him who was lord of the ocean. He feigned to sit some time in
expectation of their submission; but when the sea still advanced towards
him, and began to wash him with its billows, he turned to his courtiers,
and remarked to them, that every creature in the universe was feeble and
impotent, and that power resided with one being alone, in whose hands
were all the elements of nature; who could say to the ocean, "Thus far
shalt thou go, and no farther;" and who could level with his nod the
most towering piles of human pride and ambition.

{1031.} The only memorable action which Canute performed after his
return from Rome, was an expedition against Malcolm, king of Scotland.
During the reign of Ethelred, a tax of a shilling a hide had been imposed
on all the lands of England. It was commonly called 'danegelt;' because
the revenue bar been employed either in buying peace with the Danes, or
in making preparations against the inroads of that hostile nation. That
monarch had required that the same tax should be paid by Cumberland,
which was held by the Scots; but Malcolm a warlike prince, told him,
that as he was always able to repulse the Danes by his own power, he
would neither submit to buy peace of his enemies, nor pay others for
resisting them. Ethelred, offended at this reply, which contained a
secret reproach on his own conduct, undertook an expedition against
Cumberland; but though he committed ravages upon the country, he could
never bring Malcolm to a temper more humble or submissive. Canute,
after his accession, summoned the Scottish king to acknowledge himself
a vassal for Cumberland to the crown of England; but Malcolm refused
compliance, on pretence that he owed homage to those princes only who
inherited that kingdom by right of blood. Canute was not of a temper to
bear this insult; and the king of Scotland soon found, that the sceptre
was in very different hands from those of the feeble and irresolute
Ethelred. Upon Canute's appearing on the frontiers with a formidable
army Malcolm agreed that his grandson and heir, Duncan, whom he put in
possession of Cumberland, should make the submissions required, and that
the heirs of Scotland should always acknowledge themselves vassals to
England for that province.[*] Canute passed four years in peace after
this enterprise, and he died at Shaftesbury;[**] leaving three sons,
Sweyn, Harold, and Hardicanute. Sweyn, whom he had by his first marriage
with Alfwen, daughter of the earl of Hampshire, was crowned in Norway:
Hardicanute, whom Emma had borne him, was in possession of Denmark:
Harold, who was of the same marriage with Sweyn, was at that time in
England.

     [* W. Malms, p. 74.]

     [** Chron Sax p. 154. W. Malms, p. 76]




HAROLD HAREFOOT

{1035.} Though Canute, in his treaty with Richard, duke of Normandy,
had stipulated that his children by Emma should succeed to the crown
of England, he had either considered himself as released from that
engagement by the death of Richard, or esteemed it dangerous to leave an
unsettled and newly-conquered kingdom in the hands of so young a prince
as Hardicanute: he therefore appointed, by his will, Harold successor
to the crown. This prince was besides present, to maintain his claim; he
was favored by all the Danes; and he got immediately possession of his
father's treasures, which might be equally useful, whether he found it
necessary to proceed by force or intrigue, in insuring his succession.
On the other hand, Hardicanute had the suffrages of the English, who,
on account of his being from among them of Queen Emma, regarded him as
their countryman; he was favored by the articles of treaty with the duke
of Normandy; and above all, his party was espoused by Earl Godwin, the
most powerful nobleman in the kingdom, especially in the province of
Wessex, the chief seat of the ancient English. Affairs were likely to
terminate in a civil war; when, by the interposition of the nobility
of both parties, a compromise was made; and it was agreed that Harold
should enjoy, together with London, all the provinces north of the
Thames, while the possession of the south should remain to Hardicanute:
and till that prince should appear and take possession of his dominions,
Emma fixed her residence at Winchester, and established her authority
over her son's share of the partition.

Meanwhile Robert, duke of Normandy, died in a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, and being succeeded by a son, yet a minor, the two English
princes, Alfred and Edward, who found no longer any countenance or
protection in that country, gladly embraced the opportunity of paying a
visit, with a numerous retinue, to their mother, Emma, who seemed to be
placed in a state of so much power and splendor at Winchester. But the
face of affairs soon wore a melancholy aspect. Earl Godwin had been
gained by the arts of Harold, who promised to espouse the daughter of
that nobleman; and while the treaty was yet a secret, these two tyrants
laid a plan for the destruction of the English princes. Alfred was
invited to London by Harold with many professions of friendship; but
when he had reached Guilford, he was set upon by Godwin's vassals, about
six hundred of his train were murdered in the most cruel manner, he
himself was taken prisoner, his eyes were put out, and he was conducted
to the monastery of Ely, where he died soon after.[*] Edward and Emma,
apprised of the fate which was awaiting them, fled beyond sea, the
former into Normandy, the latter into Flanders; while Harold, triumphing
in his bloody policy, took possession, without resistance, of all the
dominions assigned to his brother.

     [* H. Hunting, p. 365. Ypod. Neust. p. 434.
     Hoveden, p. 438. Chron. Mailr. p. 156. Higden, p. 277.
     Chron. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 39. Sim. Dunelm. p. 179. Abbas
     Rieval. p. 366, 374. Brompton, p. 935. Gul. Gemet. lib. vii.
     cap. 11. M. West. p. 209 Flor. Wigorn, p. 622. Alured.
     Beverl. p. 118.]

This is the only memorable action performed, during a reign of four
years, by this prince, who gave so bad a specimen of his character, and
whose bodily accomplishments alone are known to us by his appellation
of _Harefoot_, which he acquired from his agility in running
and walking. He died on the 14th of April, 1039, little regretted or
esteemed by his subjects, and left the succession open to his brother
Hardicanute.




HARDICANUTE

{1039.} Hardicanute, or Canute the hardy, that is, the robust, (for
he top is chiefly known by his bodily accomplishments,) though, by
remaining so long in Denmark, he had been deprived of his share in the
partition of the kingdom, had not abandoned his pretensions; and he had
determined, before Harold's death, to recover by arms what he had lost,
either by his own negligence or by the necessity of his affairs. On
pretence of paying a visit to the queen dowager in Flanders, ne had
assembled a fleet of sixty sail, and was preparing to make a descent on
England, when intelligence of his brother's death induced him to
sail immediately to London, where he was received in triumph, and
acknowledged king without opposition.

The first act of Hardicanute's government afforded his subjects a
bad prognostic of his future conduct. He was so enraged at Harold for
depriving him of his share of the kingdom, and for the cruel treatment
of his brother Alfred, that in an impotent desire of revenge against
the dead, he ordered his body to be dug up, and to be thrown into the
Thames; and when it was found by some fishermen, and buried in London,
he ordered it again to be dug up, and to be thrown again into the
river; but it was fished up a second time, and then interred with great
secrecy. Godwin, equally servile and insolent, submitted to be his
instrument in this unnatural and brutal action.

That nobleman knew that he was universally believed to have been an
accomplice in the barbarity exercised on Alfred, and that he was on that
account obnoxious to Hardicanute; and perhaps he hoped, by displaying
this rage against Harold's memory, to justify himself from having had
any participation in his counsels. But Prince Edward, being invited
over by the king, immediately on his appearance preferred an accusation
against Godwin for the murder of Alfred, and demanded justice for that
crime. Godwin, in order to appease the king; made him a magnificent
present of a galley with a gilt stern, rowed by fourscore men, who wore
each of them a gold bracelet on his arm, weighing sixteen ounces,
and were armed and clothed in the most sumptuous manner. Hardicanute,
pleased with the splendor of this spectacle, quickly forgot his
brother's murder; and on Godwin's swearing that he was innocent of the
crime, he allowed him to be acquitted.

Though Hardicanute before his accession had been called over by the
vows of the English, he soon lost the affections of the nation by his
misconduct; but nothing appeared more grievous to them than his renewing
the imposition of danegelt, and obliging the nation to pay a great sum
of money to the fleet which brought him from Denmark. The discontents
ran high in many places: in Worcester the populace rose, and put to
death two of the collectors. The king, enraged at this opposition, swore
vengeance against the city, and ordered three noblemen, Godwin, duke of
Wessex, Siward, duke of Northumberland, and Leofric, duke of Mercia, to
execute his menaces with the utmost rigor. They were obliged to set fire
to the city, and deliver it up to be plundered by their soldiers; but
they saved the lives of the inhabitants, whom they confined in a small
island of the Severn, called Beverey, till, by their intercession, they
were able to appease the king, and obtain the pardon of the supplicants.

This violent government was of short duration. Hardicanute died in two
years after his accession, at the nuptials of a Danish lord, which he
had honored with his presence. His usual habits of intemperance were so
well known, that, notwithstanding his robust constitution, his sudden
death gave as little surprise as it did sorrow to his subjects.




EDWARD THE CONFESSOR

{1041.} The English, on the death of Hardicanute, saw a favorable
opportunity for recovering their liberty, and for shaking off the Danish
yoke, under which they had so long labored. Sweyn, king of Norway, the
eldest son of Canute, was absent; and as the two last kings had died
without issue, none of that race presented himself, nor any whom the
Danes could support as successor to the throne. Prince Edward was
fortunately at court on his brother's demise; and though the descendants
of Edmond Ironside were the true heirs of the Saxon family, yet their
absence in so remote a country as Hungary, appeared a sufficient reason
for their exclusion to a people, like the English, so little accustomed
to observe a regular order in the succession of their monarchs. All
delays might be dangerous, and the present occasion must hastily be
embraced, while the Danes, without concert, without a leader, astonished
at the present incident, and anxious only for their personal safety,
durst not oppose the united voice of the nation.

But this concurrence of circumstances in favor of Edward might have
failed of its effect, had his succession been opposed by Godwin, whose
power, alliances, and abilities gave him a great influence at all times,
especially amidst those sudden opportunities which always attend
a revolution of government, and which, either seized or neglected,
commonly prove decisive. There were opposite reasons, which divided
men's hopes and fears with regard to Godwin's conduct. On the one hand,
the credit of that nobleman lay chiefly in Wessex, which was almost
entirely inhabited by English; it was therefore presumed that he would
second the wishes of that people in restoring the Saxon line, and in
humbling the Danes, from whom he, as well as they, had reason to dread,
as they had already felt, the most grievous oppressions. On the other
hand, there subsisted a declared animosity between Edward and Godwin,
on account of Alfred's murder; of which the latter had publicly been
accused by the prince, and which he might believe so deep an offence, as
could never, on account of any subsequent merits, be sincerely pardoned.
But their common friends here interposed; and representing the necessity
of their good correspondence, obliged them to lay aside all jealousy and
rancor, and concur in restoring liberty to their native country. Godwin
only stipulated that Edward, as a pledge of his sincere reconciliation,
should promise to marry his daughter Editha; and having fortified
himself by this alliance, he summoned a general council at Gillingham,
and prepared every measure for securing the succession to Edward. The
English were unanimous and zealous in their resolutions; the Danes were
divided and dispirited: any small opposition, which appeared in this
assembly, was browbeaten and suppressed; and Edward was crowned king,
with every Demonstration of duty and affection.

The triumph of the English upon this signal and decisive advantage, was
at first attended with some insult and violence against the Danes, but
the king, by the mildness of his character, soon reconciled the latter
to his administration, and the distinction between the two nations
gradually disappeared. The Danes were interspersed with the English
in most of the provinces; they spoke nearly the same language; they
differed little in their manners and laws; domestic dissensions in
Denmark prevented, for some years, any powerful invasion from thence
which might awaken past animosities; and as the Norman conquest, which
ensued soon after, reduced both nations to equal subjection, there is
no further mention in history of any difference between them. The joy,
however, of their present deliverance made such impression on the minds
of the English, that they instituted an annual festival for celebrating
that great event; and it was observed in some counties, even to the time
of Spelman.[*]

    [* Spelm. Glossary in verbo Hocday.]

The popularity which Edward enjoyed on his accession was not destroyed
by the first act of his administration, his resuming all the grants of
his immediate predecessors; an attempt which is commonly attended with
the most dangerous consequences. The poverty of the crown convinced the
nation that this act of violence was become absolutely necessary; and as
the loss fell chiefly on the Danes, who had obtained large grants
from the late kings, their countrymen, on account of their services
in subduing the kingdom, the English were rather pleased to see them
reduced to their primitive poverty. The king's severity also towards his
mother, the queen dowager, though exposed to some more censure, met not
with very, general disapprobation. He had hitherto lived on indifferent
terms with that princess; he accused her of neglecting him and his
brother during their adverse fortune;[**] he remarked that, as the
superior qualities of Canute, and his better treatment of her, had made
her entirely indifferent to the memory of Etheldred, she also gave
the preference to her children of the second bed, and always regarded
Hardicanute as her favorite.

     [** Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p.237]

The same reasons had probably made her unpopular in England; and though
her benefactions to the monks obtained her the favor of that order, the
nation was not, in general, displeased to see her stripped by Edward
of immense treasures which she had amassed. He confined her, during the
remainder of her life, in a monastery at Winchester; but carried his
rigor against her no farther. The stories of his accusing her of
a participation in her son Alfred's murder, and of a criminal
correspondence with the bishop of Winchester, and also of her justifying
herself by treading barefoot, without receiving any hurt, over nine
burning ploughshares, were the inventions of the monkish historians, and
were propagated and believed from the silly wonder of posterity.[*]

     [* Higden, p. 277.]

The English flattered themselves that, by the accession of Edward, they
were delivered forever from the dominion of foreigners; but they soon
found that this evil was not yet entirely removed. The king had been
educated in Normandy, and had contracted many intimacies with the
natives of that country, as well as an affection for their manners.[**]
The court of England was soon filled with Normans, who, being
distinguished both by the favor of Edward, and by a degree of
cultivation superior to that which was attained by the English in those
ages, soon rendered their language, customs, and laws fashionable in the
kingdom. The study of the French tongue became general among the people.
The courtiers affected to imitate that nation in their dress, equipage,
and entertainments; even the lawyers employed a foreign language
in their deeds and papers;[***] but above all, the church felt the
influence and dominion of those strangers: Ulf and William, two Normans,
who had formerly been the king's chaplains, were created bishops of
Dorchester and London. Robert, a Norman also, was promoted to the see of
Canterbury,[****] and always enjoyed the highest favor of his master,
of which his abilities rendered him not unworthy. And though the king's
prudence, or his want of authority, made him confer almost all the civil
and military employments on the natives, the ecclesiastical preferments
fell often to the share of the Normans; and as the latter possessed
Edward's confidence, they had secretly a great influence on public
affairs, and excited the jealousy of the English, particularly of Earl
Godwin.[*****]

     [** Ingulph. p. 62.]

     [*** Ingulph. p. 62.]

     [**** Chron. Sax. p. 161.]

     [***** W. Malms, p. 80.]

This powerful nobleman, besides being duke or earl of Wessex, had the
counties of Kent and Sussex annexed to his government. His eldest son,
Sweyn, possessed the same authority in the counties of Oxford, Berks,
Glocester, and Hereford; and Harold, his second son, was duke of East
Anglia, and at the same time governor of Essex. The great authority of
this family was supported by immense possessions and powerful alliances;
and the abilities, as well as ambition of Godwin himself, contributed to
render it still more dangerous. A prince of greater capacity and vigor
than Edward would have found it difficult to support the dignity of the
crown under such circumstances; and as the haughty temper of Godwin
made him often forget the respect due to his prince Edward's
animosity against him was grounded on personal as well as political
considerations, on recent as well as more ancient injuries. The king, in
pursuance of his engagements, had indeed married Editha, the daughter
of Godwin;[*] but this alliance became a fresh source of enmity between
them. Edward's hatred of the father was transferred to that princess-;
and Editha, though possessed of many amiable accomplishments, could
never acquire the confidence and affection of her husband. It is even
pretended, that, during the whole course of her life, he abstained from
all commerce of love with her; and such was the absurd admiration paid
to an inviolable chastity during those ages, that his conduct in this
particular is highly celebrated by the monkish historians, and greatly
contributed to his acquiring the title of saint and confessor[**]
{1048.}

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 157.]

     [** W. Malms, p. 80, Higden, p. 277. Abbae Rieval.
     p. 366, 377 M. West. p. 221. Chron. Thorn. Wykes, p. 21,
     Anglia Sacra, vol i. p, 241.]

The most popular pretence on which Godwin could ground his disaffection
to the king and his administration, was to complain of the influence
of the Normans in the government; and a declared opposition had thence
arisen between him and these favorites. It was not long before this
animosity broke out into action. Eustace, count of Boulogne, having paid
a visit to the king, passed by Dover in his return: one of his train,
being refused entrance to a lodging, which had been assigned him,
attempted to make his way by force, and in the contest he wounded the
master of the house. The inhabitants revenged this insult by the death
of the stranger; the count and his train took arms, and murdered the
wounded townsman; a tumult ensued; near twenty persons were killed on
each side; and Eustace, being overpowered by numbers, was obliged to
save his life by flight from the fury of the populace.

He hurried immediately to court, and complained of tne usage he had
met with: the king entered zealously into the quarrel, and was highly
displeased that a stranger of such distinction, whom he had invited
over to his court, should, without any just cause, as he believed, have
felt so sensibly the insolence and animosity of his people. He gave
orders to Godwin, in whose government Dover lay, to repair immediately
to the place, and to punish the inhabitants for tne crime; but Godwin,
who desired rather to encourage than express the popular discontents
against foreigners, refused obedience, and endeavored to throw the whole
blame of the riot on the count of Boulogne and his retinue.[*] Edward,
touched in so sensible a point, saw the necessity of exerting the
royal authority; and he threatened Godwin, if he persisted in his
disobedience, to make him feel the utmost effects of his resentment.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 163. W. Malms, p. 81. Higden, p.
     279]

The earl, perceiving a rupture to be unavoidable, and pleased to embark
in a cause where it was likely he should be supported by his countrymen,
made preparations for his own defence, or rather for an attack on
Edward. Under pretence of repressing some disorders on the Welsh
frontier, he secretly assembled a great army, and was approaching the
king, who resided, without any military force, and without suspicion, at
Glocester.[**]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 163. W. Mabus. p. 81.]

Edward applied for protection to Siward, duke of Northumberland, and
Leofric, duke of Mercia, two powerful noblemen, whose jealousy of
Godwin's greatness, as well as their duty to the crown, engaged them to
defend the king in this extremity. They hastened to him with such of
their followers as they could assemble on a sudden; and finding the
danger much greater than they had at first apprehended, they issued
orders for mustering all the forces within their respective governments,
and for marching them without delay to the defence of the king's
person and authority. Edward, meanwhile, endeavored to gain time by
negotiation; while Godwin, who thought the king entirely in his power,
and who was willing to save appearances, fell into the snare; and not
sensible that he ought to have no further reserve after he had proceeded
so far, he lost the favorable opportunity of rendering himself master of
the government.

The English, though they had no high idea of Edward's vigor and
capacity, bore him great affection on account of his humanity, justice,
and piety, as well as the long race of their native kings, from whom he
was descended; and they hastened from all quarters to defend him from
the present danger. Hia army was now so considerable, that he ventured
to take the field; and marching to London, he summoned a great council
to judge of the rebellion of Godwin and his sons. These noblemen
pretended at first that they were willing to stand their trial; but
having in vain endeavored to make their adherents persist in rebellion,
they offered to come to London, provided they might receive hostages for
their safety: this proposal being rejected, they were obliged to disband
the remains of their forces, and have recourse to flight. Baldwin, earl
of Flanders, gave protection to Godwin and his three sons, Gurth, Sweyn,
and Tosti, the latter of whom had married the daughter of that prince;
Harold and Leofwin, two others of his sons, took shelter in Ireland. The
estates of the father and sons were confiscated; their governments were
given to others; Queen Editha was confined in a monastery at Warewel;
and the greatness of this family, once so formidable, seemed now to be
totally supplanted and overthrown But Godwin had fixed his authority on
too firm a basis, and he was too strongly supported by alliances both
foreign and domestic, not to occasion further disturbances, and make new
efforts for his reëstablishment. {1052.} The earl of Flanders permitted
him to purchase and hire ships within his harbors; and Godwin, having
manned them with his followers, and with freebooters of all nations, put
to sea, and attempted to make a descent at Sandwich. The king, informed
of his preparations, had equipped a considerable fleet, much superior to
that of the enemy; and the earl hastily, before their appearance, made
his retreat into the Flemish harbors.[*] The English court, allured by
the present security, and destitute of all vigorous counsels, allowed
the seamen to disband, and the fleet to go to decay;[**] while Godwin,
expecting this event, kept his men in readiness for action. He put to
sea immediately, and sailed to the Isle of Wight, where he was joined by
Harold with a squadron, which that nobleman had collected in Ireland.
He was now master of the sea; and entering every harbor in the southern
coast, he seized all the ships,[***] and summoned his followers in those
counties, which had so long been subject to his government, to assist
him in procuring justice to himself his family, and his country, against
the tyranny of foreigners.

