CHAPTER III

ALFRED'S WARS

THE whole of the ninth century was one longcontinued time of war. The kings fought against each other; nation was divided against nation; they fought the Welsh of Cumberland, Wales, and Cornwall; they fought the raiders from Norway; they fought the invaders from Denmark. When Alfred succeeded, the land, as he said, was "despoiled by the heathen folk." In the appendix to this chapter I have drawn up a list from the Chronicle of the battles which were fought upon the soil of England during this century.

Briefly, Egbert died in 836, and the supremacy of Wessex practically died with him. Ethelwulf, his son, who succeeded him, was already in middle life, and the father of at least one son arrived at manhood. This son, Athelstan, he made under-king of Kent and of the South Saxons, keeping himself free for Wessex and the British enemies of Cornwall. Of Athelstan we hear, in 851, when with Elcherc the ealdorman, he met and fought the enemy in ships off Sandwich, taking some of their vessels, but not able to prevent them wintering in Thanet-the first of many winterings on English ground.

This is the last we hear of a Saxon fleet until Alfred once more created a naval force. It was in this year that Ethelwulf, with his son Ethelbald,

fought the northernmen at Ockley, in Surrey, and there made the greatest slaughter of the heathen that we have heard reported to the present day." Nothing more is said about Athelstan; but five years later we find the third son, Ethelbert, taking his place as under-king of Kent and Sussex.

In 860 Ethelbald died, after a short reign of five years, and was succeeded by his brother Ethelbert. In his reign the heathen landed on the coast of Hampshire-probably at Southampton-and stormed Winchester, but were defeated and put to flight by the men of Hampshire.

In 865 the Danes made peace with the Kentish men from their winter quarters in Thanet, taking money in return for the promise of peace. They broke their pledge, however, and overran Kent, ravaging the whole country. In 865 Ethelbert died, and was succeeded by his fourth brother, Ethelred. In that year another great army of Danes came over and made their winter quarters in East Anglia, where the people provided them with horses, and bought peace of them at a price.

In 867 they left East Anglia, and went into Northumbria; at York, where they were settled in the autumn for their winter quarters, the Northumbrians attacked them, broke into the town, and killed a great many, but were themselves driven out with the loss of both their kings. They then, we hear, "made peace," i.e. bought peace, "with the army." Observe that we have here the third example of a weakness

which was a direct encouragement to the enemy; the people bought peace in Kent, bought peace in East Anglia, bought peace in Northumbria. What kind of respect would the Danes hold towards a people which bought peace instead of winning peace at the sword-point? Therefore we are in no way surprised when we find them going into Mercia the following year, and taking up their winter quarters at Nottingham. Then the King of Mercia, Burhred, who was married to Ethelwulf's daughter, asked the assistance of King Ethelred, his brother-in-law. Observe

that the assistance is no longer claimed as it would have been if the supremacy of Wessex had been maintained. Wessex is now only another and a sister kingdom. Ethelred marched to his brother-in-law's help, however, accompanied by Alfred, who was now in his nineteenth year. They found the Danes in a fortified camp at Nottingham. There was no great battle; the men of Wessex, finding that the enemy would not come out to fight, retired, and the Mercians "made peace," i.e. bought peace-the fourth nation which thus sold their honour and betrayed their liberties.

The weak points in the defence were (see Oman on Alfred as Warrior, Bowker's Alfred," p. 119), first, the want of a central organization for defence. The necessity for such an organization had probably forced itself upon the recognition of the leaders; this may explain the apparent ease with which Wessex obtained the supremacy under Egbert. That supremacy broke down on account of the difficulty of moving troops

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from one place to another where there were no roads, or only tracks through forests, and the waterways of rivers, which were useless without boats. Yet we find Burhred of Mercia calling in the aid of Ethelred. Against this difficulty on the part of the defenders set the superior mobility of the Danes: they had their light boats, which could float on all the rivers, they requisitioned all the horses; they had the fleet at their backs. While the Saxons were slowly moving towards them they could embark and make for another part of the country.

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There was, next, the want of a regular army. There were two classes of fighting men among the Saxons-the thanes, who held the land, and were bound to join the host on the summons of the king, and the ceorls, or peasants. former class were well armed, and carried coatsof-mail, helmets, and shields; the latter went into battle armed with nothing more than a pike. The army was a kind of militia, called a fyrd. It was called out by consent of the Witenagemot; it served, as a rule, no more than two months, when the men returned to their homes. Before success could be hoped, it was absolutely necessary that the king should be able to call out his army without consulting the Witan, and that this army should assume a character of greater permanence.

It was also necessary that the men should be fully equipped if they were to act with success against an enemy whose first care was the acquisition of good weapons and good armour. In order to effect this it was necessary to enlarge

the class of thanes, who would supply their own arms, and to provide better weapons for the ceorls.

Another point of weakness was the want of fortified places. There appear to have been none at all. The Saxons, as we have seen, disliked towns and scorned walls. Therefore the old Roman walls had been allowed to fall into decay; even at York, Chester, London, Winchester, and Canterbury, where there were. ancient walls, the gates had been torn away from their hinges, and the walls themselves were broken down. Now, the possession of fortified places would have given the defenders an enormous advantage; on the other hand, the Danes understood the value of a fortified position. They chose for their camps places protected, for choice, by a river or the bend of a river, where their ships could lie moored, and for the parts unprotected they dug a ditch and then put up a stockade. It seems strange that the Saxons should have been so long in learning. the lesson of the value of fortifications, but the habits of a whole people are not easily changed. They had first to learn that walls, stockades, and ditches were invaluable in war; next, to learn how to construct them; and lastly, how to defend them.

It seems equally strange that they did not understand the value of a fleet. We have seen Athelstan, the eldest son, fighting the Danes with ships. It is the first appearance of a fleet and the last, until Alfred restored the English navy. One would like to know more