ALFRED'S STATESMANSHIP. 181 It is the fondest of speculations to discover such abstract tendencies in Alfred; his devotion, his admiration of Gregory, and the wish to revive monasticism,' indicate a more Catholic tone of mind than was common in Saxon England at that time. It is possible that a more original thinker, such as Scotus Erigena was, might, if called upon to legislate, have anticipated the modes of thought that are common in our own days. But it is at least doubtful whether such high speculative talent could have been combined with the tact, the statesmanship, and the success of Alfred.2 1 Compare Cod. Dip., 310, for a notice of Alfred's daughter, Agelyue or Ayleva, who became a nun at Shaftesbury, "cogente infirmitate." 2 Pauli's Life of Alfred, p. 384. M. Pauli adopts the idea from Bicknell's Life of Alfred the Great, pp. 290-294. CHAPTER XII. THE SAXON SOVEREIGNTY. ACCESSION AND REIGN OF EDWARD. ATHELSTANE'S PARENTAGE. SUBJUGATION OF NORTHUMBRIA. RELATIONS OF ENGLAND WITH THE CONTINENT. ATHELSTANE'S LAWS. EDMund. EDRED. REvival of THE MILITARY SPIRIT. HE of Ethelred had submitted without oppo Tsition to their uncle's sovereignty; but on Alfred's death, (A. D. 901), Ethelwald put in his claim as heir to the eldest son of Ethelwulf. The witan, however, confirmed the succession in Alfred's line, partly, no doubt, influenced by the glory of their late king; partly by respect for Edward's ability, of which he had given signal proof in the defeat of Hastings at Farnham.' The decision is a memorable instance of the power claimed by the witan to appoint their king. Ethelwald, a licentious, violent man, retired into East Anglia, and allied himself with the Danes. The restless warriors acknowledged his title as lord-paramount, crossed the marches again, and penetrated into Berkshire, laying waste, as they went, till recalled by the news that Edward was ravaging Anglia. The Saxon king resolved to withdraw without a battle; but the men of Kent, who formed a separate corps, refused to obey orders, The victory re and were overtaken by the enemy. mained with the superior numbers of the Danes, but they bought it with the loss of their king and his chief nobles. Fortunately, the Pretender Æthelwald was among the slain (A. D. 905). Edward followed up and consolidated his father's conquests. On the death of his brother-in-law, the king of Mercia, (A. D. 910), Edward annexed the province, allowing it, indeed, to remain under the government of his sister, the dowager-queen, Æthelflæd; but incorporating London and Oxford at once, and the whole of the province finally, when Ethelflæd died (A. D. 919). Between A. D. 910 and A. D. 921, there was almost incessant war with the Danes of the north and east, with Danish sea-rovers, and with the Welsh. Æthelflæd seems to have been as good a general as her brother; after bearing one child, a daughter, she had of her own accord renounced motherhood; and now that her husband's death and her brother's appointment made her lady of her own land, she did justice to the appointment in several hard-fought battles; defeating the Welsh at Brecknock, and storming Derby, which its Danish citizens defended with obstinate courage. While his sister guarded the west and north, building fortresses at Runcorn, Cherbury, and Warbury, Edward carried on a series of masterly campaigns in the south and east. Having cleared Wessex of the pirates who infested its western coasts, he transferred the war to the East Anglian provinces, which were the stronghold of Norse enterprise. A line of twenty fortresses led from Witham and Colchester, through Hertford, Bedford, and Nottingham to Manchester and Chester,' while Welland Witham, Colchester, Maldon, ford, Hertford, Buckingham, BedWaymere Castle near Bishop Stort- ford, Huntingdon, Warwick, Leices 184 EDWARD'S GOVERNMENT. was planted on the borders of Lincolnshire as an outpost and base of future operations. The Danes fought furiously, making sudden dashes against the Mercian fortresses, and even tried to construct or garrison rival fortresses at Derby, Tempsford, and Cambridge. With the first reverses they sustained the people fell away from them, and gradually their own nobles were either killed off in battle, or made submission like Turketil of Bedford, and departed to seek their fortunes in other lands. At the time of Edward's death (A. D. 925) Northumbria and Wales were tributary, and most of the country south of the Humber might be regarded as a single state. The whole people had been transformed into soldiers and engineers; like a Roman legion, equally skilled with the spade and with the sword. The ransom of a Welsh Bishop (A. D. 915), and the erection of a Cornish diocese, are signal proofs of a higher unity in England. But there are signs that the peaceful interests of the country were suffering. The scanty legislation of the reign belongs to an early period, and no charters during the last fifteen years attest foundations to promote learning or piety. In one instance we find lands taken away for the king's life-time from the see of Winchester, with very scanty consent from its rightful owners.' The tradition ter, Derby, Bakewell, Tamworth, Stafford, Towcester, Nottingham, (two burgs), Manchester, Thelwall, and Chester. Of these Derby was captured from the Danes by Ethel flæd, and Leicester, with most of the local militia, made submission to her. Bishop Denewulf's language is very plaintive. The land had been valueless and without labourers when given to him, now it was In a stocked, and ninety acres sown. He ATHELSTANE. 185 of later times was that Edward left two west country sees vacant for seven years.' Men who save their country may be excused much care for scholarship, but a disregard of law and of the rights of property are some offset to the fame even of an "unconquered" king. Edward's successor, Athelstane, was his son by a first marriage with a woman not of high birth; Anglo-Saxon legend says a shepherd woman. It was doubtful whether the child of such an union had any right to succeed. But Athelstane had been the favourite of his grandfather Alfred, who delighted to see the young prince dressed up in the royal purple, with studded belt, and sword in a gold sheath. After Alfred's death the boy had been brought up by his aunt Æthelflæd, whose memory was still dear to all Englishmen, and especially to all Mercians. Lastly, Edward, anticipating dispute, had expressly declared Athelstane his successor; and Athelstane's age and reputation of themselves pointed him out as fitter for royalty than his young half-brothers. Accordingly, first the Mercian and then the West Saxon witan acknowledged him as their king. Unhappily, the Ætheling Alfred, in spite of the judgment of the nobles, attempted to seize his brother in Winchester, and unfit him for the crown by putting out his eyes. The plot was discovered, but as Alfred protested 'The story is inaccurately handed down in Malmesbury, lib. ii. p. 203, a pope who died in A. D. 896, being made to procure the appointment of a bishop consecrated in A.D. 910. But there was a division of dioceses about this time, such as Malmesbury ascribes to the effects of an angry rescript from the Pope, by which the three new sees of Sherborne, Crediton, and Cornwall were constituted. It is not unlikely that Edward was hard pressed for money in the early part of his reign, when the spoliation of Denewulf occurred, and during which no wars were engaged in. As soon as his finances were recruited he would not only make restitution, but might naturally follow the precedents of Anglo-Saxon conquest by which tribute and a bishop were commonly imposed on a conquered people. |