     [* Sim. Dunelm. p. 186.]

     [** Chron. Sax. p. 166]

     [*** Chron. Sax. p. 166.]

Reënforced by great numbers from all quarters, he entered the Thames;
and appearing before London, threw every thing into confusion. The king
alone seemed resolute to defend himself to the last extremity; but the
interposition of the English nobility, many of whom favored Godwin's
pretensions, made Edward hearken to terms of accommodation; and the
feigned humility of the earl, who disclaimed all intentions of offering
violence to his sovereign, and desired only to justify himself by a
fair and open trial, paved the way for his more easy admission. It was
stipulated that he should give hostages for his good behavior, and that
the primate and all the foreigners should be banished: by this treaty
the present danger of a civil war was obviated, but the authority of the
crown was considerably impaired, or rather entirely annihilated. Edward,
sensible that he had not power sufficient to secure Godwin's hostages in
England, sent them over to his kinsman, the young duke of Normandy.

Godwin's death, which happened soon after, while he was sitting at table
with the king, prevented him from further establishing the authority
which he had acquired, and from reducing Edward to still greater
subjection.[*] [5] He was succeeded in the government of Wessex, Sussex,
Kent, and Essex, and in the office of steward of the household, a place
of great power, by his son Harold, who was actuated by an ambition
equal to that of his father, and was superior to him in address, in
insinuation, and in virtue. By a modest and gentle demeanor, he acquired
the good will of Edward; at least, softened that hatred which the prince
had so long borne his family;[**] and gaining every day new partisans by
his bounty and affability, he proceeded, in a more silent, and therefore
a more dangerous manner, to the increase of his authority. The king,
who had not sufficient vigor directly to oppose his progress, knew of
no other expedient than that hazardous one of raising him a rival in the
family of Leofric, duke of Mercia, whose son Algar was invested with the
government of East Anglia, which, before the banishment of Harold, had
belonged to the latter nobleman. But this policy, of balancing opposite
parties, required a more steady hand to manage it than that of Edward,
and naturally produced faction and even civil broils, among nobles of
such mighty and independent authority.

     [* See note E, at the end of the volume.]

     [** Brompton, p. 918]

Algar was soon after expelled his government by the intrigues and power
of Harold; but being protected by Griffith, prince of Wales, who had
married his daughter, as well as by the power of his father Leofric, he
obliged Harold to submit to an accommodation, and was reinstated in the
government of East Anglia. This peace was not of long duration: Harold,
taking advantage of Leofric's death, which happened soon after, expelled
Algar anew, and banished him the kingdom: and though that nobleman
made a fresh irruption into East Anglia with an army of Norwegians, and
overran the country, his death soon freed Harold from the pretensions
of so dangerous a rival. Edward, the eldest son of Algar, was indeed
advanced to the government of Mercia; but the balance which the king
desired to establish between those potent families, was wholly lost, and
the influence of Harold greatly preponderated.

{1055.} The death of Siward, duke of Northumberland, made the way still
more open to the ambition of that nobleman. Siward, besides his other
merits, had acquired honor to England by his successful conduct in the
only foreign enterprise undertaken during the reign of Edward. Duncan,
king of Scotland, was a prince of a gentle disposition, but possessed
not the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and so
much infested by the intrigues and animosities of the great. Macbeth,
a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown, not content with
curbing the king's authority, carried still farther his pestilent
ambition: he put his sovereign to death; chased Malcolm Kenmore, his son
and heir, into England, and usurped the crown. Siward, whose daughter
was married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward's orders, the protection of
this distressed family: he marched an army into Scotland; and having
defeated and killed Macbeth in battle, he restored Malcolm to the throne
of his ancestors.[*]

     [* W. Malms, p. 79. Hoveden, p. 443. Chron. Mailr.
     p. 158 Buchanan, p, 115, edit. 1715].

This service, added to his former connections with the royal family of
Scotland, brought a great accession to the authority of Siward in the
north; but as he had lost his eldest son, Osberne, in the action with
Macbeth, it proved in the issue fatal to his family. His second son,
Walthoef, appeared, on his father's death, too young to be intrusted
with the government of Northumberland; and Harold's influence obtained
that dukedom for his own brother Tosti.

There are two circumstances related of Siward, which discover his high
sense of honor, and his martial disposition. When intelligence was
brought him of his son Osberne's death, he was inconsolable; till he
heard that the wound was received in the breast, and that he had
behaved with great gallantry in the action. When he found his own death
approaching, he ordered his servants to clothe him in a complete suit
of armor; and sitting erect on the couch, with a spear in his hand,
declared, that in that posture, the only one worthy of a warrior, he
would patiently await the fatal moment.

The king, now worn out with cares and infirmities, felt himself far
advanced in the decline of life; and having no issue himself, began to
think of appointing a successor to the kingdom. He sent a deputation to
Hungary, to invite over his nephew Edward, son of his elder brother, and
the only remaining heir of the Saxon line. That prince, whose succession
to the crown would have been easy and undisputed, came to England with
his children, Edgar, surnamed Atheling, Margaret, and Christina; but his
death, which happened a few days after his arrival, threw the king into
new difficulties. He saw that the great power and ambition of Harold had
tempted him to think of obtaining possession of the throne on the first
vacancy, and that Edgar, on account of his youth and inexperience, was
very unfit to oppose the pretensions of so popular and enterprising a
rival. The animosity which he had long borne to Earl Godwin, made him
averse to the succession of his son; and he could not, without extreme
reluctance, think of an increase of grandeur to a family which had risen
on the ruins of royal authority, and which, by the murder of Alfred, his
brother, had contributed so much to the weakening of the Saxon line. In
this uncertainty, he secretly cast his eye towards his kinsman, William
duke of Normandy, as the only person whose power, and reputation, and
capacity, could support any destination which he might make in his
favor, to the exclusion of Harold and his family.[*]

     [* Irgulph. p. 68]

This famous prince was natural son of Robert, duke of Normandy, by
Harlotta, daughter of a tanner in Falaise,[**] and was very early
established in that grandeur, from which his birth seemed to have set
him at so great a distance.

     [** Brompton, p. 910.]

While he was but nine years of age, his father had resolved to undertake
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; a fashionable act of devotion, which had
taken place of the pilgrimages to Rome, and which, as it was attended
with more difficulty and danger, and carried those religious adventurers
to the first sources of Christianity, appeared to them more meritorious.
Before his departure, he assembled the states of the duchy; and in
forming them of his design, he engaged them to swear allegiance to his
natural son, William, whom, as he had no legitimate issue, he intended,
in case he should die in the pilgrimage, to leave successor to his
dominions.[*] As he was a prudent prince, he could not but foresee
the great inconveniencies which must attend this journey, and this
settlement of his succession; arising from the perpetual turbulency
of the great, the claims of other branches of the ducal family and
the power of the French monarch; but all these considerations were
surmounted by the prevailing zeal for pilgrimages;[**] and probably the
more important they were, the more would Robert exult in sacrificing
them to what he imagined to be his religious duty.

     [* W. Malms, p. 95.]

     [** Ypod. Neust. p. 452.]

This prince, as he had apprehended, died in his pilgrimage; and the
minority of his son was attended with all those disorders which were
almost unavoidable in that situation. The licentious nobles, freed from
the awe of sovereign authority, broke out into personal animosities
against each other, and made the whole country a scene of war and
devastation.[***] Roger, count of Toni, and Alain, count of Brittany,
advanced claims to the dominion of the state; and Henry the First king
of France, thought the opportunity favorable for reducing the power of
a vassal, who had originally acquired his settlement in so violent
and invidious a manner, and who had long appeared formidable to his
sovereign.[****] The regency established by Robert encountered great
difficulties in supporting the government under his complication of
dangers; and the young prince, when he came to maturity, found himself
reduced to a very low condition. But the great qualities which he soon
displayed in the field and in the cabinet, gave encouragement to his
friends, and struck a terror into his enemies. He opposed himself on all
sides against his rebellious subjects, and against foreign invaders; and
by his valor and conduct prevailed in every action.

     [*** Malms, p. 95. Gul. Gemet. lib. vii. cap. 1]

     [**** W. Malms, p. 97.]

He obliged the French king to grant him peace on reasonable terms; he
expelled all pretenders to the sovereignty; and he reduced his turbulent
barons to pay submission to his authority, and to suspend their mutual
animosities. The natural severity of his temper appeared in a rigorous
administration of justice; and having found the happy effects of this
plan of government, without which the laws in those ages became totally
impotent, he regarded it as a fixed maxim, that an inflexible conduct
was the first duty of a sovereign.


The tranquillity which he had established in his dominions, had given
William leisure to pay a visit to the king of England, during the time
of Godwin's banishment; and he was received in a manner suitable to the
great reputation which he had acquired, to the relation by which he was
connected with Edward, and to the obligations which that prince owed to
his family.[*] On the return of Godwin, and the expulsion of the Norman
favorites, Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, had, before his departure,
persuaded Edward to think of adopting William as his successor;
a counsel which was favored by the king's aversion to Godwin, his
prepossessions for the Normans, and his esteem of the duke. That
prelate, therefore, received a commission to inform William of the
king's intentions in his favor; and he was the first person that opened
the mind of the prince to entertain those ambitious hopes.[**] But
Edward, irresolute and feeble in his purpose, finding that the English
would more easily acquiesce in the restoration of the Saxon line, and
in the mean time invited his brother's descendants from Hungary, with a
view of having them recognized heirs to the crown.

     [* Hoveden, p. 442. Ingulph. p, 65. Chron. Mailr.
     p. 157 Higden, p. 279.]

     [** Ingulph. p. 68. Gul. Gemet. lib. vii. cap. 31
     Order Vitalis. p. 492.]

The death of his nephew, and the inexperience and unpromising qualities
of young Edgar, made him resume his former intentions in favor of the
duke of Normandy; though his aversion to hazardous enterprises engaged
him to postpone the execution, and even to keep his purpose secret from
all his ministers.

Harold, meanwhile, proceeded after a more open manner, in increasing his
popularity, in establishing his power, and in preparing the way for
his advancement on the first vacancy; an event which, from the age and
infirmities of the king, appeared not very distant. But there was still
an obstacle, which it was requisite for him previously to overcome. Earl
Godwin, when restored to his power and fortune, had given hostages for
his good behavior; and among the rest one son and one grandson, whom
Edward, for greater security, as has been related, had consigned to the
custody of the duke of Normandy. Harold, though not aware of the duke's
being his competitor, was uneasy that such near relations should be
detained prisoners in a foreign country; and he was afraid lest William
should, in favor of Edgar, retain these pledges as a check on the
ambition of any other pretender. He represented, therefore, to the king
his unfeigned submission to royal authority, his steady duty to his
prince, and the little necessity there was, after such a uniform trial
of his obedience, to detain any longer those hostages, who had been
required on the first composing of civil discords. By these topics,
enforced by his great power, he extorted the king's consent to release
them; and in order to effect his purpose, he immediately proceeded, with
a numerous retinue, on his journey to Normandy. A tempest drove him
on the territory of Guy, count of Ponthieu, who, being informed of his
quality, immediately detained him prisoner, and demanded an exorbitant
sum for his ransom. Harold found means to convey intelligence of his
situation to the duke of Normandy; and represented that, while he was
proceeding to his court, in execution of a commission from the king
of England, he had met with this harsh treatment from the mercenary
disposition of the count of Ponthieu.

William was immediately sensible of the importance of the incident. He
foresaw that, if he could once gain Harold, either by favors or menaces,
his way to the throne of England would be open, and Edward would meet
with no further obstacle in executing the favorable intentions which he
had entertained in his behalf. He sent, therefore, a messenger to Guy,
in order to demand the liberty of his prisoner; and that nobleman, not
daring to refuse so great a prince, put Harold into the hands of the
Norman, who conducted him to Rouen. William received him with every
demonstration of respect and friendship; and after showing himself
disposed to comply with his desire in delivering up the hostages,
he look an opportunity of disclosing to him the great secret of his
pretensions to the crown of England, and of the will which Edward
intended to make in his favor. He desired the assistance of Harold in
perfecting that design; he made professions of the utmost gratitude in
return for so great an obligation; he promised that the present grandeur
of Harold's family, which supported itself with difficulty under the
jealousy and hatred of Edward, should receive new increase from a
successor, who would be so greatly beholden to him for his advancement
Harold was surprised at this declaration of the duke; but being sensible
that he should never recover his own liberty, much less that of his
brother and nephew, if he refused the demand, he feigned a compliance
with William, renounced all hopes of the crown for himself, and
professed his sincere intention of supporting the will of Edward, and
seconding the ptetensions of the duke of Normandy. William, to bind him
faster to his interests, besides offering him one of his daughters
in marriage, required him to take an oath that, he would fulfil his
promises; and in order to render the oath more obligatory, he employed
an artifice well suited to the ignorance and superstition of the age. He
secretly conveyed under the altar, on which Harold agreed to swear, the
relics of some of the most revered martyrs; and when Harold had taken
the oath, he showed him the relics, and admonished him to observe
religiously an engagement which had been ratified by so tremendous a
sanction.[*] The English nobleman was astonished; but dissembling his
concern, he renewed the same professions, and was dismissed with all the
marks of mutual confidence by the duke of Normandy.

     [* Wace, p. 459, 460. MS. penes Carte, p. 354. W.
     Malms, p. 93 H Hunting, p 366. Hoveden, p. 449. Brompton, p.
     947.]

When Harold found himself at liberty, his ambition suggested casuistry
sufficient to justify to him the violation of an oath, which had been
extorted from him by fear, and which, if fulfilled, might be attended
with the subjection of his native country to a foreign power. He
continued still to practise every art of popularity; to increase the
number of his partisans; to reconcile the minds of the English to the
idea of his succession; to revive their hatred of the Normans; and, by
an ostentation of his power and influence, to deter the timorous Edward
from executing his intended destination in favor of William. Fortune,
about this time, threw two incidents in his way, by which he was enabled
to acquire general favor, and to increase the character, which he had
already attained, of virtue and abilities.

The Welsh, though a less formidable enemy than the Danes, had long been
accustomed to infest the western borders; and after committing spoil
on the low countries, they usually made a hasty retreat into their
mountains, where they were sheltered from the pursuit of their enemies,
and were ready to seize the first favorable opportunity of renewing
their depredations. Griffith, the reigning prince, had greatly
distinguished himself in those incursions; and his name had become so
terrible to the English, that Harold found he could do nothing more
acceptable to the public, and more honorable for himself, than
the suppressing of so dangerous an enemy. He formed the plan of an
expedition against Wales; and having prepared some light-armed foot to
pursue the natives in their fastnesses, some cavalry to scour the open
country, and a squadron of ships to attack the sea-coast, he employed at
once all these forces against the Welsh, prosecuted his advantages with
vigor, made no intermission in his assaults, and at last reduced
the enemy to such distress, that, in order to prevent their total
destruction, they made a sacrifice of their prince, whose head they
cut off, and sent to Harold; and they were content to receive as their
sovereigns two Welsh noblemen appointed by Edward to rule over them. The
other incident was no less honorable to Harold.

Tosti, brother of this nobleman, who had been created duke of
Northumberland, being of a violent, tyrannical temper, had acted with
such cruelty and injustice, that the inhabitants rose in rebellion,
and chased him from his government. Morcar and Edwin, two brothers,
who possessed great power in those parts, and who were grandsons of
the great duke, Leofric, concurred in the insurrection; and the former,
being elected duke, advanced with an army to oppose Harold, who was
commissioned by the king to reduce and chastise the Northumbrians.
Before the armies came to action, Morcar, well acquainted with the
generous disposition of the English commander, endeavored to justify
his own conduct. He represented to Harold, that Tosti had behaved in a
manner unworthy of the station to which he was advanced, and no one, not
even a brother, could support such tyranny, without participating,
in some degree, of the infamy attending it; that the Northumbrians,
accustomed to a legal administration, and regarding it as their
birthright, were willing to submit to the king, but required a governor
who would pay regard to their rights and privileges; that they had been
taught by their ancestors, that death was preferable to servitude, and
had taken the field determined to perish, rather than suffer a renewal
of those indignities to which they had so long been exposed; and they
trusted that Harold, on reflection, would not defend in another that
violent conduct, from which he himself in his own government, had always
kept at so great a distance. Thus vigorous remonstrance was accompanied
with such a detail of facts, so well supported, that Harold found it
prudent to abandon his brother's cause; and returning to Edward, he
persuaded him to pardon the Northumbrians, and to confirm Morcar in the
government. He even married the sister of that nobleman;[*] and by his
interest procured Edwin, the younger brother, to be elected into the
government of Mercia. Tosti in a rage departed the kingdom, and took
shelter in Flanders with Earl Baldwin, his father-in-law.

By this marriage, Harold broke all measures with the duke of Normandy,
and William clearly perceived that he could no longer rely on the oaths
and promises which he had extorted from him. But the English nobleman
was now in such a situation, that he deemed it no longer necessary to
dissemble. He had, in his conduct towards the Northumbrians, given such
a specimen of his moderation as had gained him the affections of his
countrymen. He saw that almost all England was engaged in his interests;
while he himself possessed the government of Wessex, Morcar that of
Northumberland, and Edwin that of Mercia. He now openly aspired to the
succession; and insisted, that since it was necessary, by the confession
of all, to set aside the royal family, on account of the imbecility of
Edgar, the sole surviving heir, there was no one so capable of filling
the throne, as a nobleman of great power of mature age, of long
experience, of approved courage and abilities, who, being a native
of the kingdom, would effectually secure it against the dominion and
tyranny of foreigners. Edward, broken with age and infirmities, saw the
difficulties too great for him to encounter; and though his inveterate
prepossessions kept him from seconding the pretensions of Harold, he
took but feeble and irresolute steps for securing the succession to the
duke of Normandy.[**] [6] While he continued in this uncertainty, he was
surprised by sickness, which brought him to his grave on the fifth of
January, 1066, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and twenty-fifth of
his reign.

     [* Order. Vitalis, p. 492.]

     [** See note F, at the end of the volume.]

This prince, to whom the monks gave the title of Saint and Confessor,
was the last of the Saxon line that ruled in England. Though his reign
was peaceable and fortunate, he owed his prosperity less to his own
abilities than to the conjunctures of the times. The Danes, employed
in other enterprises, at tempted not those incursions which had been
so troublesome to all his predecessors, and fatal to some of them. The
facility of his disposition made him acquiesce under the government of
Godwin and his son Harold; and the abilities, as well as the power of
these noblemen, enabled them, while they were intrusted with authority,
to preserve domestic peace and tranquillity. The most commendable
circumstance of Edward's government was his attention to the
administration of justice, and his compiling, for that purpose, a body
of laws which he collected from the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and Alfred.
This compilation, though now lost, (for the laws that pass under
Edward's name were composed afterwards,[*]) was long the object of
affection to the English nation.

     [* Spelm. in verbo Belliva.]

