eturn ne found, however, that several still adhered to him; but, here too, incapable of acting with vigour, he agreed to an accommodation, which placed the crown on the head of his rebellious son; and only left to himself a sphere of government as narrow as his genius, the district of Kent, whither he retired to enjoy an inglorious privacy with a wife whom he had married in France. On his death, his son Ethelred still held the crown, which he had pre-occupied by his rebellion, and which he polluted with a new stain. He married his father's widow. The confused history of these times furnishes no clear account either of the successions of the kings or of their actions. During the reign of this prince and his successors, Ethelbert and Ethelred, the people in several parts of England seem to have withdrawn from the kingdom of Wessex, and to have revived their former independency. This, added to the weakness of the government, made way for new swarms of Danes, who burst in upon this ill-governed and divided people, ravaging the whole country in a terrible manner, but principally directing their fury against every monument of civility or piety. They had now formed a regular establishment in Northumberland, and gained a very considerable footing in Mercai and East Anglia; they hovered over every part of the kingdom with their fleets; and being established in many places in the heart of the country, nothing seemed able to resist them. CHAPTER IV. REIGN OF KING ALFRED. Ir was in the midst of these distractions hat Alfred succeeded to a sceptre, which was hreatened every moment to be wrenched from his hands. He was then only twenty-two rears of age; but exercised from his infancy in troubles and in wars, that formed and displayed his virtue. Some of its best provinces vere torn from his kingdom, which was shrunk o the antient bounds of Wessex; and what emained was weakened by dissension, by a ong war, by a raging pestilence, and surrounded by enemies, whose numbers seemed inexhaustible, and whose fury was equally increased by victories or defeats. All these difficulties served only to increase the vigour of his mind. He took the field without delay; but he was defeated with considerable loss. This ominous defeat displayed more fully the greatness of his courage and capacity, which found in desperate hopes and a ruined kingdom such powerful resources. In a short time after he was in a condition to be respected: but he was not led away by the ambition of a young warriour. He neglected no measures to procure peace for his country, which wanted a respite from the calamities which had long oppressed it. A peace was concluded for Wessex. Then the Danes turned their faces once more towards Mercia and East Anglia. They had before stripped the inhabitants of all their moveable substance, and now they proceeded without resistance to seize upon their lands. Their success encouraged new swarms of Danes to crowd over, who, finding all the northern parts of England possessed by their friends, rushed into Wessex. They were adventurers under different and independent leaders; and a peace, little regarded by the particular party that made it, had no influence at all upon the others. Alfred opposed this shock with so much firmness, that the barbarians had recourse to a stratagem: they pretended to treat; but taking advantage of the truce, they routed a body of the West Saxon cavalry, that were off their guard, mounted their horses, and crossing the country with amazing celerity, surprised the city of Exeter. This was an acquisition of infinite advantage to their affairs, as it secured them a port in the midst of Wessex. Alfred, mortified at this series of misfortunes, perceived clearly that nothing could dislodge the Danes, or redress their continual incursions, but a powerful fleet, which might intercept them at sea; the want of this, principally, gave rise to the success of that people. They used suddenly to land and ravage a part of the country; when a force opposed them, they retired to their ships and passed to some other part, which in a like manner they ra. vaged, and then retired as before, until the country, entirely harassed, pillaged and wasted by these incursions, was no longer able to resist them. Then they ventured safely to enter a desolated and disheartened country, and to establish themselves in it. These considerations made Alfred resolve upon equipping a fleet; in this enterprise nothing but difficulties presented themselves; his revenue was scanty and his subjects altogether unskilled in maritime affairs, either as to the construction or the navigation of ships. He did not therefore despair. With great promises attending a little money, he engaged in his service a number of Frisian seamen, neighbours to the Danes, and pirates, as they were He brought 522 by the same means, shipwrights from the continent. He was himself present to every thing; and having performed the part of a king in drawing together supplies of every kind, he descended with no less dignity into the artist; improving on the construction; inventing new machines; and supplying by the greatness of his genius, the defects and imperfections of the arts in that rude period. By this indefatigable application, the first English navy was in a very short time in readiness to put to sea. At that time the Danish fleet of 125 ships, stood with full sail for Exeter; they met; but with an omen prosperous to the new naval power, the Danish fleet was entirely vanquished and dispersed. This success drew on the surrendry of Exeter, and a peace, which Alfred much wanted to put the affairs of his kingdom in order. This peace, however, did not last long. As the Danes were continually pouring into some part of England, they found most parts already in Danish hands; so that all these partics naturally directed their course to the only English kingdom. All the Danes conspired to put them in possession of it; and bursting unexpectedly with the united force of their whole body upon Wessex, Alfred was entirely overwhelmed, and obliged to drive before the storm of his fortune. He fled in disguise into a fastness in the isle of Athelney, where he remained four months in the lowest state of indigence, supported by an heroic humility, and that spirit of piety, which neither adverse fortune nor prosperity could overcome. It is much to be lamented, that a character so formed to