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CHAP. XXI.

ALFRED'S NAVY-HIS GENERAL OFFICERS-AND FORTRESSES-HIS ADMONITIONS TO BUILD CASTLES NEGLECTED-OF THE CITIES WHICH HE BUILT OR RESTORED-THE KING'S ZEAL FOR RELIGION-HIS HEARING OF THE SCRIPTURES-BUILDS MONASTERIES AT ATHELNEY, SHAFTESBURY, THE NEW MINSTER AT WINCHESTER-ALFRED'S CHILDREN-THEIR EDUCATION-THE SCHOOL FOR THE SONS OF THE NOBILITY-NO UNIVERSITIES IN THOSE TIMES-SUPPOSITION THAT ALFRED WAS NOT IN FAVOUR AT ROME.

WHEN Alfred had secured the assistance of the eminent men whom we have enumerated, he gave his whole soul to the important subject which he had in hand. His object was twofold: to set the kingdom, which he ruled, in such a state of defence, that if the enemies who had so terribly ravaged it should return, his people might be in a state of preparation to receive them; and also to improve their social condition, and to raise them to a higher state of intellectual attainment than had hitherto existed among themselves or their rude ancestors. These objects, which are commensurate with the distinction between peace and war, are the greatest which the mind of a king can compass; and that they now engrossed all Alfred's attention, is evident from the description which the ancient writers have left us concerning this portion of his life. The most important of these objects was doubtlessly the defence

and security of the kingdom against a recurrence of the evils which for many years had afflicted it. The king's prudent judgment would readily see, that all the improvements of civilization would be premature, if they were liable to be suddenly cast down by the assaults of a barbarous enemy; and his acuteness of perception could not but point out to him, that the enemy, although repulsed, was still at his very gates, ready to take advantage of any opening which should be left in his defences. Nor was the king's foresight bestowed in vain, for, as we shall presently see, the Danish hosts again fell upon him like a thunder-storm, and put the existence of his kingdom in jeopardy, almost before his means of opposing them were completed.

It was obviously necessary, to ensure the safety of England from its foreign enemies, that Alfred should possess an efficient fleet to guard the coasts, an able body of officers to organize and command the forces of each district, and a line of fortresses to serve as magazines, or rallying points for his armies, and as a check to the enemy, until reinforcements could arrive. Our knowledge of Alfred's navy is obtained less by its description than by its results. It appears, that the improvement which he introduced into ship-building, contributed principally to the successes which he gained by sea. Asser tells us, that he "commanded boats and galleys, i. e. long ships, to be built throughout the kingdom, in order to offer battle to the enemy as they were coming." The peculiarities of these new galleys are pointed out by Florence of Worcester: "they were twice as long, twice as high, sailed more quickly, and were less

Asser, an. 877. His expression is, " cymbas et galeas, i. e. longas naves."

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these ships had sixty oars, some had more; ... .. they were shaped neither like the Frisian nor the Danish, but as it seemed to Alfred that they would be most efficient in the service for which they were designed." And to this novel construction may probably be ascribed the success which Alfred almost always experienced by sea, from the first moment that he turned his thoughts to naval tactics. We have

b Anno 897.

Sax. Ch. an. 897.

Sir John Spelman expresses his inability to comprehend the advantages which Alfred's mode of construction are said to have imparted to his ships. His remarks are worth noticing: "How the ships should be so exceeding high as to double the height of the Danish ships, (when they went not with sails but oars,) I cannot well imagine, unless that, for the better receipt of soldiers, and their greater advantage in fighting, (which in those grappling seafights consisted wholly in the superiority of standing,) they had a plain level deck, above the room that the rowers sat in, and from thence with great odds of advantage annoyed those they sat upon : otherwise their height, that so much advantaged them in fight, would as much disadvantage them in speedy rowing. As for their steadiness, that argues their greatness and burden, whereby they drew the more water; which though it were an hindrance to their speed, (for the greater the body, the slower the motion,) yet that was borne out with an answerable number of rowers which their length afforded.

"If this apprehension seem difficult, then may we reckon the height spoken of to be meant of the height of their poops only, and not of the height of the whole sides of the ships, and so we may think them to have retained somewhat of the fashion of those of the Veneti, with whom when Cæsar fought, the height of their poops exceeded the tops of the fighting-turrets that were in Cæsar's ships: but those ships of the Veneti went not with oars, but with sails of leather, and these either only or chiefly with oars.

"If further we enquire after the form of shipping used by the Saxons, Tacitus [De mor. Germ.] tells us, that the Suiones (who were part of the Suevians, as the Saxons were) used a kind of shipping in the Baltic sea very rude and plain, that was high before

already seen, that the difficulty which principally attends the first construction of a navy, namely, to procure sailors by whom the ships may be manned, did not exist at this time, for there were swarms of pirates and private adventurers, covering all the face of the northern seas, and ready to take service wherever a sufficient compensation was offered to them. There can be no doubt that a large number of sailors were included among the "many Franks, Frisons, Gauls, Pagans [i. e. Danes], Britons, Scots, and Armoricans, noble and ignoble, who," as Asser tells us, "submitted voluntarily to his dominion";" and as they "all of them, according to their nation and their merits, were ruled, loved, honoured, and enriched with money and power," it is not surprising that Alfred's endeavours were successful, or that his fleet speedily became equal to the task of defending his coasts, and even of assailing the enemy upon their own element.

As the creation and maintenance of a navy occupied an important place in the king's thoughts, so has it also been asserted by almost all succeeding writers, that he improved the use and practice of arms, to the great

and behind, and made indifferent to go with either end forward, but forced only with oars, which they did not use in any constant, fixed seats of rowing, but removed to and fro to any end or part of their ships, as occasion served, (as we may see them do in our cock-boats and lighters.) These were slow for any service, though Tacitus counts the Suiones to be somebody in shipping. Whether the Saxons came over in such vessels, and whether they continued the use of them, or found here a better form, I shall leave to the disquisition of others. It is sufficient to our purpose to shew, that, whatsoever they formerly were, the king augmented the use of them, both in number and condition, over what they were before his coming to the crown." LIFE OF ALFRED, p. 151.

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advancement of military discipline: but, as has been remarked by Sir John Spelman on this subject", " had the particulars of his ordinances in that behalf remained unto us, there is no doubt but they would have afforded matter both to his glory, and to the delight (and use perhaps) of posterity: but such particulars failing, there yet are manifest demonstrations, that he did much in that kind, and to very good purpose." It is probable that many institutions, already in existence before the accession of Alfred, have been ascribed, by the fond admiration of posterity, to the invention of their favourite king; as instances of which we may adduce the well-known and long-established dignity of earl or alderman, and probably others whose origin is lost in antiquity: yet that Alfred modified the military system of the Anglo-Saxons and put it on a more efficient basis, is evidently to be inferred from several passages of the old chroniclers; it is probable that the ancient officers of the kingdom, aldermen and others, were

Life of Alfred, p. 147. "John Hardyng," observes Hearne, [p. 149.] "sums up the king's military performances in the following words: [Chron. f. 108. b.]

And in the year viii C. lxxx and eighteen

Then Alured this noble king so died :

When he had reigned xxix year clean
And with the Danes in battles multiplied
He faughten often, as Colman notified
In his Chronicle aud in his Catalogue
Entitled well, as in his dialogue.

That fifty battailles and six he smote,

Sometime the worse and sometime had the better,

Sometime the field he had, as it is note,

Sometime he fled away, as saith the letter,

Like as Fortune his cause left unfeter.

But nevertheless as oft when so they came,

He countered them and kept the land from shame."

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