Edward the Confessor was the first that touched for the king's evil: the
opinion of his sanctity procured belief to this cure among the people:
his successors regarded it as a part of their state and grandeur to
uphold the same opinion. It has been continued down to our time; and
the practice was first dropped by the present royal family, who observed
that it could no longer give amazement even to the populace, and was
attended with ridicule in the eyes of all men of understanding.




HAROLD

{1066.} Harold had so well prepared matters before the death of Edward,
that he immediately stepped into the vacant throne; and his accession
was attended with as little opposition and disturbance, as if he had
succeeded by the most undoubted hereditary title. The citizens of London
were his zealous partisans; the bishops and clergy had adopted his
cause; and all the powerful nobility, connected with him by alliance
or friendship, willingly seconded his pretensions. The title of Edgar
Atheling was scarcely mentioned, much less the claim of the duke of
Normandy; and Harold, assembling his partisans, received the crown from
their hands, without waiting for the free deliberation of the states, or
regularly submitting the question to their determination.[*] If any were
averse to this measure, they were obliged to conceal their sentiments;
and the new prince, taking a general silence for consent, and founding
his title on the supposed suffrages of the people, which appeared
unanimous, was, on the day immediately succeeding Edward's death,
crowned and anointed king, by Aldred, archbishop of York. The whole
nation seemed joyfully to acquiesce in his elevation.


The first symptoms of danger which the king discovered, came from
abroad, and from his own brother, Tosti, who had submitted to a
voluntary banishment in Flanders. Enraged at the successful ambition of
Harold, to which he himself had fallen a victim, he filled the court
of Baldwin with complaints of the injustice which he had suffered; he
engaged the interest of that family against his brother; he endeavored
to form intrigues with some of the discontented nobles in England he
sent his emissaries to Norway, in order to rouse to arms the freebooters
of that kingdom, and to excite their hopes of reaping advantage from the
unsettled state of affairs on the usurpation of the new king; and, that
he might render the combination more formidable, he made a journey to
Normandy, in expectation that the duke, who had married Matilda, another
daughter of Baldwin, would, in revenge of his own wrongs, as well
as those of Tosti, second, by his counsels and forces, the projected
invasion of England.[**]

     [* Gul. Pictavensis, p. 196. Ypod. Neust. p. 486.
     Order. Vitalis, p. 492. M. West. p. 221. W. Malms, p. 93.
     Ingulph. p. 68. Brompton, p. 957. Knyghton, p. 2339. H.
     Hunting, p. 210. Many of the historians say, that Harold was
     regularly elected by the states; some that Edward left him
     his successor by will]

     [** Order. Vitalis, p. 492.]

The duke of Normandy, when he first received intelligence of Harold's
intrigues and accessions, had been moved to the highest pitch of
indignation; but that he might give the better color to his pretensions,
he sent an embassy to England, upbraiding that prince with his breach
of faith, and summoning him to resign, immediately, possession of the
kingdom. Harold replied to the Norman ambassadors, that the oath, with
which he was reproached, had been extorted by the well-grounded fear of
violence, and could never, for that reason, be regarded as obligatory;
that he had had no commission, either from the late king or the states
of England, who alone could dispose of the crown, to make any tender of
the succession to the duke of Normandy; and if he, a private person, had
assumed so much authority, and had even voluntarily sworn to support the
duke's pretensions, the oath was unlawful, and It was his duty to seize
the first opportunity of breaking it: that he had obtained the crown by
the unanimous suffrages of the people, and should prove himself totally
unworthy of their favor, did he not strenuously maintain those national
liberties, with whose protection they had intrusted him; and that the
duke, if he made any attempt by force of arms, should experience the
power of a united nation, conducted by a prince who, sensible of the
obligations imposed on him by his royal dignity, was determined that the
same moment should put a period to his life and to his government.[*]

     [* W. Malms, p. 99. Higden, p. 28,5. M. West. p.
     222. De Gest Angl., incerto auctore, p. 331.]

This answer was no other than William expected; and he had previously
fixed his resolution of making an attempt upon England. Consulting only
his courage, his resentment, and his ambition, he overlooked all the
difficulties inseparable from an attack on a great kingdom by such
inferior force, and he saw only the circumstances which would facilitate
his enterprise. He considered that England, ever since the accession of
Canute, had enjoyed profound tranquillity, during a period of near fifty
years; and it would require time for its soldiers, enervated by long
peace, to learn discipline, and its generals experience. He knew that it
was entirely unprovided with fortified towns, by which it could prolong
the war; but must venture its whole fortune in one decisive action,
against a veteran enemy, who, being once master of the field, would be
in a condition to overrun the kingdom. He saw that Harold, though he had
given proofs of vigor and bravery, had newly mounted a throne which he
had acquired by faction, from which he had excluded a very ancient royal
family, and which was likely to totter under him by its own instability,
much more if shaken by any violent external impulse. And he hoped that
the very circumstance of his crossing the sea, quitting his own country,
and leaving himself no hopes of retreat, as it would astonish the
enemy by the boldness of the enterprise, would inspirit his soldiers by
despair, and rouse them to sustain the reputation of the Norman arms.


The Normans, as they had long been distinguished by valor among all the
European nations, had, at this time, attained to the highest pitch of
military glory. Besides acquiring by arms such a noble territory in
France, besides defending it against continual attempts of the French
monarch and all its neighbors, besides exerting many acts of vigor under
their present sovereign, they had, about this very time, revived their
ancient fame, by the most hazardous exploits, and the moat wonderful
successes, in the other extremity of Europe. A few Norman adventurers
in Italy had acquired such an ascendant, not only over the Italians
and Greeks, but the Germans and Saracens, that they expelled those
foreigners, procured to themselves ample establishments, and laid
the foundation of the opulent kingdom of Naples and Sicily.[*] These
enterprises of men, who were all of them vassals in Normandy many of
them banished for faction and rebellion, excited the ambition of the
haughty William, who disdained, after such examples of fortune and
valor, to be deterred from making an Attack on a neighboring country,
where he could be supported by the whole force of his principality.

     [* Gul. Gemet. lib. vii. cap. 30.]

The situation also of Europe inspired William with hopes that, besides
his brave Normans, he might employ against England the flower of the
military force which was dispersed in all the neighboring states.
France, Germany, and the Low Countries, by the progress of the feudal
institutions, were divided and subdivided into many principalities and
baronies; and the possessors, enjoying the civil jurisdiction within
them selves, as well as the right of arms, acted, in many respects, as
independent sovereigns, and maintained their propertied and privileges,
less by the authority of laws, than by their own force and valor. A
military spirit had universally diffused itself throughout Europe;
and the several leaders, whose minds were elevated by their princely
situation, greedily embraced the most hazardous enterprises; and being
accustomed to nothing, from their infancy, but recitals of the success
attending wars and battles, they were prompted by a natural ambition to
imitate those adventures which they heard so much celebrated, and which
were so much exaggerated by the credulity of the age. United, however
loosely, by their duty to one superior lord, and by their connections
with the great body of the community to which they belonged, they
desired to spread their fame each beyond his own district and in all
assemblies, whether instituted for civil deliberations for military
expeditions, or merely for show and entertainment, to outshine each
other by the reputation of strength and prowess. Hence their genius for
chivalry; hence their impatience of peace and tranquillity; and hence
their readiness to embark in any dangerous enterprise, how little soever
interested in its failure or success.

William, by his power, his courage, and his abilities, had long
maintained a preeminence among those haughty chieftains; and every one
who desired to signalize himself by his address in military exercises,
or his valor in action, had been ambitious of acquiring a reputation
in the court and in the armies of Normandy. Entertained with that
hospitality and courtesy which distinguished the age, they had formed
attachments with the prince, and greedily attended to the prospects
of the signal glory and elevation which he promised them in return for
their concurrence in an expedition against England. The more grandeur
there appeared in the attempt, the more it suited their romantic spirit;
the fame of the intended invasion was already diffused everywhere;
multitudes crowded to tender to the duke their service, with that of
their vassals and retainers;[*] and William found less difficulty in
completing his levies, than in choosing the most veteran forces, and in
rejecting the offers of those who were impatient to acquire fame under
so renowned a leader.

Besides these advantages, which William owed to his personal valor
and good conduct, he was indebted to fortune for procuring him some
assistance, and also for removing many obstacles which it was natural
for him to expect, in an undertaking in which all his neighbors were so
deeply interested. Conan, count of Brittany, was his mortal enemy:
in order to throw a damp upon the duke's enterprise, he chose this
conjuncture for reviving his claim to Normandy itself; and he required
that, in case of William's success against England, the possession of
that duchy should devolve to him.[**] But Conan died suddenly after
making this demand; and Hoel, his successor, instead of adopting the
malignity, or, more properly speaking, the prudence of his predecessor,
zealously seconded the duke's views, and sent his eldest son, Alain
Fergant, to serve under him with a body of five thousand Bretons. The
counts of Anjou and of Flanders encouraged their subjects to engage in
the expedition; and even the court of France, though it might justly
fear the aggrandizement of so dangerous a vassal, pursued not its
interests on this occasion with sufficient vigor and resolution.

     [* Gul Pict. p. 198.]

     [** Gul. Gemet. lib. vii. cap. 33]

Philip I., the reign ing monarch, was a minor; and William, having
communicated his project to the council, having desired assistance, and
offered to do homage, in case of his success, for the crown of England,
was indeed openly ordered to lay aside all thoughts of the enterprise;
but the earl of Flanders, his father-in-law, being at the head of the
regency, favored underhand his levies, and secretly encouraged the
adventurous nobility to enlist under the standard of the duke of
Normandy.

The emperor, Henry IV., besides openly giving all his vassals permission
to embark in this expedition, which so much engaged the attention of
Europe, promised his protection to the duchy of Normandy during the
absence of the prince, and thereby enabled him to employ his whole force
in the invasion of England.[*]

     [* Gul. Pict. p, 198.]

But the most important ally that William gained by his negotiations, was
the pope, who had a mighty influence over the ancient barons, no less
devout in their religious principles than valorous in their military
enterprises. The Roman pontiff, after an insensible progress during
several ages of darkness and ignorance, began now to lift his head
openly above all the princes of Europe; to assume the office of a
mediator, or even an arbiter, in the quarrels of the greatest monarchs;
to interpose in all secular affairs; and lo obtrude his dictates as
sovereign laws on his obsequious disciples, It was a sufficient motive
to Alexander II., the reigning pope, for embracing William's quarrel,
that he alone had made an appeal to his tribunal, and rendered him
umpire of the dispute between him and Harold; but there were other
advantages which that pontiff foresaw must result from the conquest of
England by the Norman arms. That kingdom, though at first converted
by Romish missionaries, though it had afterwards advanced some farther
steps towards subjection to Rome, maintained still a considerable
independence in its ecclesiastical administration; and forming a world
within itself, entirely separated from the rest of Europe, it had
hitherto proved inaccessible to those exorbitant claims which supported
the grandeur of the papacy. Alexander therefore hoped, that the French
and Norman barons, if successful in their enterprise, might import into
that country a more devoted reverence to the holy see, and bring the
English churches to a nearer conformity with those of the continent. He
declared immediately in favor of William's claim; pronounced Harold
a perjured usurper; denounced excommunication against him and his
adherents; and the more to encourage the duke of Normandy in his
enterprise, he sent him a consecrated banner, and a ring with one of St.
Peter's hairs in it.[*] Thus were all the ambition and violence of that
invasion covered over safely with the broad mantle of religion.

The greatest difficulty which William had to encounter in his
preparations, arose from his own subjects in Normandy. The states of the
duchy were assembled at Lislebonne; and supplies being demanded for the
intended enterprise, which promised so much glory and advantage to their
country, there appeared a reluctance in many members both to grant sums
so much beyond the common measure of taxes in that age, and to set a
precedent of performing their military service at a distance from their
own country. The duke, finding it dangerous to solicit them in a body,
conferred separately with the richest individuals in the province; and
beginning with those on whose affections he most relied, he gradually
engaged all of them to advance the sums demanded. The count of
Longueville seconded him in this negotiation; as did the count of
Mortaigne, Odo, bishop of Baieux, and especially William Fitz-Osborne,
count of Breteuil, and constable of the duchy. Every person, when he
himself was once engaged, endeavored to bring over others; and at last
the states themselves, after stipulating that this concession should be
no precedent, voted that they would assist their prince to the utmost in
his intended enterprise.[**]

William had now assembled a fleet of three thousand vessels, great and
small,[***] and had selected an army of sixty thousand men from among
those numerous supplies, which from every quarter solicited to be
received into his service.

     [* Baker, p. 22, edit. 1634.]

     [** Camden. Introd. ad Britann. p. 212, 2d edit.
     Gibs. Verstegan. p. 173]

     [*** Gul. Gemet. lib. vii. cap. 34.]

The camp bore a splendid, yet a martial appearance, from the discipline
of the men, the beauty and vigor of the horses, the lustre of the arms,
and the accoutrements of both; but above all, from the high names of
nobility who engaged under the banners of the duke of Normandy. The
most celebrated were Eustace, count of Boulogne, Aimeri de Thouars, Hugh
d'Estaples, William d'Evreux, Geoffrey de Rotrou, Roger de Beaumont,
William de Warenne, Roger de Montgomery, Hugh de Grantmesnil, Charles
Martel, and Geoffrey Giffard.[*] To these bold chieftains William held
up the spoils of England as the prize of their valor; and pointing to
the opposite shore, called to them that _there_ was the field,
on which they must erect trophies to their name, and fix their
establishments.

     [* Order. Vitalis, p. 501.]

While he was making these mighty preparations, the duke, that he might
increase the number of Harold's enemies, excited the inveterate rancor
of Tosti, and encouraged him, in concert with Harold Halfager, king of
Norway, to infest the coasts of England. Tosti, having collected about
sixty vessels in the ports of Flanders, put to sea; and after
committing some depredations on the south and east coasts, he sailed to
Northumberland, and was there joined by Halfager, who came over with a
great armament of three hundred sail. The combined fleets entered
the Humber, and disembarked the troops, who began to extend their
depredations on all sides; when Morcar, earl of Northumberland, and
Edwin, earl of Mercia, the king's brother-in-law, having hastily
collected some forces, ventured to give them battle. The action ended in
the defeat and flight of these two noblemen.

Harold, informed of this defeat, hastened with an army to the protection
of his people; and expressed the utmost ardor to show himself worthy of
the crown, which had been conferred upon him. This prince, though he
was not sensible of the full extent of his danger, from the great
combination against him, had employed every art of popularity to acquire
the affections of the public; and he gave so many proofs of an equitable
and prudent administration, that the English found no reason to repent
the choice which they had made of a sovereign. They flocked from all
quarters to join his standard; and as soon as he reached the enemy at
Standford, he found himself in condition to give them battle. The action
was bloody; but the victory was decisive on the side of Harold, and
ended in the total rout of the Norwegians, together with the death of
Tosti and Halfager. Even the Norwegian fleet fell into the hands
of Harold, who had the generosity to give prince Olave, the son of
Halfager, his liberty, and allow him to depart with twenty vessels.
But he had scarcely time to rejoice for this victory, when he received
itelligence that the duke of Normandy was landed with a great army in
the south of England.

The Norman fleet and army had been assembled, early in the summer, at
the mouth of the small river Dive, and all the troops had been instantly
embarked; but the winds proved long contrary, and detained them in
that harbor. The authority, however, of the duke, the good discipline
maintained among the seamen and soldiers, and the great care in
supplying them with provisions, had prevented any disorder, when at last
the wind became favorable, and enabled them to sail along the coast,
till they reached St. Valori. There were, however, several vessels lost
in this short passage; and as the wind again proved contrary, the
army began to imagine that Heaven had declared against them, and that,
notwithstanding the pope's benediction, they were destined to certain
destruction. These bold warriors, who despised real dangers, were
very subject to the dread of imaginary ones; and many of them began
to mutiny, some of them even to desert their colors, when the duke, in
order to support their drooping hopes, ordered a procession to be
made with the relics of St. Valori,[*] and prayers to be said for more
favorable weather.

     [* Higden, p. 285. Order Vitalis, p. 500. M.
     Paris, edit. Pai anno 1644, p. 2.]

The wind instantly changed; and as this incident happened on the eve of
the feast of St. Michael, the tutelar saint of Normandy, the
soldiers, fancying they saw the hand of Heaven in all these concurring
circumstances, set out with the greatest alacrity: they met with no
opposition on their passage. A great fleet which Harold had assembled,
and which had cruised all summer off the Isle of Wight, had been
dismissed on his receiving false intelligence that William, discouraged
by contrary winds and other accidents, had laid aside his preparations.
The Norman armament, proceeding in great order, arrived, without any
material loss, at Pevensey, in Sussex; and the army quietly disembarked.
The duke himself, as he leaped on shore, happened to stumble and fall;
but had the presence of mind, it is said, to turn the omen to his
advantage, by calling aloud that he had taken possession of the country.
And a soldier, running to a neighboring cottage, plucked some thatch,
which, as if giving him seizin of the kingdom, he presented to his
general. The joy and alacrity of William and his whole army was so
great, that they were nowise discouraged, evan when they heard of
Harold's great victory over the Norwegians. They seemed rather to wait
with impatience the arrival of the enemy.

The victory of Harold, though great and honorable, had proved in the
main prejudicial to his interests, and may be regarded as the immediate
cause of his ruin. He lost many of his bravest officers and soldiers
in the action, and he disgusted the rest by refusing to distribute the
Norwegian spoils among them; a conduct which was little agreeable to his
usual generosity of temper, but which his desire of sparing the people,
in the war that impended over him from the duke of Normandy, had
probably occasioned. He hastened by quick marches to reach this new
invader; but though he was reènforced at London and other places with
fresh troops, he found himself also weakened by the desertion of his old
soldiers, who from fatigue and discontent secretly withdrew from their
colors. His brother Gurth, a man of bravery and conduct, began to
entertain apprehensions of the event; and remonstrated with the king,
that it would be better policy to prolong the war; at least, to spare
his own person in the action. He urged to him that the desperate
situation of the duke of Normandy made it requisite for that prince to
bring matters to a speedy decision, and put his whole fortune on the
issue of a battle; but that the king of England, in his own country,
beloved by his subjects, provided with every supply, had more certain
and less dangerous means of insuring to himself the victory; that the
Norman troops, elated on the one hand with the highest hopes, and seeing
on the other no resource in case of a discomfiture, would fight to
the last extremity; and being the flower of all the warriors of the
continent, must be regarded as formidable to the English; that if their
first fire, which is always the most dangerous, were allowed to languish
for want of action, if they were harassed with small skirmishes,
straitened in provisions, and fatigued with the bad weather and deep
roads during the winter season which was approaching, they must fall an
easy and a bloodless prey to their enemy; that if a general action were
delayed, the English, sensible of the imminent danger to which their
properties, as well as liberties, were exposed from those rapacious
invaders, would hasten from all quarters to his assistance, and would
render his army invincible; that, at least, if he thought it necessary
to hazard a battle, he ought not to expose his own person out reserve,
in case of disastrous accidents, some resource to the liberty and
independence of the kingdom; and that having once been so unfortunate
as to be constrained to swear, and that upon the holy relics, to support
the pretensions of the duke of Normandy, it were better that the command
of the army should be intrusted to another, who, not being bound by
those sacred ties, might give the soldiers more assured hopes of a
prosperous issue to the combat.