interest all men, involved in reverses of fortune, that make the most agreeable and useful part of history, should be only celebrated by pens so little suitable to the dig nity of the subject. These revolutions are so little prepared, that we neither can perceive, distinctly, the causes which sunk him, nor those which again raised him to power. A few naked facts are all our stock. From these, we see Alfred, assisted by the casual success of one of his nobles, issuing from his retreat; he heads a powerful army once more; defeats the Danes, drives them out of Wessex, follows his blow, expels them from Mercia, subdues them in Northumberland, and makes them tributary in East Anglia; and thus established by a number of victories in a full peace, he is presented to us in that character which makes him venerable to posterity. It is a refreshment in the midst of such a gloomy waste of barbarism and desolation, to fall upon so fair and cultivated a spot. When Alfred had once more re-united the kingdoms of his ancestors, he found the whole face of things in the most desperate condition; there was no observance of law and order; religion had no force; there was no honest industry; the most squalid poverty and the grossest ignorance had overspread the whole kingdom. Alfred at once enterprized the cure of all these evils. To remedy the disorders in the government, he revived, improved and digested all the Saxon institutions; insomuch that he is generally honoured as the founder of our laws and constitution.* The shire he divided into hundreds; the hundreds into tythings; every freeman was obliged to be entered into some tything, the members of which were mutually bound for each other for the preservation of the peace, and the avoiding theft and rapine. For securing the liberty of the subject, he introduced the method of giving bail, the most certain fence against the abuses of power. It has been observed that the reigns of weak princes are times favourable to liberty; but the wisest and bravest of all the English princes is the father of their freedom. This great man was even jealous of the privileges of his subjects; and as his whole life was spent in protecting them, his last will breathes the same spirit, declaring that he had left his people as free as their own thoughts. He not only collected with great care a complete body of laws, but he wrote Historians, copying after one another, and narch the institution of juries; an institution examining little, have attributed to this mowhich certainly did never prevail among the Saxons. They have likewise attributed to him the distribution of England into shires, hundreds and tythings, and of appointing officers over shires were never settled upon any regular plan, these divisions. But it is very obvious that the nor are they the result of any single design But these reports, however ili imagined, are a strong proof of the high veneration in which this excellent prince has always been held; as it has been thought that the attributing these regulations to him would endear them to the nation. He probably settled them in such an order, and made such reformations in his government, that some of the institutions themselves, which he improved, have been attribut ed to him; and indeed there was one work of his which serves to furnish us with a higher idea of the political capacity of that great man than any of these fictions. He made a general survey and register of all the property in the king. dom;-who held it, and what it was distinctly a vast work for an age of ignorance and time of civilized nations and settled times. It was call. confusion, which has been neglected in more ed the Roll of Winton, and served as a model of a work of the same kind made by William the Conquerour. comments on them for the instruction of his judges, who were in general, by the misfortune of the time, ignorant; and if he took care to correct their ignorance, he was rigorous towards their corruption. He inquired strictly into their conduct; he heard appeals in person; he held his wittena-gemotes, or parliaments, frequently; and kept every part of his government in health and vigour. Nor was he less solicitous for the defence than he had shown himself for the regulation of his kingdom. He nourished with particular care the new naval strength, which he had established; he built forts and castles in the important posts; he settled beacons to spread an alarm on the arrival of an enemy; and ordered his militia in such a manner that there was always a great power in readiness to march, well appointed and well disciplined. But that a suitable revenue might not be wanting for the support of his flects and fortifications, he gave great encouragement to trade; which by the piracies on the coasts, and the rapine and injustice exercised by the people within, had long become a stranger to this island. In the midst of these various and important cares, he gave a peculiar attention to learning, which by the rage of the late wars had been entirely extinguished in his kingdom. "Very few there were (says this monarch) on this side the Humber, that understood their ordinary prayers; or that were able to translate any Latin book into English; so few, that I do not remember even one qualified, to the southward of the Thames, when I began my reign." To cure this deplorable ignorance, he was indefatigable in his endeavours to bring into England men of learning in all branches from every part of Europe; and unbounded in his liberality to them. He enacted by a law, that every person possessed of two hides of land should send their children to school until sixteen. Wisely considering where to put a stop to his love even of the liberal arts, which are only suited to a liberal condition, he enterprized yet a greater design than that of forming the growing generation-to instruct even the grown; enjoining all his carldormen and sheriffs immediately to apply themselves to learning, or to quit their offices. To facilitate these great purposes he made a regular foundation of an university, which with great reason is believed to have been at Oxford. Whatever trouble he took to extend the benefits of learning among his subjects, he showed the example himself, and applied to the cultivation of his mind with unparalleled dili gence and success. He could neither read He nor write at twelve years old; but he improve Religion, which in