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the imperial claims of the British Crown ever been wholly lost sight of since. The imperial style, constantly adopted by our monarchs, is not, as is often thought, a mere turgid form of self-glorification, but expresses a historical and political claim of no small importance-the repudiation of the pretensions of Rome to political dominion in our island.1 Nor is it by any mere figure of speech that we now speak of the British Empire.' For a dominion uniting under its suzerainty regions in every part of the earth, connected with it by ties of every degree of closeness, from the Channel Islands to the Transvaal, corresponds more nearly to the original idea connoted by the word 'empire' than anything the world has seen since classical days.

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§ 6. Such are the mighty consequences springing from the coronation of Egbert. Their first manifestation was, however, long in showing itself. Egbert, a statesman of no mean order, gave at first that highest proof of statesmanship -he knew how to wait. For twenty-three years he bided his time, and then suddenly shook off the Mercian yoke. One great victory (at Ellandune) over the midland forces sufficed. Not only was Wessex freed, but the whole Saxon Name. 'The South Saxons, and the East Saxons, and the men of Kent and they of Surrey, came in unto him, for erst had they been wrongly forced from his kin. And the same year did the King of the East Angles and his folk seek wardship from King Egbert for dread of the Mercians.'

§ 7. An attempt by the Mercians to regain their conquests led to the defeat and death of their King, Beornwulf, leaving the kingdom so weakened that, in 827, Egbert was able to subdue it, thus uniting under his sceptre all England south of the Humber. He was now acclaimed Bretwalda, the first Bretwalda since Oswy of Northumberland in 642.

§ 8. This assumption of an almost obsolete title is a striking proof of Egbert's statecraft. The name had been unheard for nearly two centuries, and the last three monarchs who bore

So the statutes of 1534: This realm of England is an Empire... governed by one Supreme Head . . . having the dignity and royal estate of the Imperial Crown.' Probably Ellingham, in South-west Hampshire.

it had all been Kings of Northumbria. To the dominion of 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.

§ 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,3 and the title was first assumed by Canute. Our earlier monarchs derived their

This is found in Eginhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, A.D. So8. See Palgrave, ‘English Commonwealth,' i. 484, and Freeman, Norman Conquest,' i. $99.

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

'The earlier name (see p. 6) was Anglekin. From the first invasion of Britain, if not earlier, our Teutonic forefathers (whether Angles, Saxons 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.'

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.

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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.

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HE Viking attacks at first were mere plundering raids. Summer after summer saw a Danish fleet -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. Henry of Huntingdon graphically describes the demoralizing effect of these tactics upon the English armies:

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§ 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 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 of 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.'s The warriors fell like corn in harvest. . . and God vouchsafed the victory to His faithful." '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.'s To 'hold the battle-stead' or 'the death-stead' (wealh-stowe), i.c., to be in final posses

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

Ockley Oak Lea.
Henry of Huntingdon.

A.S. Chronicle.
Simeon of Durham.

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