Harold was deaf to all these remonstrances. Elated with his past
prosperity, as well as stimulated by his native courage, he resolved to
give battle in person; and for that purpose he drew near to the Normans,
who had removed their camp and fleet to Hastings, where they fixed their
quarters. He was so confident of success, that he sent a message to
the duke, promising him a sum of money if he would depart the kingdom
without effusion of blood; but his offer was rejected with disdain; and
William, not to be behind with his enemy in vaunting, sent him a message
by some monks, requiring him either to resign the kingdom, or to hold
it of him in fealty, or to submit their cause to the arbitration of the
pope, or to fight him in single combat. Harold replied, that the God of
battles would soon be the arbiter of all their differences.[*]

The English and Normans now prepared themselves for this important
decision; but the aspect of things, on the night before the battle, was
very different in the two camps. The English spent the time in riot, and
jollity, and disorder; the Normans, in silence, and in prayer, and in
the other functions of their religion.[**]

     [* Higden, p. 286]

     [** W. Malms, p. 101. De Gest Angl. p. 332]

On the morning, the duke called together the most considerable of
his commanders, and made them a speech suitable to the occasion. He
represented to them, that the event which they and he had long wished
for, was approaching; the whole fortune of the war now depended on their
swords, and would be decided in a single action; that never army had
greater motives for exerting a vigorous courage, whether they
considered the prize which would attend their victory, or the inevitable
destruction which must ensue upon their discomfiture; that if their
martial and veteran bands could once break those raw soldiers, who had
rashly dared to approach them, they conquered a kingdom at one blow,
and were justly entitled to all its possessions as the reward of their
prosperous valor; that, on the contrary, if they remitted in the least
their wonted prowess, an enraged enemy hung upon their rear, the sea
met them in their retreat, and an ignominious death was the certain
punishment of their imprudent cowardice; that by collecting so numerous
and brave a host, he had insured every human means of conquest; and
the commander of the enemy, by his criminal conduct, had given him just
cause to hope for the favor of the Almighty, in whose hands alone
lay the event of wars and battles; and that a perjured usurper,
anathematized by the sovereign pontiff, and conscious of his own breach
of faith would be struck with terror on their appearance, and would
prognosticate to himself that fate which--his multiplied crimes had so
justly merited.[*] The duke next divided his army into three lines: the
first, led by Montgomery, consisted of archers and light-armed infantry;
the second, commanded by Martel, was composed of his bravest battalions,
heavy-armed, and ranged in close order; his cavalry, at whose head he
placed himself, formed the third line, and were so disposed, that they
stretched beyond the infantry, and flanked each wing of the army.[**] He
ordered the signal of battle to be given; and the whole army, moving
at once, and singing the hymn or song of Roland, the famous peer of
Charlemagne,[***] advanced, in order and with alacrity, towards the
enemy.

     [* H. Hunting, p. 368. Brompton, p. 959. Gul.
     Pict. p. 201.]

     [** Gul. Pict. p. 201. Order. Vitalis, p. 501.]

     [*** W. Malms, p. 101. Higden, p. 286. M. West. p.
     223. Dr Cange's Glossary, in verbo Cantilena Rolandi.]

Harold had seized the advantage of a rising ground, and having likewise
drawn some trenches to secure his flanks, he resolved to stand upon the
defensive, and to avoid all action with the cavalry, in which he was
inferior. The Kentish men were placed in the van; a post which they had
always claimed as their due: the Londoners guarded the standard; and
the king himself, accompanied by his two valiant brothers, Gurth and
Leofwin, dismounting, placed himself at the head of his infantry, and
expressed his resolution to conquer or to perish in the action. The
first attack of the Normans was desperate, but was received with equal
valor by the English; and after a furious combat, which remained long
undecided, the former, overcome by the difficulty of the ground, and
hard pressed by the enemy, began first to relax their vigor, then to
retreat; and confusion was spreading among the ranks; when William, who
found himself on the brink of destruction, hastened, with a select band,
to the relief of his dismayed forces. His presence restored the action;
the English were obliged to retire with loss; and the duke, ordering his
second line to advance, renewed the attack with fresh forces and with
redoubled courage. Finding that the enemy aided by the advantage of
ground, and animated by the example of their prince, still made a
vigorous resistance, he tried a stratagem which was very delicate in
its management, but which seemed advisable in his desperate situation,
where, if he gained not a decisive victory, he was totally undone: he
commanded his troops to make a hasty retreat, and to allure the enemy
from their ground by the appearance of flight. The artifice succeeded
against those unexperienced soldiers, who, heated by the action, and
sanguine in their hopes, precipitately followed the Normans into the
plain. William gave orders, that at once the infantry should face about
upon their pursuers, and the cavalry make an assault upon their wings,
and both of them pursue the advantage, which the surprise and terror
of the enemy must give them in that critical and decisive moment. The
English were repulsed with great slaughter, and driven back to the
hill; where, being rallied by the bravery of Harold, they were able,
notwithstanding their loss, to maintain the post and continue the
combat. The duke tried the same stratagem a second time with the same
success; but even after this double advantage, he still found a great
body of the English, who, maintaining themselves in firm array, seemed
determined to dispute the victory to the last extremity. He ordered his
heavy-armed infantry to make an assault upon them; while his archers,
placed behind, should gall the enemy, who were exposed by the situation
of the ground, and who were intent in defending themselves against the
swords and spears of the assailants. By this disposition he at last
prevailed: Harold was slain by an arrow, while he was combating with
great bravery at the head of his men; his two brothers shared the same
fate; and the English, discouraged by the fall of those princes, gave
ground on all sides, and were pursued with great slaughter by the
victorious Normans. A few troops, however, of the vanquished had still
the courage to turn upon their pursuers; and attacking them in deep and
miry ground, obtained some revenge for the slaughter and dishonor of the
day. But the appearance of the duke obliged them to seek their safety by
flight; and darkness saved them from any further pursuit by the enemy.

Thus was gained by William, duke of Normandy, the great and decisive
victory of Hastings, after a battle which was fought from morning till
sunset, and which seemed worthy, by the heroic valor displayed by both
armies and by both commanders, to decide the fate of a mighty kingdom.
William had three horses killed under him; and there fell near fifteen
thousand men on the side of the Normans: the loss was still more
considerable on that of the vanquished, besides the death of the king
and his two brothers. The dead body of Harold was brought to William,
and was generously restored without ransom to his mother. The Norman
army left not the field of battle without giving thanks to Heaven,
in the most solemn manner, for their victory: and the prince, having
refreshed his troops, prepared to push to the utmost his advantage
against the divided, dismayed, and discomfited English.




APPENDIX I.


THE ANGLO-SAXON GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.

The government of the Germans, and that of all the northern nations who
established themselves on the ruins of Rome, was always extremely free;
and those fierce people, accustomed to independence and inured to arms,
were more guided by persuasion than authority in the submission which
they paid to their princes. The military despotism which had taken place
in the Roman empire, and which, previously to the irruption of those
conquerors, had sunk the genius of men, and destroyed every noble
principle of science and virtue, was unable to resist the vigorous
efforts of a free people; and Europe, as from a new epoch, rekindled her
ancient spirit, and shook off the base servitude to arbitrary will and
authority under which she had so long labored. The free constitutions
then established, however impaired by the encroachments of succeeding
princes, still preserve an air of independence and legal administration,
which distinguished the European nations; and if that part of the globe
maintain sentiments of liberty, honor, equity, and valor superior to the
rest of mankind, it owes these advantages chiefly to the seeds implanted
by those generous barbarians.

The Saxons who subdued Britain, as they enjoyed great liberty in their
own country, obstinately retained that invaluable possession in their
new settlement; and they imported into this island the same principles
of independence which they had inherited from their ancestors. The
chieftains, (for such they were, more properly than kings or princes,)
who commanded them in those military expeditions, still possessed a very
limited authority; and as the Saxons exterminated, rather than subdued,
the ancient inhabitants, they were indeed transplanted into a new
territory, but preserved unaltered all their civil and military
institutions. The language was pure Saxon; even the names of places,
which often remain while the tongue entirely changes, were almost all
affixed by the conquerors; the manners and customs were wholly German;
and the same picture of a fierce and bold liberty, which is drawn by
the masterly pencil of Tacitus, will suit those founders of the English
government. The king, so far from being invested with arbitrary power,
was only considered as the first among the citizens; his authority
depended more on his personal qualities than on his station; he was even
so far on a level with the people, that a stated price was fixed for
his head, and a legal fine was levied upon his murderer, which, though
proportionate to his station, and superior to that paid for the life of
a subject, was a sensible mark of his subordination to the community.

It is easy to imagine that an independent people, so little restrained
by law and cultivated by science, would not be very strict in
maintaining a regular succession of their princes. Though they paid
great regard to the royal family, and ascribed to it an undisputed
superiority, they either had no rule, or none that was steadily
observed, in filling the vacant throne; and present convenience, in that
emergency, was more attended to than general principles. We are
not, however, to suppose that the crown was considered as altogether
elective; and that a regular plan was traced by the constitution for
supplying, by the suffrages of the people, every vacancy made by the
demise of the first magistrate. If any king left a son of an age and
capacity fit for government, the young prince naturally stepped into the
throne: if he was a minor, his uncle, or the next prince of the blood,
was promoted to the government, and left the sceptre to his posterity:
any sovereign, by taking previous measures with the leading men, had it
greatly in his power to appoint his successor: all these changes, and
indeed the ordinary administration of government, required the express
concurrence, or at least the tacit acquiescence of the people; but
possession, however obtained, was extremely apt to secure their
obedience, and the idea of any right, which was once excluded was
but feeble and imperfect. This is so much the case in all barbarous
monarchies, and occurs so often in the history of the Anglo-Saxons, that
we cannot consistently entertain any other notion of their government.
The idea of an hereditary succession in authority is so natural to
men, and is so much fortified by the usual rule in transmitting private
possessions, that it must retain a great influence on every society,
which does not exclude it by the refinements of a republican
constitution. But as there is a material difference between gov-*
*ernment and private possessions, and every man is not as much qualified
for exercising the one as for enjoying the other, a people who are not
sensible of the general advantages attending a fixed rule are apt to
make great leaps in the succession, and frequently to pass over the
person, who, had he possessed the requisite years and abilities, would
have been thought entitled to the sovereignty. Thus these monarchies are
not, strictly speaking, either elective or hereditary; and though
the destination of a prince may often be followed in appointing his
successor, they can as little be regarded as wholly testamentary. The
states by their suffrage may sometimes establish a sovereign; but they
more frequently recognize the person whom they find established: a few
great men take the lead; the people, overawed and influenced, acquiesce
in the government; and the reigning prince, provided he be of the royal
family, passes undisputedly for the legal sovereign.

It is confessed that our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon history and
antiquities is too imperfect to afford us means of determining with
certainty all the prerogatives of the crown and privileges of the
people, or of giving an exact delineation of that government. It is
probable, also, that the constitution might be somewhat different hi the
different kingdoms of the Heptarchy, and that it changed considerably
during the course of six centuries, which elapsed from the first
invasion of the Saxons till the Norman conquest.[*] But most of these
differences and changes, with their causes and effects, are unknown to
us; it only appears that, at all times and in all the kingdoms, there
was a national council, called a wittenagemot, or assembly of the wise
men, (for that is the import of the term,) whose consent was requisite
for enacting laws, and for ratifying the chief acts of public
administration.

     [* We know of one change, not inconsiderable, in
     the Saxon constitution. The Saxon Annals (p. 49) inform us,
     that it was, in early times, the prerogative of the king to
     name the dukes, earls, aldermen, and sheriffs of the
     counties. Asser, a contemporary writer, informs us that
     Alfred deposed all the ignorant aldermen, and appointed men
     of more capacity in their place: yet the laws of Edward the
     Confessor (sect. 35) say expressly that the heretoghs, or
     dukes, and the sheriffs were chosen by the freeholders in
     the folk-mote, a county court, which was assembled once a
     year, and where all the freeholders swore allegiance to the
     king.]

The preambles to all the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, Alfred, Edward the
Elder, Athelstan, Edmond, Edgar, Ethelred, and Edward the Confessor;
even those to the laws of Canute though a kind of conqueror, put this
matter beyond controversy, and carry proofs every where of a limited
and legal government. But who were the constituent members of this
wittenagemot has not been determined with certainty by antiquaries. It
is agreed that the bishops and abbots[*] were an essential part; and
it is also evident, from the tenor of those ancient laws, that the
wittenagemot enacted statutes which regulated the ecclesiastical as well
as civil government, and that those dangerous principles, by which the
church is totally severed from the state, were hitherto unknown to the
Anglo-Saxons.[**] It also appears that the aldermen or governors of
counties, who, after the Danish times, were often called earls,[***] [7]
were admitted into this council, and gave their consent to the public
statutes. But besides the prelates and aldermen, there is also mention
of the wites, or wisemen, as a component part of the wittenagemot; but
who these were is not so clearly ascertained by the laws or the history
of that period. The matter would probably be of difficult discussion,
even were it examined impartially; but as our modern parties have chosen
to divide on this point, the question has been disputed with the greater
obstinacy, and the arguments on both sides have become, on that account,
the more captious and deceitful. Our monarchical faction maintain that
these "wites," or "sapientes," were the judges, or men learned in
the law: the popular faction assert them to be representatives of the
boroughs, or what we now call the commons.

The expressions employed by all ancient historians in mentioning the
wittenagemot, seem to contradict the latter supposition. The members
are almost always called the "principes, satrapæ, optimates, magnates,
proceres;" terms which seem to suppose an aristocracy, and to exclude
the commons. The boroughs also, from the low state of commerce, were so
small and so poor, and the inhabitants lived in such dependence on the
great men,[****] that it seems nowise probable they would be admitted as
a part of the national councils. The commons are well known to have had
no share in the governments established by the Franks, Burgundians,
and other northern nations; and we may conclude that the Saxons, who
remained longer barbarous and uncivilized than those tribes, would
never think of conferring such an extraordinary privilege on trade and
industry.

     [* Sometimes abbesses were admitted; at least they
     often sign the king's charters or grants. Spelm. Gloss. in
     verbo Parliamentum.]

     [** Wilkins, passim.]

     [*** See note G, at the end of the volume.]

     [**** Brady's Treatise of English Boroughs, p. 3,
     4, 5, etc.]

The military profession alone was honorable among all those conquerors:
the warriors subsisted by their possessions in land: they became
considerable by their influence over their vassals, retainers, tenants,
and slaves: and it requires strong proof to convince us that they would
admit any of a rank so much inferior as the burgesses, to share with
them in the legislative authority. Tacitus indeed affirms that, among
the ancient Germans, the consent of all the members of the community
was required in every important deliberation; but he speaks not of
representatives; and this ancient practice, mentioned by the Roman
historian, could only have place in small tribes, where every citizen
might without inconvenience be assembled upon any extraordinary
emergency. After principalities became extensive, after the difference
of property had formed distinctions more important than those which
arose from personal strength and valor, we may conclude that the
national assemblies must have been more limited in their number, and
composed only of the more considerable citizens.

But, though we must exclude the burgesses or commons from the Saxon
wittenagemot, there is some necessity for supposing that this assembly
consisted of other members than the prelates, abbots, alderman, and
the judges or privy council. For as all these, excepting some of the
ecclesiastics,[*] were anciently appointed by the king, had there been
no other legislative authority, the royal power had been, in a great
measure, absolute, contrary to the tenor of all the historians, and to
the practice of all the northern nations.

     [* There is some reason to think that the bishops
     were sometimes chosen by the wittenagemot, and confirmed by
     the king. Eddius, cap. 2. The abbots in the monasteries of
     royal foundation were anciently named by the king; though
     Edgar gave the monks the election, and only reserved to
     himself the ratification. This destination was afterwards
     frequently violated, and the abbots as well as bishops were
     afterwards all appointed by the king, as we learn from
     Ingulf, a writer contemporary to the conquest.]

We may, therefore, conclude that the more considerable proprietors of
land were, without any election, constituent members of the national
assembly: there is reason to think that forty hides, or between four
and five thousand acres, was the estate requisite for entitling the
possessors to this honorable privilege. We find a passage in an ancient
author,[*] by which it appears that a person of very noble birth, even
one allied to the crown, was not esteemed a "princeps" (the term usually
employed by ancient historians, when the wittenagemot is mentioned) till
he had acquired a fortune of that amount. Nor need we imagine that the
public council would become disorderly or confused by admitting so great
a multitude. The landed property of England was probably in few hands
during the Saxon times, at least, during the latter part of that period;
and, as men had hardly any ambition to attend those public councils,
there was no danger of the assembly's becoming too numerous for the
despatch of the little business which was brought before them.

It is certain that, whatever we may determine concerning the constituent
members of the wittenagemot, in whom, with the king, the legislature
resided, the Anglo-Saxon government, in the period preceding the Norman
conquest, was becoming extremely aristocratical: the royal authority
was very limited; the people, even if admitted to that assembly, were
of little or no weight and consideration. We have hints given us in
historians of the great power and riches of particular noblemen; and
it could not but happen, after the abolition of the Heptarchy, when
the king lived at a distance from the provinces, that those great
proprietors, who resided on their estates, would much augment their
authority over their vassals and retainers, and over all the inhabitants
of the neighborhood. Hence the immeasurable power assumed by Harold,
Godwin, Leofric, Siward, Morcar, Edwin, Edric, and Alfric who controlled
the authority of the kings, and rendered themselves quite necessary in
the government. The two latter, though detested by the people on account
of their joining a foreign enemy, still preserved their power and
influence; and we may therefore conclude that their authority was
founded, not on popularity, but on family rights and possessions. There
is one Athelstan, mentioned in the reign of the king of that name, who
is called alderman of all England, and is said to be half king; though
the monarch himself was a prince of valor and abilities.[**] And we find
that in the later Saxon times, and in these alone, the great offices
went from father to sun, and became in a manner hereditary in the
families.[A]

     [* Hist. Eliensis, lib. ii. cap 40]
     [** Hist. Rames. Beet. iii. p. 387]

The circumstances attending the invasions of the Danes would also serve
much to increase the power of the principal nobility. Those freebooters
made unexpected inroads on all quarters, and there was a necessity that
each county should resist them by its own force, and under the conduct
of its own nobility and its own magistrates. For the same reason that a
general war, managed by the united efforts of the whole state commonly
augments the power of the crown, those private wars and inroads turned
to the advantage of the aldermen and nobles.

Among that military and turbulent people, so averse to commerce and the
arts, and so little inured to industry, justice was commonly very ill
administered, and great oppression and violence seem to have prevailed.
These disorders would be increased by the exorbitant power of the
aristocracy; and would, in their turn, contribute to increase it. Men,
not daring to rely on the guardianship of the laws, were obliged to
devote themselves to the service of some chieftain, whose orders they
followed even to the disturbance of the government, or the injury of
their fellow-citizens, and who afforded them, in return, protection from
any insult or injustice by strangers. Hence we find, by the extracts
which Dr. Brady has given us from Domesday, that almost all the
inhabitants, even of towns, had placed themselves under the clientship
of some particular nobleman, whose patronage they purchased by annual
payments, and whom they were obliged to consider as their sovereign,
more than the king himself, or even the legislature.[B]

     [A] Roger Hoveden, giving the reason why William the Conqueror
     made Cospatric earl of Northumberland, says, "Nam ex materno
     sanguine attinebat ad eum honor illius comitatus. Erat enim
     ex matre Algitha, filia Uthredi comitis." See also Sim.
     Dunelm. p. 205. We see in those instances the same tendency
     towards rendering offices hereditary which took place,
     during a more early period, on the continent; and which had
     already produced there its full effect.

     [B] Brady's Treatise of Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, etc. The case
     was the same with the freemen in the country. See Pref. to
     his Hist. p. 8, 9, 10, etc.

