a King of Wessex the Northumbrians would never have submitted without a desperate struggle, which might well have tried Egbert's newly-built edifice of power beyond its strength. But when, as Bretwalda, he claimed their allegiance, and backed his claim by appearing with his full force on their border, they dared not resist.

9. Had Charlemagne been still alive it might well have been otherwise. For his claims, as Roman Emperor, to the old Roman dominion over Britain had been acknowledged by the Northumbrian Princes1 in their dread of subjection to the nearer power of Mercia. And even the great Offa, the most powerful of all the Mercian Kings, had not dared to violate the frontiers of the new Cæsar, though himself refusing to bow to him. An appeal for protection to their Augustus would almost certainly have brought a Roman army to the defence of the Northumbrians so long as Charlemagne was Roman Emperor. But Charlemagne was gone; the new Western Empire was divided amongst his worthless grandsons, and such outlying fragments as Northumbria had no chance of aid from any of them. The very fact that Egbert had ventured to call himself by a title which implied a claim to dominion over all Britain was in itself a defiance of the imperial counter-claim-a defiance which it was sufficiently plain that the imperial authorities were in no case to take up.

2

§ 10. Thus, without a battle, Egbert added Northumbria to his dominions, and now at last, in 828, took the new and loftier title, 'King of the English.' No contemporary knew him as King of England,' for that name for our land did not come into use till the eleventh century, and the title was

·

3

1 This is found in Eginhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, A.D. 808. See Palgrave, English Commonwealth,' i. 484, and Freeman, 'Norman Conquest,' i. 599.

2 In a charter of this year he first appears as Ecgberhtus gratia Dei Anglorum Rex' (Kemble, 'Cod Dip.,' i. 287).

3 The earlier name (see p. 6) was Anglekin. From the first invasion of Britain, if not earlier, our Teutonic forefathers (whether Angles, Saxon's or Jutes) knew their race as a whole by the Anglian name. To the Britons, on the other hand, they were all alike Saxons,' as we still find in the Welsh and Gaelic 'Sassenach.'

first assumed by Canute. Our earlier monarchs derived their only territorial designations from their imperial sway over the whole island. Their charters describe them as ' Monarchus totius Britanniæ,'' totius Albionis Archon,' 'Britanniarum Rex,' but in speaking of their kingship over their own kinsfolk it is always Anglo-Saxonum Rex,' 'Gentis Angligenæ Rex,' and such-like racial designations.

§ 11. Nevertheless, Egbert was, to all intents and purposes, King of England, and England was at last a single realm, able to confront, as a united whole, the coming tempest of the Scandinavian invasions. It was but just in time. Only four years later, in 832, the Danes came back, and from thence onward their attacks became unremitting.

CHAPTER III.

Danish invasions renewed-Sack of London-Battle of Ockley-First Danish settlements-Raid of 870-St. Edmund-Invasion of Wessex-Alfred succeeds to the throne.

HE Viking attacks at first were mere plundering raids. Summer after summer saw a Danish fleet

THE

-a 'summer-lead,' as it was called-cross the North Sea, to ravage one district or another, never far inland, sometimes to be defeated, sometimes not, but in either event to make off, after an inroad of a few weeks, with their booty. The incomparably superior mobility of sea-borne troops as compared with land forces enabled them to choose their own point of attack, and, ere the hastily - summoned English levies could reach them, to pounce upon some undefended spot, or more than one, in quite another direction.

1

Henry

of Huntingdon graphically describes the demoralizing effect of these tactics upon the English armies:

§ 2. Wonder was it, how, when the English Kings were hasting to meet them in the East, ere they could come up with their bands, a breathless scout would run in, saying, "Sir King, whither marchest thou? The heathen have landed in the South, a countless fleet. Towns and hamlets are in flames, fire and slaughter on every side." Yea, and that very day another would come running: “Sir King, why withdrawest thou? A fearsome host has come to shore in the West. If ye face them not speedily, they will hold that ye flee, and will be on your rear with fire and sword." Again on the morrow would dash up yet another, saying, "What place make ye for, noble chieftains? In the North have the Danes made a raid. Already have they burnt your dwellings. Even now are they sweeping off your goods, tossing your babes. on their spear-points, dishonouring your wives, and haling

1 See § 3.

them to captivity." Bewildered by such various tidings of bitter woe, both Kings and people lost heart and strength, both of mind and body, and were utterly cast down.'

