THE PAGANS WASTE SCEAPIGE.

187

makes no mention of the Northmen. We learn from other sources indeed that they plundered Hii (lona) in 808, and they were certainly seen elsewhere along the coasts of Europe, even as far south as the Mediterranean. It may have been to this time that the story told of the Emperor Charles refers. He was visiting one of the seaport towns of Southern France. when some fast-sailing, square-rigged ships were spied. No one knew to what nation they belonged. Some thought that they came from Africa, others that they belonged to British traders. A message came that the crews had landed, and were plundering the shore. Immediately all seized their arms and hastened to the harbour. The Northmen, hearing that the Emperor was in the place, and not feeling themselves strong enough to fight with him, hastened back to their ships and set sail. As Charles from his window watched them depart, he burst into tears. "I do not weep," he said, "because I fear that these wretches can do me any harm. I grieve because they have dared, even while I am yet alive, to show themselves upon these coasts, and because I dread the evil which they will do to my descendants." Towards the close of his reign Egbert came into collision with these terrible enemies. Under the date 832 the Chronicle has: "In this year the Pagans wasted Sceapige [Sheppey-'Sheep Island ']. The next year they came in greater force. King Egbert fought with thirty-five Carrum [Charmouth, in Dorsetshire]. The slaughter was great, but the pirates held the field of battle."

I Charles died in 812.

"In this year

pirate ships at

This means, of course, that the King was defeated. He is said to have been so much alarmed by this disaster that he summoned a council of sub-kings and nobles1 to meet him in London and devise measures of defence against the new enemy. Such measures were needed, for in 835 the Danes returned in greater force than before. “In this year a great array of ships came to the Britons of the West Country, and made alliance with them against Egbert, King of Wessex. When the King heard of the matter, he marched with his army against them, and fought with them at Hengesterdun [Hengston Hill, in Cornwall]. Then he put to flight

both the Britons and the Danes. The King is said to have severely punished the Britons for their share in this treaty, banishing all of their race from his dominions." In the following year he died, and was succeeded by his son Ethelwulf, then sub-king of Kent. This office Ethelwulf handed on to his own son, Athelstan.

For some years the history of England is little but a history of continual struggle between its people and the Danish invaders. In 837 two great battles were fought, one at Southampton, where the rovers, who had come with a fleet of thirty-three ships, were defeated; another at Portland, where the alderman. Ethelhelm, with a following of the men of Dorsetshire, after being successful during the greater part of the day, was finally beaten and slain. The following Lappenberg (ii. 8) mentions a Mercian charter, published at this time, which bears the signature of the bishops, but not of the kings whom they represented. These are supposed to have been engaged at the Council in London.

1

ALDERMAN EALCHER.

189

years brought still worse disasters. "The Alderman Herebright, and many of the men of the Marshes, were slain by the Pagans." It is not clear who are meant by the "men of the Marshes." Possibly they may have been the inhabitants of the low-lying shore between Hythe and Hastings. The east coast, as far north as Lincolnshire, was attacked in the same years. "Many men in Lindsey [North Lincolnshire], and East Anglia and Kent were slain by their army." The following year there was "a great slaughter in London, Canterbury, and Rochester;" and in the year after again, “King Ethelwulf fought at Carrum [Charmouth] with thirty-five ships of the pirates; and the Danes held the field of battle."

A few years afterwards we find a bishop taking the field against the invaders. This was in Somersetshire, near the mouth of the Parret, when the Danes had landed, the men of Dorsetshire and Somersetshire combining to resist them. In 851 came a more formidable attack than ever, and afterwards a time of rest. The Chronicler thus relates the events. "In this year the Alderman Ceorl, with the men of Devonshire, fought with an army of the pagans at Wensbury (?), and made a great slaughter of them, and won the victory. In the same year King Athelstan [of Kent] and the Alderman Ealcher fought a battle at sea, and routed a great fleet at Sandwich in Kent, taking nine ships, and putting the rest to flight. The Pagans also now for the first time abode in winter quarters at Thanet. And the same year there came three hundred and fifty ships to the mouth of the Thames, and went up, and took by storm Canter

bury and London, and put to flight Beortwulf, King of the Mercians, and his army. Then they went southwards across the Thames into Surrey; and then King Ethelwulf and his son Ethelbald fought against them with an army of the West Saxons. And the King and his men made a greater slaughter of them than had ever before been made of the Pagans, and gained the victory." The wintering of the Danes in Thanet is a very significant fact. It is not expressly said when it took place; probably it was in the winter before the battles here mentioned, and the huge army which Ethelwulf defeated came with the hope of making a permanent settlement in the country.

It would be tedious to relate all the Danish incursions of which the Chronicle makes mention. In 854 we find the "Pagans" wintering in Sheppey. For years afterwards they land in Kent, where the people vainly endeavour to purchase peace. The Danes take the money, but the same night secretly leave the camp and plunder all the eastern part of the country. The year following they make a descent on East Anglia, where, says the Chronicle, they became horsemen, and the people made a peace with them." It was in East Anglia that they gained their strongest hold of the country. To this day that part of England, in its names, and in the character of its population, shows many traces of their presence. In 868 we find them in Mercia, at Nottingham, that is, in the very heart of England. King Ethelred. besieged them there. There is nothing memorable about the war, for the Mercians seem to have soon

THE LINDSEY MEN DEFEAT THE DANES. 191

come to terms with the invaders, except that a notable person, Alfred, the King's youngest brother, of whom I shall have much to say hereafter, was present at the siege. The next year the Pagans took possession of York; and in the next again (870) they took up their winter quarters at Thetford in Norfolk. Two picturesque stories now relieve the dreary record of these incessant conflicts.

The men of Lindsey encountered and defeated, with the loss of three of their kings, a Danish army which had issued from York. It was only the darkness that saved them from total destruction. But after nightfall the Danes were joined by a numerous body of their countrymen. The English, who were under the command of the Alderman Alfgar, were so terrified by the news that out of eight thousand two thousand only had the courage to remain with their leader. These Alfgar arrayed the next day in order of battle, commanding himself the centre, and placing the Alderman of Lincoln on the left and Morcar on

the right. Chiefs and soldiers received the communion, and awaited the attack of the Pagans in close, wedgelike array. All day long the Danes assailed them in vain. Towards evening they used the stratagem of a feigned flight. The Saxons pursued without heeding the advice of their leaders. to be cautious. When they were scattered over the field, the Danes turned upon them, and destroyed them almost to a man. From the field of battle the Danes proceeded to the Abbey of Croyland. The abbot had hidden his treasures, and sent his monks to hide themselves in the marshes. Only a few old