A client, though a freeman, was supposed so much to belong to his
patron, that his murderer was obliged by law to pay a fine to the
latter, as a compensation for his loss; in like manner as he paid a fine
to the master for the murder of his slave.[A] Men who were of a more
considerable rank, but not powerful enough each to support himself by
his own independent authority, entered into formal confederacies with
each other, and composed a kind of separate community, which rendered
itself formidable to all aggressors. Dr. Hickes has preserved a curious
Saxon bond of this kind, which he calls a "sodalitium," and which
contains many particulars characteristical of the manners and customs
of the times.[B] All the associates are there said to be gentlemen of
Cambridgeshire; and they swear before the holy relics to observe their
confederacy, and to be faithful to each other: they promise to bury
any of the associates who dies, in whatever place he had appointed; to
contribute to his funeral charges, and to attend to his interment; and
whoever is wanting in this last duty, binds himself to pay a measure
of honey. When any of the associates is in danger, and calls for the
assistance of his fellows, they promise, besides flying to his succor,
to give information to the sheriff; and if he be negligent in protecting
the person exposed to danger, they engage to levy a fine of one pound
upon him; if the president of the society himself be wanting in this
particular, he binds himself to pay one pound; unless he has the
reasonable excuse of sickness, or of duty to his superior. When any
of the associates is murdered, they are to exact eight pounds from the
murderer; and if he refuse to pay it, they are to prosecute him for the
sum at their joint expense. If any of the associates, who happens to
be poor, kill a man, the society are to contribute, by a certain
proportion, to pay his fine,--a mark apiece, if the fine be seven
hundred shillings; less if the person killed be a clown or ceorle;
the half of that sum, again, if he be a Welshman But where any of the
associates kill a man wilfully and without provocation, he must himself
pay the fine. If any of the associates kill any of his fellows in a like
criminal manner, besides paying the usual fine to the relations of
the deceased, he must pay eight pounds to the society, or renounce the
benefit of it; in which case they bind themselves, under the penalty of
one pound, never to eat or drink with him, except in the presence of
the king, bishop, or alderman. There are other regulations to protect
themselves and their servants from all injuries, to revenge such as are
committed, and to prevent their giving abusive language to each other;
and the fine which they engage to pay for this last offence is a measure
of honey.

     [A] LL. Edw. Conf. Sect. viii. apad Ingulph.

     [B] Dissert. Epist. p. 21.

It is not to be doubted but a confederacy of this kind must have been a
great source of friendship and attachment, when men lived in perpetual
danger from enemies, robbers, and oppressors, and received protection
chiefly from their personal valor, and from the assistance of their
friends and patrons. As animosities were then more violent, connections
were also more intimate, whether voluntary or derived from blood: the
most remote degree of propinquity was regarded; an indelible memory of
benefits was preserved; severe vengeance was taken for injuries, both
from a point of honor and as the best means of future security; and the
civil union being weak, many private engagements were contracted, in
order to supply its place, and to procure men that safety, which the
laws and their own innocence were not alone able to insure to them.

On the whole, notwithstanding the seeming liberty, or rather
licentiousness, of the Anglo-Saxons, the great body, even of the free
citizens, in those ages, really enjoyed much less true liberty than
where the execution of the laws is the most severe, and where subjects
are reduced to the strictest subordination and dependence on the
civil magistrate. The reason is derived from the excess itself of that
liberty. Men must guard themselves at any price against insults and
injuries; and where they receive not protection from the laws and
magistrates, they will seek it by submission to superiors, and by
herding in some private confederacy, which acts under the direction of a
powerful leader. And thus all anarchy is the immediate cause of tyranny,
if not over the state, at least over many of the individuals.

Security was provided by the Saxon laws to all members of the
wittenagemot, both in going and returning, "except they were notorious
thieves and robbers."

The German Saxons, as the other nations of that continent, were divided
into three ranks of men--the noble, the free, and the slaves.[A] This
distinction they brought over with them into Britain.

     [A] Nithard. Hist. lib. iv.

The nobles were called thanes; and were of two kinds, the king's thanes
and lesser thanes. The latter seem to have been dependent on the former,
and to have received lands, for which they paid rent, services, or
attendance in peace and war.[*] We know of no title which raised any one
to the rank of thane, except noble birth and the possession of land. The
former was always much regarded by all the German nations, even in their
most barbarous state; and as the Saxon nobility, having little credit,
could scarcely burden their estates with much debt, and as the commons
had little trade or industry by which they could accumulate riches'
these two ranks of men, even though they were not separated by positive
laws, might remain long distinct, and the noble families continue many
ages in opulence and splendor. There were no middle ranks of men, that
could gradually mix with their superiors, and insensibly procure to
themselves honor and distinction. If, by any extraordinary accident,
a mean person acquired riches, a circumstance so singular made him
be known and remarked; he became the object of envy, as well as of
indignation, to all the nobles; he would have great difficulty to defend
what he had acquired; and he would find it impossible to protect
himself from oppression, except by courting the patronage of some great
chieftain, and paying a large price for his safety.


There are two statutes among the Saxon laws, which seem calculated to
confound those different ranks of men; that of Athelstan, by which a
merchant, who had made three long sea voyages on his own account, was
entitled to the quality of thane;[**] and that of the same prince, by
which a ceorle, or husbandman, who had been able to purchase five hides
of land, and had a chapel, a kitchen, a hall, and a bell, was raised to
the same distinction.[***] But the opportunities were so few, by which a
merchant or ceorle could thus exalt himself above his rank, that the law
could never overcome the reigning prejudices; the distinction between
noble and base blood would still be indelible; and the well-born thanes
would entertain the highest contempt for those legal and factitious
ones. Though we are not informed of any of these circumstances by
ancient historians, they are so much founded on the nature of things,
that we may admit them as a necessary and infallible consequence of the
situation of the kingdom during those ages.

     [* Spel. Feus and Tenures, p. 40.]

     [** Wilkins, p. 71.]

     [*** Selden, Titles of Honor, p, 515. Wilkins, p.
     7.]

The cities appear by domesday-book to have been, at the conquest little
better than villages.[*] York itself, though it was always the second,
at least the third[**] city in England, and was the capital of a great
province, which never was thoroughly united with the rest, contained
then but one thousand four hundred and eighteen families.[***] Malmsbury
tells us,[****] that the great distinction between the Anglo-Saxon
nobility and the French and Norman, was, that the latter built
magnificent and stately castles; whereas the former consumed their
immense fortunes in riot and hospitality, and in mean houses. We may
thence infer, that the arts in general were much less advanced in
England than in France: a greater number of idle servants and retainers
lived about the great families; and as these, even in France, were
powerful enough to disturb the execution of the laws, we may judge of
the authority acquired by the aristocracy in England. When Earl Godwin
besieged the Confessor in London, he summoned from all parts his
huscarles, or houseceorles and retainers, and thereby constrained his
sovereign to accept of the conditions which he was pleased to impose
upon him.


The lower rank of freemen were denominated ceorles among the
Anglo-Saxons; and where they were industrious they were chiefly employed
in husbandry; whence a ceorle and a husbandman became in a manner
synonymous terms. They cultivated the farms of the nobility, or thanes,
for which they paid rent; and they seem to have been removable at
pleasure; for there is little mention of leases among the Anglo-Saxons:
the pride of the nobility, together with the general ignorance of
writing, must have rendered those contracts very rare, and must have
kept the husbandmen in a dependent condition. The rents of farms were
then chiefly paid in kind.[*****]

     [* Winchester, being the capital of the West Saxon
     monarchy, was anciently a considerable city. Gul. Pict. p.
     210.]

     [** Norwich contained 738 houses; Exeter, 315;
     Ipswich, 538; Northampton, 60; Hertford, 146; Canterbury,
     262; Bath, 61; Southampton 84; Warwick, 225. See Brady, of
     Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. These are the most
     considerable he mentions. The account of these is extracted
     from domesday-book.]

     [*** Brady's Treatise of Boroughs, p. 10. There
     were six wards, besides the archbishop's palace; and five of
     these wards contained the number of families here mentioned,
     which at the rate of five persons to a family, makes about
     seven thousand souls. The sixth ward was laid waste.]

     [**** Page 102. See also de Gest. Angl. p. 333.]

     [***** LL. Inae, sect. 70. These laws fixed the
     rents for a hide; but it is difficult to convert it into
     modern measures.]

But the most numerous rank by far in the community to have been the
slaves or villains, who were the property of their lords, and were
consequently incapable themselves of possessing any property. Dr. Brady
assures us, from a survey of domesday-book,[*] that, in all the counties
of England, the far greater part of the land was occupied by them, and
that the husbandmen, and still more the socmen, who were tenants that,
could not be removed at pleasure, were very few in comparison. This was
not the case with the German nations, as far as we can collect from the
account given us by Tacitus. The perpetual wars in the Heptarchy, and
the depredations of the Danes, seem to have been the cause of this great
alteration with the Anglo-Saxons. Prisoners taken in battle, or carried
off in the frequent inroads, were then reduced to slavery, and became,
by right of war,[**] entirely at the disposal of their lords.
Great property in the nobles, especially if joined to an irregular
administration of justice, naturally favors the power of the
aristocracy; but still more so, if the practice of slavery be admitted,
and has become very common. The nobility not only possess the influence
which always attends riches, but also the power which the laws give them
over their slaves and villains. It then becomes difficult, and almost
impossible, for a private man to remain altogether free and independent.

There were two kinds of slaves among the Anglo-Saxons; household slaves,
after the manner of the ancients, and praedial, or rustic, after the
manner of the Germans.[***] These latter resembled the serfs, which are
at present to be met with in Poland, Denmark, and some parts of Germany.
The power of a master over his slaves was not unlimited among the
Anglo-Saxons, as it was among their ancestors. If a man beat out his
slave's eye or teeth, the slave recovered his liberty:[****] if he
killed him, he paid a fine to the king, provided the slave died within a
day after the wound or blow; otherwise it passed unpunished.[*****] The
selling of themselves or children to slavery, was always the
practice among the German nations,[******] and was continued by the
Anglo-Saxons.[*******]

     [* General Preface to his Hist. p. 7, 8, 9, etc.]

     [** LL. Edg. sect. 14, apud Spel. Concil. vol. i.
     p. 471.]

     [*** Spel. Gloss, in verbo Servus.]

     [**** LL. Ælf. sect. 20]

     [***** LL. Ælf. sect. 17.]

     [****** Tacit, de Mor. Germ]

     [******* LL. Inse, sect. 11. LL. Ælf. sect. 12.]

The great lords and abbots among the Anglo-Saxons possessed a criminal
jurisdiction within their territories, and could punish without appeal
any thieves or robbers whom they caught there.[*] This institution must
have had a very contrary effect to that which was intended, and must
have procured robbers a sure protection on the lands of such noblemen as
did not sincerely mean to discourage crimes and violence.

But though the general strain of the Anglo-Saxon government seems to
have become aristocratical, there were still considerable remains of
the ancient democracy, which were not indeed sufficient to protect the
lowest of the people, without the patronage of some great lord, but
might give security, and even some degree of dignity, to the gentry or
inferior nobility. The administration of justice, in particular, by
the courts of the decennary, the hundred, and the county, was well
calculated to defend general liberty, and to restrain the power of the
nobles. In the county courts, or shiremotes, all the freeholders were
assembled twice a year, and received appeals from the inferior courts.
They there decided all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil; and the
bishop, together with the alderman or earl, presided over them.[**]
The affair was determined in a summary manner, without much pleading
formality, or delay, by a majority of voices; and the bishop and
alderman had no further authority than to keep order among the
freeholders, and interpose with their opinion.[***] Where justice was
denied during three sessions by the hundred, and then by the county
court, there lay an appeal to the king's court;[****] but this was not
practised on slight occasions. The aldermen received a third of the
fines levied in those courts;[*****] and as most of the punishments
were then pecuniary, this perquisite formed a considerable part of the
profits belonging to his office. The two thirds also, which went to the
king, made no contemptible part of the public revenue. Any free-holder
was fined who absented himself thrice from these courts.[******]

     [* Higden, lib, i. cap. 50. LL. Edw. Conf. sect.
     26. Spel. Concil vol. i. p. 415. Gloss, in verbo. Haligemot
     ot Infangenthefe.]

     [** LL. Edg. sect. 5. Wilkins, p. 78. LL. Cantit.
     sect. 17. Wilkins. p. 136.]

     [*** Hickes, Dissert, epist. p. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
     8.]

     [**** LL. Edg. sect. 2. Wilkins, p. 77. LL. Canut.
     sect. 18, apud Wilkins, p. 136.]

     [***** LL. Edw. Conf. sect. 31].

     [****** LL. Ethelst. sect, 20.]

As the extreme ignorance of the age made deeds and writings very rare,
the county or hundred court was the place where the most remarkable
civil transactions were finished, in order to preserve the memory of
them, and prevent all future disputes. Here testaments were promulgated,
slaves manumitted, bargains of sale concluded, and sometimes, for
greater security, the most considerable of these deeds were inserted
in the blank leaves of the parish Bible, which thus became a kind of
register, too sacred to be falsified. It was not unusual to add to the
deed an imprecation on all such as should be guilty of that crime.[*]

     [* Hickes, Dissert, epist.]

Among a people who lived in so simple a manner as the Anglo-Saxons, the
judicial power is always of greater importance than the legislative.
There were few or no taxes imposed by the states; there were few
statutes enacted; and the nation was less governed by laws, than by
customs, which admitted a great latitude of interpretation. Though it
should, therefore, be allowed, that the wittenagemot was altogether
composed of the principal nobility, the county courts, where all the
freeholders were admitted, and which regulated all the daily
occurrences of life, formed a wide basis for the government, and were no
contemptible checks on the aristocracy. But there is another power still
more important than either the judicial or legislative; to wit, the
power of injuring or serving by immediate force and violence, for which
it is difficult to obtain redress in courts of justice. In all extensive
governments, where the execution of the laws is feeble, this power
naturally falls into the hands of the principal nobility; and the
degree of it which prevails, cannot be determined so much by the public
statutes, as by small incidents in history, by particular customs, and
sometimes by the reason and nature of things. The highlands of Scotland
have long been entitled by law to every privilege of British subjects;
but it was not till very lately that the common people could in fact
enjoy these privileges.

The powers of all the members of the Anglo-Saxon government are disputed
among historians and antiquaries: the extreme obscurity of the subject,
even though faction had never entered into the question, would naturally
have begotten those controversies. But the great influence of the lords
over their slaves and tenants, the clientship of the burghers, the total
want of a middling rank of men, the extent of the mon archy, the loose
execution of the laws, the continued disorders and convulsions of the
state,--all these circumstances evince that the Anglo-Saxon government
became at last extremely aristocratical; and the events, during the
period immediately preceding the conquest, confirm this inference or
conjecture.

Both the punishments inflicted by the Anglo-Saxon courts of judicature,
and the methods of proof employed in all causes, appear somewhat
singular, and are very different from those which prevail at present
among all civilized nations.

We must conceive that the ancient Germans were little removed from the
original state of nature: the social confederacy among them was more
martial than civil: they had chiefly in view the means of attack or
defence against public enemies, not those of protection against their
fellow-citizens: their possessions were so slender and so equal, that
they were not exposed to great danger; and the natural bravery of the
people made every man trust to himself and to his particular friends for
his defence or vengeance. This defect in the political union drew much
closer the knot of particular confederacies: an insult upon any man was
regarded by all his relations and associates as a common injury: they
were bound by honor, as well as by a sense of common interest,
to revenge his death, or any violence which he had suffered: they
retaliated on the aggressor by like acts of violence; and if he were
protected, as was natural and usual, by his own clan, the quarrel was
spread still wider, and bred endless disorders in the nation.

The Frisians, a tribe of the Germans, had never advanced beyond this
wild and imperfect state of society; and the right of private revenge
still remained among them unlimited and uncontrolled.[*] But the other
German nations, in the age of Tacitus, had made one step farther towards
completing the political or civil union. Though it still continued to be
an indispensable point of honor for every clan to revenge the death or
injury of a member, the magistrate had acquired a right of interposing
in the quarrel, and of accommodating the difference. He obliged the
person maimed or injured, and the relations of one killed, to accept of
a present from the aggressor and his relations,[**] as a compensation
for the injury.[***] and to drop all farther prosecution of revenge.
That the accommodation of one quarrel might not be the source of more,
this present was fixed and certain according to the rank of the person
killed or injured, and was commonly paid in cattle, the chief property
of those rude and uncultivated nations.

     [* LL. Fris. tit. 2, apud Lindenbrog. p. 491.]

     [** LL. Æthelb, sect. 23. LL. Ælf. sect. 27]

     [*** Called by the Saxons "maegbota."]

A present of this kind gratified the revenge of the injured family by
the loss which the aggressor suffered: it satisfied then pride by the
submission which it expressed: it diminished their regret for the loss
or injury of a kinsman by their acquisition of new property; and thus
general peace was for a moment restored to the society.[*]

But when the German nations had been settled some time in the provinces
of the Roman empire, they made still another step towards a more
cultivated life, and their criminal justice gradually improved and
refined itself. The magistrate, whose office it was to guard public
peace, and to suppress private animosities, conceived himself to be
injured by every injury done to any of his people; and besides the
compensation to the person who suffered, or to his family, he thought
himself entitled to exact a fine, called the "fridwit," as an atonement
for the breach of peace, and as a reward for the pains which he had
taken in accommodating the quarrel. When this idea, which is so natural,
was once suggested, it was willingly received both by sovereign and
people. The numerous fines which were levied, augmented the revenue of
the king; and the people were sensible that he would be more vigilant
in interposing with his good offices, when he reaped such immediate
advantage from them; and that injuries would be less frequent, when,
besides compensation to the person injured, that they were exposed to
this additional penalty.[**]

     [* Tacit, de Mor. Germ. The author says, that the
     price of the composition was fixed; which must have been by
     the laws, and the interposition of the magistrates.]

     [** Besides paying money to the relations of the
     deceased, and to the king, the murderer was also obliged to
     pay the master of a slave of vassal a sum, as a compensation
     for his loss. This was called the "manbote" See Spel. Gloss,
     in verb. Fredum, Manbot.]

This short abstract contains the history of the criminal jurisprudence
of the northern nations for several centuries. The state of England in
this particular, during the period of the Anglo-Saxons, may be judged of
by the collection of ancient laws, published by Lambard and Wilkins.
The chief purport of these laws is not to prevent or entirely suppress
private quarrels, which the legislators knew to be impossible, but only
to regulate and moderate them. The laws of Alfred enjoin, that if
any one know that his enemy or aggressor, after doing him an injury,
resolves to keep within his own house _and his own lands_[*] he
shall not fight him, till he require compensation for the injury. If
he be strong enough to besiege him in his house, he may do it for seven
days without attacking him; and if the aggressor be a willing, during
that time, to surrender himself and his arms, his, adversary may detain
him thirty days, but is afterwards obliged to restore him safe to his
kindred, "and be content with the compensation." If the criminal fly to
the temple, that sanctuary must not be violated. Where the assailant has
not force sufficient to besiege the criminal in his house, he must
apply to the alderman for assistance; and if the alderman refuse aid
the assailant must have recourse to the king; and he is not allowed
to assault the house till after this supreme magistrate has refused
assistance. If any one meet with his enemy, and be ignorant that he was
resolved to keep within his own lands he must, before he attack him,
require him to surrender him self prisoner, and deliver up his arms; in
which case he may detain him thirty days; but if he refuse to deliver
up his arms it is then lawful to fight him. A slave may fight in his
master's quarrel: a father may fight in his son's with any one except
with his master.[**]


It was enacted by King Ina, that no man should take revenge for an
injury till he had first demanded compensation, and had been refused
it.[***]

     [* The addition of these last words is Italics
     appears necessary from what follows in the same law.]

     [** IL. Ælf. sect. 28. Wilkins, p. 43.]

