ETHELRED SUCCEEDS ETHELBERT.

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he was unable to carry it into effect till 855. In this year "he went to Rome in great state, and dwelt there for the space of twelve months." He gave

many costly gifts to the churches, the clergy, and the people of Rome; and rebuilt the Saxon school, which had been destroyed by fire. According to some accounts the tax called "Peter's Pence began in an endowment which Ethelwulf gave for the singing of masses for his soul. On his way home he was hospitably entertained by King Charles the Bald, whose daughter Judith he married. Judith was then twelve years old.

Something in the King's conduct, possibly this marriage, and the following elevation of Judith to the rank of queen, a title which no wife of a West Saxon king had held since the days of Sexburh,' seems to have offended his subjects. Anyhow we find his son Ethelbald conspiring with some of the bishops and nobles to prevent his return. The result was a compromise, and Ethelwulf contented himself with the eastern division of his kingdom. He died in 858, and was succeeded by his second and third sons (the eldest had died some years before). Ethelbald continued to reign in Wessex, of which, as has been said, he had made himself master before his father's death; Ethelbert took the eastern sub-kingdoms for his share, but, on his elder brother's death in 860, succeeded to the whole. He died in 866, and was succeeded by his next brother, Ethelred. Ethelred's reign of five years was, as we have seen, wholly occupied with the Danish war. Both he and Ethel

bert left children, but it was not a time when children could reign. A king was wanted who could lead his armies in person, and Alfred, the youngest of the sons

of Ethelwulf, was called to the throne.

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ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR.

IT is a happy circumstance that when we come to the greatest of England's early kings, perhaps we may say, the greatest of all kings that she has ever had, we find, for the first time, the story of his life told by one who knew him well. Asser, a Welshman by birth, and brought up in what we may call the Cathedral School of St. David's, has left a book entitled, "Annals of the Deeds of Alfred the Great." It abounds with little personal touches. The writer tells of Alfred's prowess as a hunter, and tells us that he has often seen proofs of it himself. He describes the battle of Ashdown, and speaks of the "stunted thorn tree," round which the battle raged most fiercely, as seen with his own eyes. In short, he lived with the great king as with a friend, and draws him, so to speak, from the life.1

Alfred was born in 849 at Wantage, in Berkshire, the youngest of the five sons of King Ethulwulf and Osburga, daughter of Oslac, the royal cupbearer.

1 I must not conceal from my readers that the genuineness of Asser's "Life of Alfred" has been doubted. But the great weight of competent opinion is in favour of receiving it.

Oslac was of Jutish race, and traced his descent from Stuf, one of the two brothers to whom Cerdic gave the Isle of Wight. The King seems to have. had a special affection for his youngest son. He sent him in his fifth year, with a great train of nobles, to Rome, where Pope Leo IV. is said to have anointed him king, a strange thing if, indeed, it be true, as the boy had then three, if not four, brothers older than himself. Another visit to Rome, this time in company with his father, is recorded by Asser under the year 855.

"As he grew through infancy and boyhood," says the Chronicler, "he was seen to be more comely of form than his brothers, more gracious in look and speech and manner of life. From his cradle there was implanted in him by the nobility of his disposition a love of wisdom above all other things. Nevertheless, shameful to relate, by the unworthy neglect of his parents and tutors, he remained wholly untaught till the twelfth year of his age, and even beyond. Nevertheless, listening with thoughtful attention night and day to Saxon poems as they were recited by others, he teachably kept them in remembrance. In hunting of every kind he practised assiduously and with success; no one could compare with him for skill and good fortune in this matter, as we have ourselves often witnessed. Now on a certain day his mother 2 showed to him and his

1 Asser could hardly have had personal knowledge of it.

2 If the story is true, this must have been his stepmother Judith. His own mother is said to have died when he was seven years old. Judith was married to Ethelwulf in the year 856, and when she came to England Alfred was in his thirteenth year.

ALFRED AS A SCHOLAR.

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brothers a certain book of Saxon poetry which she had in her hand, and said, 'Whoever of you shall most quickly learn this book shall have it, to him will I give it.' Fired by these words, and verily by a divine inspiration, and greatly charmed also by the beauty of the first letter of this book, he made answer to his mother, Wilt thou verily give this book to one of us, even to him who shall most speedily be able to understand it, and to repeat it before thee?' Thereupon she laughed in much joy, and said, 'Verily I will give it to him.' Thereupon he took it out of her hand, and going to his teacher read it, and having read it, brought it back to his mother and recited it. After this he learned the daily course, that is, the Hours; and after these certain Psalms and many prayers, which, collected in one volume, he kept day and night in his bosom, as I have myself seen, carrying it about with him incessantly to assist him in his prayers, amidst all the business of his life. . . . This he would declare, with many deep sighs, to have been one of the greatest hindrances of his life, that when he was of the age to learn, and had leisure and capacity, he could not find teachers; but when he was more advanced in years, he suffered from diseases unknown to all physicians of the island, and was harassed by the cares of sovereignty within and without, and was distracted by incessant attacks of the heathen so that he could not read."

We shall see that, in spite of these hindrances, Alfred contrived to do much good work in the way of reading and writing. The chief of the ailments. from which he suffered seems to have been epilepsy.