3. So things went on for twenty years, during which eight of these miserable summers, with their rapid, rushing invasions, are recorded, and then comes a further step. In 851 we meet in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with the ominous entry: This year did the heathen folk, for the first time, bide over winter.'

§ 4. This was in the island of Thanet, the first permanent abode of the Anglo-Saxon invaders 400 years earlier. Both Danes and English seem to have realized the significance of this fact. The former were encouraged to reinforce their pioneers the next year by no fewer than 350 ships, ten times the average number of a Danish marauding expedition, and the greatness of the peril roused the English to a desperate effort of defence, which proved successful. The Danish crews, leaving their great mass of vessels at the mouth of the Thames, stormed first Canterbury, and then London—the only time in history that our Metropolis has ever been taken by assaultand then poured southward across Surrey, With the whole West Saxon force, Ethelwulf, the son and successor 1 Egbert, and the father of Alfred, met them at Ockley, in their march along the ancient Stane Street' through the Weald. And there, beneath the old oak-trees? of the Sussex forest, 'made they the greatest slaughter among the heathen host that ever we heard tell of, even unto this day, and there gat they the victory.' 'The warriors fell like corn in harvest . . . and God vouchsafed the victory to His faithful.' 4 'Thus that self-same day did the Christians win a glorious victory. And they held the battle-stead; with hymns and praises giving thanks to God.' 5 To hold the battle-stead' or 'the death-stead' (wealh-stowe), i.e. to be in final possession

of

1 An interesting relic of this King may be seen in the medal-room of the British Museum-a peculiarly-shaped gold ring with the word ETHELWLF (sic) on a ground of blue enamel.

=

2 Ockley Oak Lea.

4 Henry of Huntingdon.

3 A. S. Chronicle.

5 Simeon of Durham.

of the field of battle, was. amongst the Anglo-Saxons, the accepted phrase for gaining the victory. So we still speak of winning the field.

§ 5. This was, however, but a momentary respite. The Danish raids continued, and in 855 the invaders again wintered in the land, this time in the island of Sheppey. In 860 'a mighty ship-host came to land and stormed Winchester,' and from this date onwards we read of 'the host' of the Danes. They were henceforth always somewhere in the land, and more and more tended to form permanent settlements within its borders.

§ 6. The first of these was in East Anglia, a district in that day almost insular in character, accessible (from a military point of view) by but one narrow strip of down between the Cambridgeshire fens and the primeval forest which crowned the 'East Anglian heights.' And this strip, along which ran the Icknield Street, the ancient warpath of the British Iceni (the clan of Boadicea), was defended across its whole breadth, at this date, by two great ramparts-the Fleam Dyke, near Cambridge, and the well-known Devil's Dyke, near Newmarket.

§ 7. East Anglia thus formed a secure base for the searovers, where their wives, their ships, and their wealth' could safely be left while they ravaged elsewhere. And their ravages were no longer confined to the sea-board of England. In 866 'they were horsed' (though whence they got all their horses in a land where these animals were commonly used neither for war nor husbandry is a most puzzling question), and burst forth from their East Anglian fastness for a four years' campaign through the very heart of the country. York fell, and Nottingham, and Peterborough, and Ely; Edmund, the saintly King of East Anglia, who had endeavoured, as it would seem, to raise a diversion in the rear of the pirates so soon as they left his realm, was defeated and martyred; and in 871 the Danes crossed the Thames at Reading, 'rushing like a torrent and carrying all before them," and poured with their whole force into Wessex itself.

1 Henry of Huntingdon.