     [*** LL. Inae sect. 9]

King Edmond, in the preamble to his laws, mentions the general misery
occasioned by the multiplicity of private feuds and battles; and he
establishes several expedients for remedying this grievance. He ordains
that if any one commit murder, he may, with the assistance of his
kindred, pay within a twelvemonth the fine of his crime; and if they
abandon him, he shall alone sustain the deadly feud or quarrel with the
kindred of the murdered person: his own kindred are free from the feud,
but on condition that they neither converse with the criminal, nor
supply him with meat or other necessaries: if any of them, after
renouncing him, receive him into their house, or give him assistance,
they are finable to the king, and are involved in the feud. If the
kindred of the murdered person take revenge on any but the criminal
himself, after he is abandoned by his kindred, all their property is
forfeited, and they are declared to be enemies to the king and all his
friends.[*] It is also ordained that the fine for murder shall never be
remitted by the king,[**] and that no criminal shall be killed who flies
to the church, or any of the king's towns;[***] and the king himself
declares, that his house shall give no protection to murderers, till
they have satisfied the church by their penance, and the kindred of
the deceased by making compensation.[****] The method appointed for
transacting this composition is found in the same law.[*****]


These attempts of Edmond, to contract and diminish the feuds, were
contrary to the ancient spirit of the northern barbarians, and were a
step towards a more regular administration of justice. By the salic law,
any man-night, by a public declaration, exempt himself from his family
quarrels: but then he was considered by the law as no longer belonging
to the family; and he was deprived of all right of succession, as the
punishment of his cowardice.[******]


The price of the king's head, or his weregild, as it was then called,
was by law thirty thousand thrimsas, near thirteen hundred pounds of
present money. The price of the prince's head was fifteen thousand
thrimsas; that of a bishop's or alderman's, eight thousand; a sheriff's,
four thousand; a thane's or clergyman's, two thousand; a ceorle's,
two hundred and sixty-six. These prices were fixed by the laws of the
Angles. By the Mercian law, the price of a ceorle's head was two hundred
shillings; that of a thane's, six times as much; that of a king's, six
times more.[*******] By the laws of Kent, the price of the archbishop's
head was higher than that of the king's.[********] Such respect was then
paid to the ecclesiastics! It must be understood, that where a
person was unable or unwilling to pay the fine, he was put out of the
protection of law, and the kindred of the deceased had liberty to punish
him as they thought proper.


Some antiquaries [*********] have thought that these compensations were
only given for manslaughter, not for wilful murder.

     [* LL. Edm. sect,. 1. Wilkins, p. 73.]

     [** LL. Edm. sect. 3.]

     [*** LL. Edm. sect. 2.]

     [**** LL. Edm. sect. 4.]

     [***** LL. Edm. sect. 7,]

     [****** Tit. 63.]

     [******* Wilkins, p. 71, 72]

     [******** LL. Elthredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110.]

     [********* Tyrrel, Introduct. vol. i. p. 120. Carte vol i.
     p. 366.]

But no such distinction appears in the laws; and it is contradicted
by the practice of all the other barbarous nations,[*] by that of the
ancient Germans,[**] and by that curious monument above mentioned of
Saxon antiquity, preserved by Hickes. There is indeed a law of Alfred's
which makes wilful murder capital;[***] but this seems only to have been
an attempt of that great legislator towards establishing a better police
in the kingdom, and it probably remained without execution. By the laws
of the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be
redeemed by a fine.[****]


The price of all kinds of wounds was likewise fixed by the Saxon laws: a
wound of an inch long under the hair was paid with one shilling: one of
a like size in the face, two shillings; thirty shillings for the loss of
an ear; and so forth.[*****] There seems not to have been any difference
made, according to the dignity of the person. By the laws of Ethelbert,
any one who committed adultery with his neighbor's wife was obliged to
pay him a fine, and buy him another wife.[******]


These institutions are not peculiar to the ancient Germans. They seem
to be the necessary progress of criminal jurisprudence among every free
people, where the will of the sovereign is not implicitly obeyed. We
find them among the ancient Greeks during the time of the Trojan war.
Compositions for murder are mentioned in Nestor's speech to Achilles, in
the ninth Iliad, and are called [Greek: apoinai]. The Irish, who never
had any connections with the German nations, adopted the same practice
till very lately; and the price of a man's head was called among them
his "eric;" as we learn from Sir John Davis. The same custom seems also
to have prevailed among the Jews.[*******]


Theft and robbery were frequent among the Anglo-Saxons In order to
impose some check upon these crimes, it was ordained, that no man
should sell or buy any thing above twenty pence value, except in open
market;[********] and every bargain of sale must be executed before
witnesses.[*********]

     [1: Lindenbrogius, passim.]

     [2: Tacit, de Mor. Germ.]

     [3: LL. Ælf. sect. 12. Wilkins, p. 29. It is
     probable that by wilful murder Alfred means a treacherous
     murder, committed by one who has no declared feud with
     another.]

     [4: LL. Ælf. sect. 4. Wilkins, p. 35.]

     [5: LL. Ælf. sect. 40. See also LL. Ethelb. sect.
     34, etc.]

     [6: LL Ethelb. sect. 32.]

     [7: Exod. cap. xxi. 29, 30.]

     [8: LL. Æthelst. sect. 12.]

     [9: LL. Æthelst. sect. 10, 12. LL.Edg. apud
     Wilkins, p. 80. LL Ethelredi, sect 4, apud Wilkins, p. 103.
     Hloth. et Eadm. sect 16. LL. Canute. sect. 22.]

Gangs of robbers much disturbed the peace of the country, and the law
determined that a tribe of banditti, consisting of between seven and
thirty-five persons, was to be called a "turma," or troop; any greater
company was denominated an army.[*] The punishments for this crime were
various, but none of them capital.[**] If any man could track his stolen
cattle into another's ground, the latter was obliged to show the tracks
out of it, or pay their value.[***]


Rebellion, to whatever excess it was carried, was not capital but
might be redeemed by a sum of money.[****] The legislators, knowing
it impossible to prevent all disorders, only imposed a higher fine
on breaches of the peace committed in the king's court, or before an
alderman or bishop. An ale-house, too, seems to have been considered as
a privileged place; and any quarrels that arose there were more severely
punished than else where.[*****]

    [* LL. Inæ, sect. 12.]

    [* LL. Inæ, sect. 37.]

    [* LL. Æthelst. sect. 2. Wilkins, p. 63.]

    [* LL. Ethelredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110. LL. Ælf. sect. 4.
     Wilkins, p35.]

    [* LL. Hloth. et Eadm. sect. 12, 13. LL. Ethelr. apud
     Wilkins, P 117.]

If the manner of punishing crimes among the Anglo-Saxons appear
singular, the proofs were not less so; and were also the natural result
of the situation of those people. Whatever we may imagine concerning the
usual truth and sincerity of men who live in a rude and barbarous state,
there is much more falsehood, and even perjury, among them, than among
civilized nations: virtue, which is nothing but a more enlarged and more
cultivated reason, never flourishes to any degree, nor is founded
on steady principles of honor, except where a good education becomes
general; and where men are taught the pernicious consequences of vice,
treachery, and immorality. Even superstition, though more prevalent
among ignorant nations, is but a poor supply for the defects in
knowledge and education; our European ancestors, who employed every
moment the expedient of swearing on extraordinary crosses and relics,
were less honorable in all engagements than their posterity, who from
experience have omitted those ineffectual securities. This general
proneness to assumed perjury was much increased by the usual want of
discernment in judges, who could not discuss an intricate evidence, and
were obliged to number, not weigh, the testimony of the witnesses,[*]
Hence the ridiculous practice of obliging men to bring compurgators,
who, as they did not pretend to know any thing of the fact, expressed
upon oath, that they believed the person spoke true; and these
compurgators were in some cases multiplied to the number of three
hundred.[**] The practice also of single combat was employed by most
nations on the continent as a remedy against false evidence;[***] and
though it was frequently dropped, from the opposition of the clergy, it
was continually revived, from experience of the falsehood attending
the testimony of witnesses.[****] It became at last a species of
jurisprudence: the cases were determined by law, in which the
party might challenge his adversary or the witnesses, or the judge
himself;[*****] and though these customs were absurd, they were rather
an improvement on the methods of trial which had formerly been practised
among those barbarous nations, and which still prevailed among the
Anglo-Saxons.

     [* Præf. Nicol. ad Wilkins, p. 11.]

     [** LL. Burgund. cap. 45. LL. Lomb. lib. ii. tit.
     55, cap. 34.]

     [*** LL. Longob. lib. ii. tit. 55, cap. 23, apud
     Lindenbrog. p. 661]

     [**** See Desfontaines and Beaumanoir.]

     [***** Sometimes the laws fixed easy general rules
     for weighing the credibility of witnesses. A man whose life
     was estimated at a hundred and twenty shillings,
     counterbalanced six ceorles, each of whose lives was only
     valued at twenty shillings, and his oath was esteemed
     equivalent to that of all the six. See Wilkins, p. 72.]

When any controversy about a fact became too intricate for those
ignorant judges to unravel, they had recourse to what they called the
judgment of God, that is, to fortune. Their methods of consulting this
oracle were various. One of them was the decision by the cross: it was
practised in this manner: When a person was accused of any crime,
he first cleared himself by oath, and he was attended by eleven
compurgators. He next took two pieces of wood, one of which was marked
with the sign of the cross, and wrapping both up in wool, he placed them
on the altar, or on some celebrated relic. After solemn prayers for the
success of the experiment, a priest, or in his stead some unexperienced
youth, took up one of the pieces of wood, and if he happened upon that
which was marked with the figure of the cross, the person was pronounced
innocent; if otherwise, guilty. [*] This practice, as it arose from
superstition, was abolished by it in France.

     [* LL. Prison, tit. 14, apud Lindenbrog. p. 496.
     trial, not because it was uncertain, but lest that sacred
     figure says he, of the cross should be prostituted in common
     disputes and controversies.]

The ordeal was another established method of trial among Saxons. It
was practised either by boiling water or red-hot iron. The former was
appropriated to the common people; the latter to the nobility. The
water or iron was consecrated by many prayers, masses, fastings, and
exorcisms,[*] after which, the person accused either took up a stone
sunk in the water[**] to a certain depth, or carried the iron to a
certain distance; and his hand being wrapped up, and the covering sealed
for three days, if there appeared, on examining it, no marks of burning,
he was pronounced innocent; if otherwise, guilty.[***] The trial by cold
water was different: the person was thrown into consecrated water; if he
swam, he was guilty, if he sunk, innocent.[****] It is difficult for us
to conceive how any innocent person could ever escape by the one trial,
or any criminal be convicted by the other. But there was another usage
admirably calculated for allowing every criminal to escape, who had
confidence enough to try it. A consecrated cake, called a corsned,
was produced, which if the person could swallow and digest, he was
pronounced innocent.[******]


The feudal law, if it had place at all among the Anglo-Saxons, which is
doubtful, was not certainly extended over all the landed property, and
was not attended with those consequences of homage, reliefs,[*******]
wardship, marriage, and other burdens, which were inseparable from it
in the kingdoms of the continent. As the Saxons expelled, or almost
entirely destroyed, the ancient Britons, they planted themselves in this
island on the same footing with their ancestors in Germany, and found no
occasion for the feudal institutions,[********] which were calculated
to maintain a kind of standing army, always in readiness to suppress any
insurrection among the conquered people.

     [* Du Cange, in verbo Crux.]

     [** Spel in verbo Ordealium. Parker, p. 155.
     Lindenbrog. p, 1299]

     [*** LL. Inæ, sect. 77.]

     [**** Sometimes the person accused walked barefoot
     over a red hot iron]

     [***** Spel in verbo Ordealium.]

     [****** Spel in verbo Corsned. Parker, p. 156.
     Text. Roffens. p. 33.]

     [******* On the death of an alderman, a greater or
     lesser thane, there was a payment made to the king of his
     best arms; and this was called his heriot; but this was not
     of the nature of a relief. See Spel. of Tenures, p. 2. The
     value of this heriot was fixed by Canute's laws, sect. 69.]

     [******** Bracton de Acqu. Rer. Domin. ii. cap.
     16. See more fully Spel of Feus and Tenures, and Q aigius de
     Jure Feud, lib. i. dieg.]

The trouble and expense of defending the state in England lay equally
upon all the land; and it was usual for every five hides to equip a
man for the service. The "trinoda necessitas," as it was called, or the
burden of military expeditions, of repairing highways, and of building
and supporting bridges, was inseparable from landed property, even
though it belonged to the church or monasteries, unless exempted by a
particular charter.[*] The ceorles, or husbandmen, were provided with
arms, and were obliged to take their turn in military duty.[**] There
were computed to be two hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred
hides in England;[***] consequently the ordinary military force of the
kingdom consisted of forty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty men;
though, no doubt, on extraordinary occasions, a greater number might
be assembled. The king and nobility had some military tenants, who were
called "sithcun-men."[****] And there were some lands annexed to the
office of aldermen, and to other offices; but these probably were not
of great extent, and were possessed only during pleasure, as in the
commencement of the feudal law in other countries of Europe.

The revenue of the king seems to have consisted chiefly in his demesnes,
which were large; and in the tolls and imposts which he probably levied
at discretion on the boroughs and seaports that lay within his demesnes.
He could not alienate any part of the crown lands, even to religious
uses, without the consent of the states.[*****] Danegelt was a land-tax
of a shilling a hide, imposed by the states,[******] either for payment
of the sums exacted by the Danes, or for putting the kingdom in a
posture of defence against those invaders.[*******]


The Saxon pound, as likewise that which was coined for some centuries
after the conquest, was near three times the weight of our present
money. There were forty-eight shillings in the pound, and five pence
in a shilling;[********] consequently a Saxon shilling was near a
fifth heavier than ours, and a Saxon penny near three times as
heavy.[*********]

    [* Spel. Concil. vol. i. p. 256.]

    [** Inæ, sect. 51.]

    [*** Spel. of Feus and Tenures, p. 17.]

    [**** Spel. Concil. vol. i. p. 195.]

    [***** Spel. Concil. vol. i. p. 340.]

    [****** Chron. Sax. p. 128.]

    [******* LL. Edw. Conf. sect. 12.]

    [******** LL. Ælf. sect. 40.]

    [********* Fleetwood's Chron. Pretiosum, p. 27 28, etc.]


As to the value of money in those times, compared to commodities, there
are some though not very certain, means of computation. A sheep, of the
laws of Athelstan, was estimated at a shilling; that is, fifteen pence
of our money. The fleece was two fifths of the value of the whole
sheep,[*] much above its present estimation; and the reason probably
was, that the Saxons, like the ancients, were little acquainted with any
clothing but what was made of wool. Silk and cotton were quite unknown:
linen was not much used. An ox was computed at six times the value of
a sheep; a cow at four.[**] If we suppose that the cattle in that age,
from the defects in husbandry, were not so large as they are at present
in England, we may compute that money was then near ten times of greater
value. A horse was valued at about thirty-six shillings of our money,
or thirty Saxon shillings;[***] a mare a third less. A man at three
pounds.[****] The board-wages of a child the first year was eight
shillings, together with a cow's pasture in summer, and an ox's in
winter.[*****] William of Malmsbury mentions it as a remarkably high
price that William Rufus gave fifteen marks for a horse, or about thirty
pounds of our present money.[******] Between the years 900 and 1000,
Ednoth bought a hide of land for about one hundred and eighteen
shillings of present money.[*******] This was little more than a
shilling an acre, which indeed appears to have been the usual price,
as we may learn from other accounts.[********] A palfrey was sold for
twelve shillings about the year 966.[*********] The value of an ox in
King Ethel ed's[** word?] time was between seven and eight shillings;
a cow about six shillings.[*********] Gervas of Tilbury says, that in
Henry I's time, bread which would suffice a hundred men for a day was
rated at three shillings, or a shilling of that age: for it is thought
that soon after the conquest a pound sterling was divided into twenty
shillings. A sheep was rated at a shilling, and so of other things in
proportion. In Athelstan's time, a ram was valued at a shilling, or
fourpence Saxon.[**********] The tenants of Shireburn were obliged, at
their choice, to pay either sixpence or four hens.[***********]

     [* LL. Inse, sect. 69.]

     [** Wilkins, p. 126.

     [*** LL. Inse, sect. 38.]

     [**** Hist. Eliens. p. 471]

     [***** Wilkins, p. 56.]

     [****** Wilkins, p. 66.]

     [******* Wilkins, p. 126.]

     [******** Page 121.]

     [********* Hist. Eliens. p. 473.]

     [********** Wilkins, p. 126.]

     [*********** Monast. Anglie. vol. ii. p. 528.]

About 1232, the abbot of St. Alban's, going on a journey, hired seven
handsome, stout horses; and agreed, if any of them died on the road, to
pay the owner thirty shillings apiece of our present money.[*] It is to
be remarked, that in all ancient times the raising of corn, especially
wheat, being a species of manufactory, that commodity always bore a
higher price, compared to cattle, than it does in our times.[**] The
Saxon Chronicle tells us,[***] that in the reign of Edward the Confessor
there was the most terrible famine ever known; insomuch that a quarter
of wheat rose to sixty pennies, or fifteen shillings of our present
money. Consequently, it was as dear as if it now cost seven pounds
ten shillings. This much exceeds the great famine in the end of Queen
Elizabeth, when a quarter of wheat was sold for four pounds. Money in
this last period was nearly of the same value as in our time. These
severe famines are a certain proof of bad husbandry.

     [* M. Paris].

     [** Fleetwood. p. 83, 94, 96. 98]

     [*** Page 157.]

On the whole, there are three things to be considered, wherever a sum of
money is mentioned in ancient times. First, the change of denomination,
by which a pound has been reduced to the third part of its ancient
weight in silver. Secondly, the change in value by the greater plenty
of money, which has reduced the same weight of silver to ten times less
value, compared to commodities; and consequently a pound sterling to the
thirtieth part of the ancient value. Thirdly, the fewer people and less
industry which were then to be found in every European kingdom. This
circumstance made even the thirtieth part of the sum more difficult to
levy, and caused any sum to have more than thirty times greater weight
and influence, both abroad and at home, than in our times; in the
same manner that a sum, a hundred thousand pounds, for instance, is at
present more difficult to levy in a small state, such as Bavaria, and
can produce greater effects on such a small community than on England.
This last difference is not easy to be calculated; but, allowing that
England has now six times more industry, and three times more people
than it had at the conquest, and for some reigns after that period,
we are upon that supposition to conceive, taking all circumstances
together, every sum of money mentioned by historians, as if it were
multiplied more than a hundred fold above a sum of the same denomination
at present.

In the Saxon times, land was divided equally among all the male children
of the deceased, according to the custom of gavelkind. The practice of
entails is to be found in those times.[*] Land was chiefly of two kinds,
bockland, or land held by book or charter, which was regarded as full
property, and descended to the heirs of the possessor; and folkland, or
the land held by the ceorles and common people, who were removable at
pleasure, and were, indeed, only tenants during the will of their lords.

The first attempt which we find in England to separate the
ecclesiastical from the civil jurisdiction, was that law of Edgar by
which all disputes among the clergy were ordered to be carried before
the bishop.[**] The penances were then very severe; but as a man could
buy them off with money, or might substitute others to perform them,
they lay easy upon the rich.[***]

With regard to the manners of the Anglo-Saxons, we can say little,
but that they were in general a rude, uncultivated people, ignorant of
letters, unskilled in the mechanical arts, untamed to submission under
law and government, addicted to intemperance, riot, and disorder. Their
best quality was their military courage, which yet was not supported by
discipline or conduct. Their want of fidelity to the prince, or to any
trust reposed in them, appears strongly in the history of their later
period; and their want of humanity in all their history. Even the Norman
historians, notwithstanding the low state of the arts in their own
country, speak of them as barbarians, when they mention the invasion
made upon them by the duke of Normandy.[****] The conquest put the
people in a situation of receiving slowly, from abroad, the rudiments
of science and cultivation, and of correcting their rough and licentious
manners.

     [* LL. Ælf. sect. 37, apud Wilkins, p. 43.]

     [** Wilkins, p. 83.]

     [*** Wilkins, p. 96, 97. Spel. Concil. p. 473.]

     [**** Gul, Pict. p. 202.]





CHAPTER IV.

[Illustration: 068.jpg WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.]




WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Contemporary Monarchs:

     EMP. OF GERM.  K. OF SCOTLAND      K. OF FRANCE.   Ks. OF SPAIN.
     Henry IV.      Malcolm III. 1093    Philip I.      Sancho II. 1072
     Alphonso VI.

