CHAP. XVIII.

ALFRED'S PLAN FOR CONVERTING THE DANES INTO USEFUL SUBJECTSTHEY SETTLE IN EAST ANGLIA-THE TREATY BETWEEN ALFRED AND GUTHRUM-A NEW BODY OF DANES UNDER HASTING LAND AT FULHAM, BUT ARE COMPELLED TO LEAVE THE KINGDOM-THEIR ADVENTUREs and raVAGES ON THE CONTINENT BETWEEN 880 AND

893.

WHEN we take a just and comprehensive view of human nature, and of the circumstances with which man is surrounded, we detect so many cases in which misfortune borders upon crime, and crime upon misfortune, that it is often impossible to punish the transgressor, without adding an undeserving weight of affliction to him who already is sufficiently unhappy. This observation applies to whole nations even more than to individuals; for a national calamity falls upon all alike in some sort, though probably in different degrees; and whenever an entire nation or a large body of men are driven by the all-powerful force of necessity", the evils which they commit are to be judged by a different standard from that which we apply to crimes, prompted by no necessities, but springing from an inherent and spontaneous love of evil. When we read in the Saxon Chronicle, that, notwithstanding the total subjugation to which Guthrum and his Danes were reduced, they did not leave Alfred's dominion for a whole year after their submission, and find no notice taken of any The fate of the Ancients.

A

R

attempt on the king's part to compel them to perform their agreement, the reflection may occur, that the bodies of Danes who so long ravaged the northern coasts of Europe, were not all of them led by a pure and simple love of war and plunder, but in some cases, perhaps, were driven by necessity, not choice, to procure subsistence, clothing, and houses to cover them from the cold, in other lands, less populous than their own, or more abundant in producing the necessaries of life. It is probable that England in the ninth century was far less thickly peopled than the countries which border on the German ocean, out of which the hosts of Danish pirates had issued. It is also likely that many of the Danish armies, when defeated by King Alfred, were in consequence beholden to him for their daily food, and having no home to return to, must have perished, if he had not taken compassion upon their destitute condition. Men do not wish to pass all their lives in roving about the world, and gathering booty, wherever booty is to be found. It is natural to them to look forwards to retirement and ease from the bustle and turmoil in which their lives have been spent. When, therefore, the King proposed to embody the vanquished Danes among his own subjects, and to assign them lands for their maintenance, his policy was obviously two-fold; first, to people more densely the country over which he reigned, and to strengthen his power by the accession of a brave body of men to defend it; secondly, to free himself from the embarrassment which the Danes left to themselves might have given him, and mercifully to relieve them also from the terrible sufferings, which in their forlorn condition would have again provoked them to ravage, and have probably carried them on to their own destruction.

b

The army of Guthrum left Chippenham in 879, and marched to Cirencester, where they remained twelve months, after which they removed into East Anglia, and, dividing the country among them, began to occupy and cultivate their new possessions. This triumphant and peaceful termination of a war, which had begun under such disastrous circumstances, has always been considered as the culminating point of Alfred's policy, and has attached to him that character for wisdom, by which he has ever since been distinguished. But the accommodation with Guthrum was not complete until it could be placed upon a broader basis than those temporary arrangements which had formerly been effected between the king and the Danes, to suit a momentary emergency, and which had been broken without compunction. It was now the intention of the king to blend the two nations into one, and to ratify their union by a legislative treaty, on the one hand, brief and intelligible to all parties, and on the other hand, more liberal and comprehensive than had ever been before witnessed between nations that had struggled one against the other in bitter and unrelenting hostility. The treaty between Alfred and Guthrum has come down to us entire. Two copies of it exist in the original Anglo-Saxon language, but with so little variation of phraseology, that it is unnecessary to make a distinction between the two.

Turner remarks, [vol. i. p. 574.] "It is said in the Saxon life of Neot, that after the pacification, Godrun, with the remains of his army, departed in peace to his own country, to his agenem earde mid ealre sibbe.' MS. Vesp. D. 14. This seems to imply a return to Denmark, as East Anglia was not properly his own country." I should rather infer the loose and inaccurate character of the "Life," for few of these biographies have any direct historical value.

• Saxon Ch. Ass. Ethel. Flor. Sim. Hunt.

d

The original of the treaty may be seen in the Appendix, No. IV.

The whole of this curious treaty is contained in five paragraphs, as follows:

"ALFRED AND GUTHRUM'S PEACE.

e

"This is the peace that King Alfred and King Guthrum, and the witan of all the English nation, and all the people that are in East-Anglia, have all ordained and with oaths confirmed, for themselves and for their descendants, as well for born as for unborn, who reck of God's mercy or of ours.

"First, concerning our land-boundaries: up on the Thames, and then up on the Lea, and along the Lea unto its source, then right to Bedford, then up on the Ouse unto Watling-Street.

"Then is this: if a man be slain, we estimate all equally dear', English and Danish, at eight half-marks of pure gold; except the churls who resides on gavelland and their liesings ", they also are equally dear, at two hundred shillings. And, if a king's thane be accused of man-slaying, if he dare to clear himself, let him do that with twelve king's thanes. If any one accuse that man, who is of less degree than the king's thane, let him clear himself with eleven of his equals and with one king's thane. And so in every suit which may be for more than four mancuses. And, if

• Wise men-equivalent to our modern Parliament.

This may appear singular to the modern reader, unless he is aware that the punishment of death was not inflicted in such cases: a sum of money called the were-gild was adjudged, according to the rank of the deceased.

Rustic, or farmer: certain lands in Kent are still subject to the law of gavel-kind.

h In Iceland they still call a freedman a leysingi..

note

For an account of the mancus, see page 12 of the Appendix,

he dare not, let him pay for it three-fold, as it may be valued.

Of warranters.

"And that every man know his warrantor for men, and for horses, and for oxen.

"And we all ordained on that day that the oaths were sworn, that neither bond nor free might go to the host without leave, no more than any of them to us. But, if it happen, that from necessity any of them will have traffic with us, or we with them, with cattle and with goods, that is to be allowed in this wise; that hostages be given in pledge of peace, and as evidence whereby it may be known that the party has a clear back."

i. e. the army of the Danes. Lappenberg understands this restriction in a very different sense, hardly (I think) to be justified by the language. "The provisions," says he, of the treaty" are remarkable, which, by their contingent prohibition, shew that Englishmen, both free and servile, were in the habit of passing over to the Danish army; though of Christian fugitives, who even sought aid from the Northmen against their own countrymen, many examples occur, and we meet with a very remarkable one at this time. Isembard, seigneur of La Ferté in Ponthieu, having had a quarrel with his mother's brother King Louis, the son of Louis the Stammerer, had renounced his faith, and fled to Guthrum before he had become a convert to Christianity, and had been received with welcome. He accompanied him on his expeditions in England, and conducted him, to whom the treaty with Ælfred had afforded leisure, but no quiet,-back with him to his country, where, after many devastations, and the burning of the rich abbey of St. Riquier on the Somme, they were driven back at Saucourt in the district of Vimeu by King Louis the Third." [vol. ii. p. 57.] "See Alberici Chron. a. 881. Guthrum is here called Guormund, as in the passage there previously extracted from Malmesbury. The Chron. S. Richarii, ap. Bouquet, t. viii. p. 273. calls him Guaramund, and makes him fall at Saucourt." IBID. note 2.