Alfred's father was so One armies, his 524 his many shining qualities and grand virtues, CHAPTER V. SUCCESSION OF KINGS FROM ALFRED TO His son Edward succeeded; though of less learning than his father, he equalled him in his political virtues; he made war with success on the Welsh, the Scots and the Danes, and left his kingdom strongly fortified; and exercised, not weakened, with the enterprizes of a vigorous reign. Because his son Edmund was under age, the crown was set on the head of his illegitimate offspring, Athelstan. His, like the reigns of all the princes of this time, was molested by the continual incursions of the Danes; and nothing but the succession of men of spirit, capacity, and love of their country, which providentially happened at this time, could ward off the ruin of the kingdom. Such Athelstan was; and such was his brother Edmund, who reigned five years with great reputation, but was at length, by an obscure ruffian, assassinated in his own palace. Edred, his brother, succeeded to the late monarchy; though he had left two sons, Edwin and Edgar, both were passed by on account of their minority. But on this prince's death, which happened after a troublesome reign of ten years, valiantly supported against continual inroads of the Danes, the crown devolved on Edwin of whom little can be said, because This his reign was short, and he was so embroiled sailed round the island, thus the Danes, the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh were kept in awe. He assumed the title of king of Albion. His court was magnificent, and much frequented by strangers. His revenues were in excellent order; and no prince of his time supported the royal character with more dignity. Edgar had two wives, Elflada and Elfrida; by the first he had a son called Edward. The second bore him one called Etheldred. On Edgar's death, Edward, in the usual order of succession, was called to the throne; but Elfrida caballed in favour of her son; and finding it impossible to set him up in the life of his brother, she murdered him with her own hands in her castle of Corfe, whither he had retired to refresh himself, wearied with hunting. Etheldred, who by the crimes of his mother, ascended a throne sprinkled with his brother's blood, had a part to act which exceeded the capacity that could be expected in one of his youth and inexperience. The partizans of the secular clergy, who were kept down by the vigour of Edgar's government, thought this a fit time to renew their pretensions. The monks defended themselves in their possessions; there was no moderation on either side, and the whole nation joined in these parties. The murder of Edward threw an odious stain on the king, though he was wholly innocent of that crime. There was a general discontent; and every corner was full of murmurs and cabals. In this state of the kingdom it was equally dangerous to exert the fulness of the sovereign authority, or to suffer it to relax. The temper of the king was most inclined to the latter method, which is of all things the worst. A weak government, too easy, suffers evils to grow, which often make the most rigorous and illegal proceedings necessary. Through an extreme lenity it is on some occasions tyrannical. This was the condition of theldred's nobility, who, by being permitted very thing, were never contented. Thus all the principal men held a sort of factious and independent authority; they despised the king; they oppressed the people, and they hated one another. The Danes, in every part of England but Wessex, as numerous as the English themselves, and in many parts more numerous, were ready to take advantage of these disorders; and waited with impatience some new attempt from abroad, that they might rise in favour of the invaders. They were not long without such an occasion; the Danes pour in almost upon every part at once, and distract the defence which the weak prince was preparing to make. In those days of wretchedness and igno rance, when all the maritime parts of Europe were attacked by these formidable enemies at once, they never thought of entering into any alliance against them; they equally neglected the other obvious method to prevent their incursions, which was to carry the war into the invaders' country. What aggravated these calamities, the nobility, mostly disaffected to the king, and entertaining very little regard to their country, made, some of them, a weak and cowardly opposition to the enemy; some actually betrayed their trust; some even were found, who undertook the trade of piracy themselves. It was in this condition that Edric, duke of Mercia, a man of some ability, but light, inconstant, and utterly devoid of all principle, proposed to buy a peace from the Danes. The general weakness and consternation disposed the king and people to take this pernicious advice. At first £.10,000 was given to the Danes, who retired with this money and the rest of their plunder. The English were now, for the first time, taxed to supply this payment. The imposition was called Danegelt, not more burthensome in the thing than scandalous in the name. The scheme of purchasing peace not only gave rise to many internal hardships, but, whilst it weakened the kingdom, it inspired such a desire of invading it to the enemy, that Sweyn, king of Denmark, came in person soon after, with a prodigious fleet and army. The English, having once found the method of diverting the storm by an inglorious bargain, could not bear to think of any other way of resistance. A greater sum, £.48,000 was now paid, which the Danes accepted with pleasure, as they could by this means exhaust their enemies, and enrich themselves with little danger or trouble. With very short intermissions they still returned, continually increasing in their demands'; in a few years they extorted upwards of £.160,000 from the English, besides an annual tribute of £.48,000. The country was wholly exhausted both of money and spirit. Danes in England, under the protection of the foreign Danes, committed a thousand insolencies; and so infatuated with stupidity and baseness were the English at this time, that they employed hardly any other soldiers for their defence. The In this state of shame and misery, their sufferings suggested to them a design rather desperate than brave. They resolved on a massacre of the Danes; some authors sav that in one night the whole race was cut off |