     POPES.
     Alexander II.1073
     Gregory VII. 1085
     Victor III.  1087

{1066.} _Nothing_ could exceed the consternation which seized the
English when they received intelligence of the unfortunate battle of
Hastings, the death of their king, the slaughter of their principal
nobility and of their bravest warriors, and the rout and dispersion
of the remainder. But though the loss which they had sustained in that
fatal action was considerable, it might have been repaired by a great
nation; where the people were generally armed, and where there resided
so many powerful noblemen in every province, who could have assembled
their retainers, and have obliged the duke of Normandy to divide his
army, and probably to waste it in a variety of actions and rencounters.
It was thus that the kingdom had formerly resisted for many years its
invaders, and had been gradually subdued by the continued efforts of
the Romans, Saxons, and Danes; and equal difficulties might have been
apprehended by William in this bold and hazardous enterprise. But there
were several vices in the Anglo-Saxon constitution, which rendered it
difficult for the English to defend their liberties in so critical an
emergency. The people had in a great measure lost all national pride and
spirit by their recent and long subjection to the Danes; and as Canute
had, in the course of his administration, much abated the rigors of
conquest, and had governed them equitably by their own laws, they
regarded with the less terror the ignominy of a foreign yoke, and
deemed the inconveniences of submission less formidable than those of
bloodshed, war, and resistance. Their attachment also to the ancient
royal family had been much weakened by their habits of submission to
the Danish princes, and by their late election of Harold or their
acquiescence in his usurpation. And as they had long been accustomed
to regard Edgar Atheling, the only heir of the Saxon line, as unfit
to govern them even in times of order and tranquillity, they could
entertain small hopes of his being able to repair such great losses as
they had sustained, or to withstand the victorious arms of the duke of
Normandy.

That they might not, however, be altogether wanting to themselves in
this extreme necessity, the English took some steps towards adjusting
their disjointed government, and uniting themselves against the common
enemy. The two potent earls, Edwin and Morcar, who had fled to London
with the remains of the broken army, took the lead on this occasion: in
concert with Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, a man possessed of great
authority and of ample revenues, they proclaimed Edgar, and endeavored
to put the people in a posture of defence, and encourage them to
resist the Normans.[*] But the terror of the late defeat, and the near
neighborhood of the invaders, increased the confusion inseparable from
great revolutions; and every resolution proposed was hasty, fluctuating,
tumultuary; disconcerted by fear or faction; ill planned, and worse
executed.

William, that his enemies might have no leisure to recover from their
consternation or unite their counsels, immediately put himself in motion
after his victory, and resolved to prosecute an enterprise which nothing
but celerity and vigor could render finally successful. His first
attempt was against Rornney, whose inhabitants he severely punished, on
account of their cruel treatment of some Norman seamen and soldiers, who
had been carried thither by stress of weather, or by a mistake in their
course;[**] and foreseeing that his conquest of England might still be
attended with many difficulties and with much opposition, he deemed it
necessary, before he should advance farther into the country, to make
himself master of Dover, which would both secure him a retreat in
cast of adverse fortune, and afford him a safe landing-place for such
supplies as might be requisite for pushing his advantages.

     [* Gill. Pict. p. 205. Order. Vitaas, p. 502.
     Hoveden, p. 449 Knygnton, p. 2343.]

     [** Gul. Pict. p. 204]

The terror diffused by his victory at Hastings was so great that the
garrison of Dover, though numerous and well provided, immediately
capitulated; and as the Normans, rushing in to take possession of the
town, hastily set fire to some of the houses, William, desirous to
conciliate the minds of the English by an appearance of lenity and
justice, made compensation to the inhabitants for their losses.[*]

The Norman army, being much distressed with a dysentery, was obliged to
remain here eight days; but the duke, on their recovery, advanced
with quick marches towards London, and by his approach increased the
confusions which were already so prevalent in the English counsels. The
ecclesiastics in particular, whose influence was great over the people
began to declare in his favor; and as most of the bishops and dignified
clergymen were even then Frenchmen or Normans, the pope's bull, by which
his enterprise was avowed and hallowed, was now openly insisted on as a
reason for general submission. The superior learning of those prelates,
which, during the Confessor's reign, had raised them above the ignorant
Saxons, made their opinions be received with implicit faith; and a
young prince; like Edgar, whose capacity was deemed so mean, was but ill
qualified to resist the impression which they made on the minds of the
people. A repulse which a body of Londoners received from five hundred
Norman horse, renewed in the city the terror of the great defeat at
Hastings; the easy submission of all the inhabitants of Kent was an
additional discouragement to them; the burning of Southwark before
their eyes made them dread a like fate to their own city; and no man
any longer entertained thoughts but of immediate safety ana of
self-preservation. Even the Earls Edwin and Morcar, in despair of making
effectual resistance, retired with their troops to their own provinces;
and the people thenceforth disposed themselves unanimously to yield to
the victor. As soon as he passed the Thames at Wallingford, and reached
Berkhamstead, Stigand, the primate, made submissions to him: before
he came within sight of the city, all the chief nobility, and Edgar
Atheling himself, the new elected king, came into his camp, and declared
their intention of yielding to his authority.[**] They requested him to
mount their throne, which they now considered as vacant; and declare to
him, that as they had always been ruled by regal power, they desired to
follow, in this particular, the example of their ancestors, and knew of
no one more worthy than himself to hold the reins of government.[***]

     [* Gul. Pict. p. 204.]

     [** Hoveden, p. 450. Flor. Wigorn. p, 634]

     [*** Gul. Pict. p. 205. Order. Vitalis, p. 503.]

Though this was the great object to which the duke's enterprise tended,
he feigned to deliberate on the offer; and being desirous, at first, of
preserving the appearance of a legal administration, he wished to obtain
a more explicit and formal consent of the English nation;[*] but Aimar
of Aquitain, a man equally respected for valor in the field and for
prudence in council, remonstrating with him on the danger of delay in so
critical a conjuncture, he laid aside all further scruples, and accepted
of the crown which was tendered him. Orders were immediately issued to
prepare every thing for the ceremony of his coronation; but as he
was yet afraid to place entire confidence in the Londoners, who were
numerous and warlike, he meanwhile commanded fortresses to be erected,
in order to curb the inhabitants, and to secure his person and
government.[**]

Stigand was not much in the duke's favor, both because he had intruded
into the see on the expulsion of Robert the Norman, and because he
possessed such influence and authority over the English[***] as might be
dangerous to a new-established monarch. William, therefore, pretending
that the primate had obtained his pall in an irregular manner from Pope
Benedict IX., who was himself a usurper, refused to be consecrated
by him, and conferred this honor on Aldred, arch bishop of York.
Westminster Abbey was the place appointed for that magnificent
ceremony; the most considerable of the nobility, both English and
Norman, attended the duke on this occasion; Aldred, in a short speech,
asked the former whether they agreed to accept of William as their king;
the bishop of Coutance put the same question to the latter; and both
being answered with acclamations,[****] Aldred administered to the duke
the usual coronation oath, by which he bound himself to protect the
church, to administer justice, and to repress violence; he then anointed
him, and put the crown upon his head.[*****] There appeared nothing but
joy in the countenance of the spectators; but in that very moment there
burst forth the strongest symptoms of the jealousy and animosity which
prevailed between the nations, and which continually increased during
the reign of this prince.

     [* Gul. Pict. p. 205].

     [** Gul. Pict. p. 205.]

     [*** Eadmer, p. 6.]

     [**** Order. Vitalis, p. 503.]

     [***** Malmsbury (p. 271) says, that he also
     promised to govern the Normans and English by equal laws;
     and this addition to the usual oath seems not improbable,
     considering the circumstances of the time!]

The Norman soldiers, who were placed without in order to guard the
church, hearing the shouts within, fancied that the English were
offering violence to their duke; and they immediately assaulted the
populace, and set fire to the neighboring houses. The alarm was conveyed
to the nobility who surrounded the prince; both English and Normans,
full of apprehensions, rushed out to secure themselves from the present
danger; and it was with difficulty that William himself was able to
appease the tumult.[*]

The king, thus possessed of the throne by a pretended descination of
King Edward, and by an irregular election of the people, but still more
by force of arms, retired from London to Berking, in Essex, {1067.} and
there received the submissions of all the nobility who had not attended
his coronation. Edric, surnamed the Forester, grand-nephew to that Edric
so noted for his repeated acts of perfidy during the reigns of Ethelred
and Edmond; Earl Coxo, a man famous for bravery; even Edwin and Morcar,
earls of Mercia and Northumberland; with the other principal noblemen
of England, came and swore fealty to him; were received into favor; and
were confirmed in the possession of their estates and dignities.[**]
Every thing bore the appearance of peace and tranquillity; and William
had no other occupation than to give contentment to the foreigners who
had assisted him to mount the throne, and to his new subjects, who had
so readily submitted to him.

He had got possession of the treasure of Harold, which was considerable;
and being also supplied with rich presents from the opulent men in all
parts of England, who were solicitous to gain the favor of their new
sovereign, he distributed great sums among his troops, and by this
liberality gave them hopes of obtaining at length those more durable
establishments which they had expected from his enterprise.[***] The
ecclesiastics, both at home and abroad, had much forwarded his success;
and he failed not, in return, to express his gratitude and devotion in
the manner which was most acceptable to them; he sent Harold's
standard to the pope, accompanied with many valuable presents; all the
considerable monasteries and churches in France, where prayers had been
put up for his success, now tasted of his bounty;[****] the English
monks found him well disposed to favor their order; and he built a
new convent near Hastings, which he called Battle Abbey, and which on
pretence of supporting monks to pray lor his own soul, and for that of
Harold, served as a lasting memorial of his victory.[*****]

     [* Gul Pict. p. 206. Order. Vitalis, p. 503.]

     [** Gul. Pict. p. 208. Order. Vitalis, p. 506.]

     [*** Gul. Pict. p. 206.]

     [**** Gul. Pict. p. 205.]

     [***** Gul. Gemet. p. 288. Chron. Sax. p. 189. M.
     West. p. 226. M. Paris, p. 9. Diceto, p. 482. This convent
     was freed by him from all episcopal jurisdiction. Monast.
     Anglic, tom. i. p. 311, 312.]

He introduced into England that strict execution of justice, for which
his administration had been much celebrated in Normandy; and even during
this violent revolution, every disorder or oppression met with rigorous
punishment.[*]

     [* Gul. Pict. p. 208. Order, Vitalis, p. 506.]

His army in particular was governed with severe discipline; and
notwithstanding the insolence of victory, care was taken to give as
little offence as possible to the jealousy of the vanquished. The king
appeared solicitous to unite in an amicable manner the Normans and the
English, by intermarriages and alliances; and all his new subjects who
approached his person were received with affability and regard. No signs
of suspicion appeared, not even towards Edgar Atheling, the heir of the
ancient royal family, whom William confirmed in the honors of earl of
Oxford, conferred on him by Harold, and whom he affected to treat with
the highest kindness, as nephew to the Confessor, his great friend and
benefactor. Though he confiscated the estates of Harold, and of those
who had fought in the battle of Hastings on the side of that prince,
whom he represented as a usurper, he seemed willing to admit of every
plausible excuse for past opposition to his pretensions, and he received
many into favor who had carried arms against him, He confirmed the
liberties and immunities of London and the other cities of England; and
appeared desirous of replacing every thing on ancient establishments.
In his whole administration, he bore the semblance of the lawful prince,
not of the conqueror; and the English began to flatter themselves, that
they had changed, not the form of their government, but the succession
only of their sovereigns; a matter which gave them small concern. The
better to reconcile his new subjects to his authority, William made a
progress through some parts of England; and besides a splendid court and
majestic presence, which overawed the people, already struck with his
military fame, the appearance of his clemency and justice gained the
approbation of the wise, attentive to the first steps of their new
sovereign.

But amidst this confidence and friendship which he expressed for the
English, the king took care to place all real power in the hands of his
Normans, and still to keep possession of the sword, to which, he
was sensible, he had owed his advancement to sovereign authority.
He disarmed the city of London and other places, which appeared most
warlike and populous; and building citadels in that capital, as well as
in Winchester, Hereford, and the cities best situated for commanding the
kingdom, he quartered Norman soldiers in all of them, and left nowhere
any power able to resist or oppose him. He bestowed the forfeited
estates on the most eminent of hia captains, and established funds for
the payment of his soldiers. And thus, while his civil administration
carried the face of a legal magistrate, his military institutions were
those of a master and tyrant; at least of one who reserved to himself,
whenever he pleased, the power of assuming that character.

By this mixture, however, of vigor and lenity, he had so soothed the
minds of the English, that he thought he might safely revisit his
native country, and enjoy the triumph and congratulation of his ancient
subjects. He left the administration in the hands of his uterine
brother, Odo, bishop of Baieux, and of William Fitz-Osberne. That their
authority might be exposed to less danger, he carried over with him all
the most considerable nobility of England, who, while they served to
grace his court by their presence and magnificent retinues, were in
reality hostages for the fidelity of the nation. Among these were Edgar
Atheling, Stigand the primate, the earls Edwin and Morcar, Waltheof, the
son of the brave Earl Siward, with others, eminent for the greatness
of their fortunes and families, or for their ecclesiastical and civil
dignities. He was visited at the abbey of Fescamp, where he resided
during some time, by Rodulph, uncle to the king of France, and by many
powerful princes and nobles, who, having contributed to his enterprise,
were desirous of participating in the joy and advantages of its success.
His English courtiers, willing to ingratiate themselves with their new
sovereign, outvied each other in equipages and entertainments; and
made a display of riches which struck the foreigners with astonishment.
William of Poictiers, a Norman historian,[*] who was present, speaks
with admiration of the beauty of their persons, the size and workmanship
of their silver plate, the costliness of their embroideries, an art in
which the English then excelled; and he expresses himself in such terms,
as tend much to exalt our idea of the opulence and cultivation of the
people.[**]


     [* Page 211, 212.]

     [** As the historian chiefly insists on the siver
     plate, his panegyric on the English magnificence shows only
     how incompetent a judge he was of the matter. Silver was
     then of ten times the value, and was more than twenty times
     more rare than at present; and consequently of all species
     of luxury, plate must have been the rarest.]

But though every thing bure the face of joy and festivity, and William
himself treated nia new courtiers with great appearance of kindness, it
was impossible altogether to prevent the insolence of the Normans;
and the English nobles derived little satisfaction from those
entertainments, where they considered themselves as led in triumph by
their ostentatious conqueror.

In England affairs took still a worse turn during the absence of the
sovereign. Discontents and complaints multiplied every where; secret
conspiracies were entered into against the government; hostilities
were already begun in many places; and every thing seemed to menace a
revolution as rapid as that which had placed William on the throne. The
historian above mentioned, who is a panegyrist of his master, throws the
blame entirely on the fickle and mutinous disposition of the English,
and highly celebrates the justice and lenity of Odo's and Fitz-Osborne's
administration.[**] But other historians, with more probability, impute
the cause chiefly to the Normans; who, despising a people that had so
easily submitted to the yoke, envying their riches, and grudging the
restraints imposed upon their own rapine, were desirous of provoking
them to a rebellion, by which they expected to acquire new confiscations
and forfeitures, and to gratify those unbounded hopes which they had
formed in entering on this enterprise.[***]

     [** Page 212.]

     [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 507]

It is evident that the chief reason of this alteration in the sentiments
of the English must be ascribed to the departure of William, who was
alone able to curb the violence of his captains, and to overawe the
mutinies of the people. Nothing indeed appears more strange than that
this prince, in less than three months after the conquest of a great,
warlike, and turbulent nation, should absent himself in order to revisit
his own country, which remained in profound tranquillity, and was not
menaced by any of its neighbors; and should so long leave his jealous
subjects at the mercy of an insolent and licentious army. Were we not
assured of the solidity of his genius, and the good sense displayed in
all other circumstances of his conduct, we might ascribe this measure to
a vain ostentation, which rendered him impatient to display his pomp and
magnificence among his ancient subjects. It is therefore more natural to
believe that, in so extraordinary a step, he was guided by a concealed
policy; and that though he had thought proper at first to allure the
people to submission by the semblance of a legal administration, he
found that he could neither satisfy his rapacious captains, nor
secure his unstable government, without farther exerting the rights of
conquest, and seizing the possessions of the English. In order to have
a pretext for this violence, he endeavored without discovering his
intentions, to provoke and allure them into insurrections, which he
thought could never prove dangerous, while he detained all the principal
nobility in Normandy, while a great and victorious army was quartered
in England, and while he himself was so near to suppress any tumult or
rebellion. But as no ancient writer has ascribed this tyrannical purpose
to William, it scarcely seems allowable, from conjecture alone, to throw
such an imputation upon him.

But whether we are to account for that measure from the king's vanity or
from his policy, it was the immediate cause of all the calamities which
the English endured during this and the subsequent reigns, and gave rise
to those mutual jealousies and animosities between them and the Normans,
which were never appeased till a long tract of time had gradually united
the two nations, and made them one people. The inhabitants of Kent, who
had first submitted to the conqueror, were the first that attempted to
throw off the yoke; and in confederacy with Eustace, count of Boulogne,
who had also been disgusted by the Normans, they made an attempt, though
without success, on the garrison of Dover.[*] Edric the Forester,
whose possessions lay on the banks of the Severn, being provoked at
the depredations of some Norman captains in his neighborhood, formed an
alliance with Blethyn and Rowallan, two Welsh princes; and endeavored,
with their assistance, to repel force by force.[**]

     [* Gul. Gemet. p. 239. Order. Vitalis, p. 508.
     Anglia Sacra, vol i. p, 245.]

     [** Hoveden, p 450. M. West, p 226. Sim. Dunelm.
     p. 197.]

But though these open hostilities were not very considerable, the
disaffection was general among the English, who had become sensible,
though too late, of their defenceless condition, and began already to
experience those insults and injuries, which a nation must always expect
that allows itself to be reduced to that abject situation. A secret
conspiracy was entered into, to perpetrate in one day, a general
massacre of the Normans, like that which had formerly been executed upon
the Danes; and the quarrel was become so general and national, that
the vassals of Earl Coxo, having desired him to head them in an
insurrection, and finding him resolute in maintaining his fidelity to
William, put him to death as a traitor to his country.

The king, informed of these dangerous discontents, hastened over
to England; and by his presence, and the vigorous measures which he
pursued, disconcerted all the schemes of the conspirators. Such of them
as had been more violent in their mutiny, betrayed their guilt by flying
or concealing themselves; and the confiscation of their estates, while
it increased the number of malecontents, both enabled William to gratify
farther the rapacity of his Norman captains, and gave them the prospect
of new forfeitures and attainders. The king began to regard all
his English subjects as inveterate and irreclaimable enemies; and
thenceforth either embraced, or was more fully confirmed in the
resolution of seizing their possessions, and of reducing them to the
most abject slavery. Though the natural violence and severity of his
temper made him incapable of feeling any remorse in the execution of
this tyrannical purpose, he had art enough to conceal his intention,
and to preserve still some appearance of justice in his oppressions. He
ordered all the English who had been arbitrarily expelled by the Normans
during his absence, to be restored to their estates;[*] but at the same
time he imposed a general tax on the people, that of danegelt, which
had been abolished by the Confessor, and which had always been extremely
odious to the nation.[**]

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 173. This fact is a full proof
     that the Normans had committed great injustice, and were the
     real cause of the insurrections of the English.]

     [** Hoveden, p. 450. Sim. Dunelm. p. 197. Alured.
     Beverl. p. 127]

{1068.} As the vigilance of William overawed the malecontents, their
insurrections were more the result of an impatient humor in the people,
than of any regular conspiracy which could give them a rational hope of
success against the established power of the Normans. The inhabitants of
Exeter, instigated by Githa, mother to King Harold, refused to admit a
Norman garrison, and, betaking themselves to arms, were strengthened
by the accession of the neighboring inhabitants of Devonshire and
Cornwall.[*] The king hastened with his forces to chastise the revolt;
and on his approach, the wiser and more considerable citizens, sensible
of the unequal contest, persuaded the people to submit, and to deliver
hostages for their obedience. A sudden mutiny of the populace broke this
agreement; and William, appearing before the walls, ordered the eyes of
one of the hostages to be put out, as an earnest of that severity which
the rebels must expect, if they persevered in their revolt.[**]
The inhabitants were anew seized with terror, and surrendering at
discretion, threw themselves at the king's feet, and supplicated his
clemency and forgiveness. William was not destitute of generosity,
when his temper was not hardened either by policy or passion: he was
prevailed on to pardon the rebels, and he set guards on all the gates,
in order to prevent the rapacity and insolence of his soldiery.[***]

     [* Order. Vitalis, p. 510.]

     [** Order. Vitalis, p. 510]

     [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 510.]

Githa escaped with her treasures to Flanders. The malecontents of
Cornwall imitated the example of Exeter, and met with like treatment;
and the king having built a citadel in that city, which he put under
the command of Baldwin, son of Earl Gilbert, returned to Winchester, and
dispersed his army into their quarters. He was here joined by his wife,
Matilda, who had not before visited England, and whom he now ordered to
be crowned by Archbishop Aldred. Soon after she brought him an accession
to his family, by the birth of a fourth son, whom he named Henry.
His three elder sons, Robert, Richard, and William, still resided in
Normandy.

But though the king appeared thus fortunate both in public and domestic
life, the discontents of his English subjects augmented daily; and
the injuries committed and suffered on both sides rendered the quarrel
between them and the Normans absolutely incurable. The insolence of
victorious masters, dispersed throughout the kingdom, seemed intolerable
to the natives; and wherever they found the Normans separate or
assembled in small bodies, they secretly set upon them, and gratified
their vengeance by the slaughter of their enemies. But an insurrection
in the north drew thither the general attention, and seemed to threaten
more important consequences. Edwin and Morcar appeared at the head
of this rebellion; and these potent noblemen, before they took arms,
stipulated for foreign succors from their nephew Blethyn, prince of
North Wales, from Malcolm, king of Scotland and from Sweyn, king of
Denmark. Besides the general discontent which had seized the English,
the two earls were incited to this revolt by private injuries. William,
in order to insure them to his interests, had on his accession promised
his daughter in marriage to Edwin; but either he had never seriously
intended to perform this engagement, or, having changed his plan of
administration in England from clemency to rigor, he thought it was
to little purpose if he gained one family, while he enraged the whole
nation. When Edwin, therefore, renewed his applications, he gave him
an absolute denial;[*] and this disappointment, added to so many other
reasons of disgust, induced that nobleman and his brother to concur
with their incensed countrymen, and to make one general effort for the
recovery of their ancient liberties. William knew the importance of
celerity in quelling an insurrection supported by such powerful leaders,
and so agreeable to the wishes of the people; and having his troops
always in readiness, he advanced by great journeys to the north. On his
march he gave orders to fortify the castle of Warwick, of which he left
Henry de Beaumont governor, and that of Nottingham, which he committed
to the custody of William Peverell, another Norman captain.[**] He
reached York before the rebels were in any condition for resistance, or
were joined by any of the foreign succors which they expected, except a
small reënforcement from Wales;[***] and the two earls found no means
of safety but having recourse to the clemency of the victor. Archil, a
potent nobleman in those parts, imitated their example, and delivered
his son as a hostage for his fidelity;[****] nor were the people, thus
deserted by their leaders, able to make any farther resistance. But the
treatment which William gave the chiefs was very different from that
which fell to the share of their followers. He observed religiously
the terms which he had granted to the former, and allowed them for the
present to keep possession of their estates; but he extended the rigors
of his confiscations over the latter, and gave away their lands to his
foreign adventurers.

     [* Order. Vitalis, p. 511.]

     [** Order. Vitalis, p. 511.]

     [*** Order. Vitalia, p. 511.]

     [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 511.]

These, planted throughout the whole country, and in possession of the
military power, left Edwin and Morcar, whom he pretended to spare,
destitute of all support, and ready to fall whenever he should think
proper to command their ruin. A peace which he made with Malcolm, who
did him homage for Cumberland, seemed at the same time to deprive them
of all prospect of foreign assistance.[*]

The English were now sensible that their final destruction was intended;
and that instead of a sovereign, whom they had hoped to gain by their
submission, they had tamely surrendered themselves, without resistance,
to a tyrant and a conqueror. Though the early confiscation of Harold's
followers might seem iniquitous, being inflicted on men who had
never sworn fealty to the duke of Normandy, who were ignorant of his
pretensions, and who only fought in defence of the government which they
themselves had established in their own country, yet were these rigors,
however contrary to the ancient Saxon laws, excused on account of the
urgent necessities of the prince; and those who were not involved in
the present ruin, hoped that they should thenceforth enjoy, without
molestation, their possessions and their dignities. But the successive
destruction of so many other families convinced them that the king
intended to rely entirely on the support and affections of foreigners;
and they foresaw new forfeitures, attainders, and acts of violence, as
the necessary result of this destructive plan of administration. They
observed that no Englishman possessed his confidence, or was intrusted
with any command or authority; and that the strangers, whom a rigorous
discipline could have but ill restrained, were encouraged in their
insolence and tyranny against them. The easy submission of the
kingdom on its first invasion had exposed the natives to contempt; the
subsequent proofs of their animosity and resentment had made them the
object of hatred; and they were now deprived of every expedient by which
they could hope to make themselves either regarded or beloved by their
sovereign. Impressed with the sense of this dismal situation, many
Englishmen fled into foreign countries, with an intention of passing
their lives abroad free from oppression, or of returning, on a favorable
opportunity, to assist their friends in the recovery of their native
liberties.[**] Edgar

     [* Order. Vitalis, p. 511.]

     [** Order. Vitalis, p. 508. M. West. p. 225. M.
     Paris, p. 4. Sim Dunehn. p. 197.]

Atheling himself, dreading the insidious caresses of William, was,
persuaded by Cospatric, a powerful Northumbrian, to escape with him
into Scotland; and he carried thither his two sisters, Margaret and
Christina. They were well received by Malcolm, who soon after espoused
Margaret, the elder sister; and partly with a view of strengthening
his kingdom by the accession of so many strangers, partly in hopes
of employing them against the growing power of William, he gave great
countenance to all the English exiles. Many of them settled there, and
laid the foundation of families which afterwards made a figure in that
country.

While the English suffered under these oppressions, even the foreigners
were not much at their ease; but finding themselves surrounded on all
hands by engaged enemies, who took every advantage against them, and
menaced them with still more bloody effects of the public resentment,
they began to wish again for the tranquillity and security of their
native country. Hugh de Grentmesnil and Humphry de Teliol, though
intrusted with great commands, desired to be dismissed the service;
and some others imitated their example; a desertion which was highly
resented by the king, and which he punished by the confiscation of all
their possessions ii England.[*] But William's bounty to his followers
could not fail of alluring many new adventurers into his service; and
the rage of the vanquished English served only to excite the attention
of the king and those warlike chiefs, and keep them in readiness to
suppress every commencement of domestic rebellion or foreign invasion.

     [* Order. Vitalis, p. 512]

It was not long before they found occupation for their prowess and
military conduct. Godwin, Edmond, and Magnus, three sons of Harold, had,
immediately after the defeat at Hastings, sought a retreat in Ireland,
where, having met with a kind reception from Dermot and other princes of
that country, they projected an invasion on England, and they hoped that
all the exiles from Denmark, Scotland, and Wales, assisted by forces
from these several countries, would at once commence hostilities, and
rouse the indignation of the English against their haughty conquerors.
They landed in Devonshire; but found Brian, son of the count of
Brittany, at the head of some foreign troops, ready to oppose them; and
being defeated in several actions, they were obliged to retreat to their
ships, and to return with great loss to Ireland.[*] The efforts of the
Normans were now directed to the north, where affairs had fallen into
the utmost confusion. The more impatient of the Northumbrians had
attacked Robert de Comyn, who was appointed governor of Durham; and
gaining the advantage over him from his negligence, they put him to
death in that city, with seven hundred of his followers.[**] This
success animated the inhabitants of York, who, rising in arms, slew
Robert Fitz-Richard, their governor,[***] and besieged in the castle
William Mallet, on whom the command now devolved. A little after, the
Danish troops landed from three hundred vessels: Osberne, brother to
King Sweyn, was intrusted with the command of these forces, and he
was accompanied by Harold and Canute, two sons of that monarch. Edgar
Atheling appeared from Scotland, and brought along with him Cospatric,
Waltheof, Siward, Bearne, Merleswain, Adelin, and other leaders, who,
partly from the hopes which they gave of Scottish succors, partly
from their authority in those parts, easily persuaded the warlike and
discontented Northumbrians to join the insurrection. Mallet, that he
might better provide for the defence of the citadel of York, set fire
to some houses which lay contiguous; but this expedient proved the
immediate cause of his destruction. The flames, spreading into the
neighboring streets, reduced the whole city to ashes. The enraged
inhabitants, aided by the Danes, took advantage of the confusion to
attack the castle, which they carried by assault; and the garrison,
to the number of three thousand men, was put to the sword without
mercy.[****]

This success proved a signal to many other parts of England, and gave
the people an opportunity of showing their malevolence to the Normans.
Hereward, a nobleman in East Anglia, celebrated for valor, assembled his
followers, and taking shelter in the Isle of Ely, made inroads on all
the neighboring country.[*****] The English in the counties of Somerset
and Dorset rose in arms, and assaulted Montacute, the Norman governor;
while the inhabitants of Cornwall and Devon invested Exeter, which from
the memory of William's clemency still remained faithful to him.

     [* Gul. Gemet. p. 290. Order. Vitalis, p. 513.
     Anglia Sacra, TO! I. p. 216.]

     [** Order. Vitalis, p. 512. Chron. de Mailr. p.
     116. Hoveden, p. 450. M. Paris, p. 5. Sim. Dunelm. p. 198.]

     [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 512.]

     [**** Order. Vitalis, p. 513. Hoveden, p. 451.]

     [***** Ingulph. p. 71. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de
     Burgo, p. 47.]

Edric the Forester, calling in the assistance of the Welsh, laid siege
to Shrewsbury, and made head against Earl Brient and Fitz-Osberne, who
commanded in those quarters.[*] The English, everywhere repenting their
former easy submission, seemed determined to make by concert one great
effort for the recovery of their liberties, and for the expulsion of
their oppressors.

William, undismayed amidst this scene of confusion, assembled. his
forces, and animating them with the prospect of new confiscations
and forfeitures, he marched against the rebels in the north, whom he
regarded as the most formidable, and whose defeat, he knew, would strike
a terror into all the other malecontents. Joining policy to force, he
tried, before his approach, to weaken the enemy, by detaching the Danes
from them; and he engaged Osberne, by large presents, and by offering
him the liberty of plundering the sea-coast, to retire without
committing farther hostilities into Denmark.[**] Cospatric also, in
despair of success, made his peace with the king, and paying a sum of
money as an atonement for his insurrection, was received into favor,
and even invested with the earldom of Northumberland. Waltheof, who long
defended York with great courage, was allured with this appearance of
clemency; and as William knew how to esteem valor, even in an enemy,
that nobleman had no reason to repent of this confidence.[***] Even
Edric, compelled by necessity, submitted to the conqueror, and received
forgiveness, which was soon after followed by some degree of trust
and favor. Malcolm, coming too late to support his confederates, was
constrained to retire; and all the English rebels in other parts, except
Hereward, who still kept in his fastnesses, dispersed themselves, and
left the Normans undisputed masters of the kingdom. Edgar Atheling, with
his followers, sought again a retreat in Scotland from the pursuit of
his enemies.

     [* Order. Vitalis, p. 514.]

     [** Hoveden, p. 451. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de
     Burgo, p. 47. Sim Dunelm. p. 199.]

     [*** W. Malms, p. 104. H. Hunting, p. 369.]

{1070.} But the seeming clemency of William toward the English leaders,
proceeded only from artifice, or from his esteem of individuals: his
heart, was hardened against all compassion towards the people, and he
scrupled no measure, however violent or severe, which seemed requisite
to support his plan of tyrannical administration. Sensible of the
restless disposition of the Northumbrians, he determined to incapacitate
them even after from giving him disturbance; and he issued orders for
laying entirely waste that fertile country, which, for the extent of
sixty miles, lies between the Humber and the Tees.[*] The houses were
reduced to ashes by the merciless Normans; the cattle seized and driven
away; the instruments of husbandry destroyed; and the inhabitants
compelled either to seek for a subsistence in the southern parts of
Scotland, or if they lingered in England, from a reluctance to abandon
their ancient habitations, they perished miserably in the woods from
cold and hunger. The lives of a hundred thousand persons are computed to
have been sacrificed to this stroke of barbarous policy,[**] which, by
seeking a remedy for a temporary evil, thus inflicted a lasting wound on
the power and populousness of the nation.

But William, finding himself entirely master of a people who had given
him such sensible proofs of their impotent rage and animosity, now
resolved to proceed to extremities against all the natives of England;
and to reduce them to a condition in which they should no longer be
formidable to his government. The insurrections and conspiracies in
so many parts of the kingdom had involved the bulk of the landed
proprietors, more or less, in the guilt of treason; and the king took
advantage of executing against them, with the utmost rigor, the laws of
forfeiture and attainder. Their lives were, indeed, commonly spared;
but their estates were confiscated, and either annexed to the royal
demesnes, or conferred with the most profuse bounty, on the Normans
and other foreigners.[***] While the king's declared intention was to
depress, or rather entirely extirpate, the English gentry,[****] [8] it
is easy to believe that scarcely the form of justice would be observed
in those violent proceedings;[*****] and that any suspicions served as
the most undoubted proofs of guilt against a people thus devoted to
destruction.

     [* Chron. Sax. p. 174. Ingulph. p. 79. W. Malms,
     p. 103. Hoveden, p. 451. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p.
     47. M. Paris, p. 5. Sim. Dunelm. p. 199. Brompton, p. 966.
     Knyghton, p. 2344. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p, 702.]

     [** Order. Vitalis, p. 515.]

     [*** W. Malms, p. 104.]

     [**** H. Hunting, p. 370.]

     [***** H See note H, at the end of the volume.]

It was crime sufficient in an Englishman to be opulent, or noble, or
powerful; and the policy of the king, concurring with the rapacity of
foreign adventurers, produced almost a total revolution in the landed
property of the kingdom. Ancient and honorable families were reduced to
beggary; the nobles themselves were every where treated with ignominy
and contempt; they had the mortification of seeing their castles and
manors possessed by Normans of the meanest birth and lowest stations;[*]
and they found themselves carefully excluded from every road which led
either to riches or preferment.[**] [9]

As power naturally follows property, this revolution alone gave great
security to the foreigners; but William, by the new institutions which
he established, took also care to retain forever the military authority
in those hands which had enabled him to subdue the kingdom. He
introduced into England the feudal law, which he found established in
France and Normandy, and which, during that age, was the foundation
both of the stability and of the disorders in most of the monarchical
governments of Europe. He divided all the lands of England, with
very few exceptions, beside the royal demesnes, into baronies; and he
conferred these, with the reservation of stated services and payments,
on the most considerable of his adventurers. These great barons, who
held immediately of the crown, shared out a great part of their lands to
other foreigners, who were denominated knights or vassals, and who paid
their lord the same duty and submission, in peace and war, which he
himself owed, to his sovereign. The whole kingdom contained about
seven hundred chief tenants, and sixty thousand two hundred and fifteen
knights' fees;[***] and as none of the native English were admitted into
the first rank, the few who retained their landed property were glad to
be received into the second, and, under the protection of some powerful
Norman, to load themselves and their posterity with this grievous
burden, for estates which they had received free from their
ancestors.[****] The small mixture of English which entered into this
civil or military fabric, (for it partook of both species,) was so
restrained by subordination under the foreigners, that the Norman
dominion seemed now to be fixed on the most durable basis, and to defy
all the efforts of its enemies.

     [* Order. Vitalis, p. 521. M. West, p. 229.]

     [** See note I, at the end of the volume.]

     [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 523. Secretum Abbatis,
     apud Selden. Title of Honor, p. 573. Spel. Gloss, in verbo
     Feodum. Sir Robert Cotton.]

     [**** M. West. p. 225. M. Paris, p. 4. Bracton,
     lib. i. cap. 11, num. I, Flets, lib, cap. 8, n. 2]

The better to unite the parts of the government, and to bind them into
one system, which might serve both for defence against foreigners
and for the support of domestic tranquillity, William reduced the
ecclesiastical revenues under the same feudal law; and though he had
courted the church on his invasion and accession, he now subjected it to
services which the clergy regarded as a grievous slavery, and as totally
unbefitting their profession. The bishops and abbots were obliged, when
required, to furnish to the king, during war, a number of knights or
military tenants, proportioned to the extent of property possessed by
each see or abbey; and they were liable, in case of failure, to the
same penalties which were exacted from the laity.[*] The pope and the
ecclesiastics exclaimed against this tyranny, as they called it; but the
king's authority was so well established over the army, who held every
thing from his bounty, that superstition itself, even in that age,
when it was most prevalent, was constrained to bend under his superior
influence.

But as the great body of the clergy were still natives, the king had
much reason to dread the effects of their resentment; he therefore
used the precaution of expelling the English from all the considerable
dignities, and of advancing foreigners in their place. The partiality
of the Confessor towards the Normans had been so great, that, aided by
their superior learning, it had promoted them to many of the sees in
England; and even before the period of the conquest, scarcely more than
six or seven of the prelates were natives of the country. But among
these was Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, a man who, by his address
and vigor, by the greatness of his family and alliances, by the extent
of his possessions, as well as by the dignity of his office, and his
authority among the English, gave jealousy to the king.[**] Though
William had, on his accession, affronted this prelate by employing the
archbishop of York to officiate at his consecration, he was careful,
on other occasions, to load him with honors and caresses, and to
avoid giving him farther offence till the opportunity should offer of
effecting his final destruction.[***]

     [* M. Paris, p. 5. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 248.]

     [** Parker, p. 161.]

     [*** Parker, p. 164.]

The suppression of the late rebellions, and the total subjection of the
English, made him hope that an attempt against Stigand, however violent,
would be covered by his great successes and be overlooked amidst the
other important revolutions, which affected so deeply the property and
liberty of the kingdom. Yet, notwithstanding these great advantages,
he did not think it safe to violate the reverence usually paid to the
primate, but under cover of a new superstition, which he was the great
instrument of introducing into England.

The doctrine which exalted the papacy above all human power, had
gradually diffused itself from the city and court of Rome; and was,
during that age, much more prevalent in the southern than in the
northern kingdoms of Europe. Pope Alexander, who had assisted William
in his conquests, naturally expected, that the French and Normans would
import into England the same reverence for his sacred character with
which they were impressed in their own country; and would break the
spiritual as well as civil independency of the Saxons who had hitherto
conducted their ecclesiastical government, with an acknowledgment indeed
of primacy in the see of Rome, but without much idea of its title to
dominion or authority. As soon, therefore, as the Norman prince seemed
fully established on the throne, the pope despatched Ermenfloy, bishop
of Sion, as his legate into England; and this prelate was the first
that had ever appeared with that character in any part of the British
islands. The king, though he was probably led by principle to pay this
submission to Rome, determined, as is usual, to employ the incident as a
means of serving his political purposes, and of degrading those English
prelates, who were become obnoxious to him. The legate submitted to
become the instrument of his tyranny; and thought, that the more violent
the exertion of power, the more certainly did it confirm the authority
of that court from which he derived his commission. He summoned,
therefore, a council of the prelates and abbots at Winchester; and
being assisted by two cardinals, Peter and John, he cited before him
St