XXV.

ETHELRED AND SWEYN.

FOR two years after the treaty with Olaf England had rest from the Northmen. It is significant of the feeling of security that this breathing space seemed to give, that now at last the long wanderings of the relics of Cuthbert of Lindisfarne came to an end. Their first resting-place had been in the monastery of Lindisfarne. Thence they had been removed at the rumour of the Danish invasion of 875. After eight years of wandering, during which it was at one time. intended to transport them to Ireland, they found in 883 what seemed a permanent abode at Chester-leStreet, five miles north of the present city of Durham. At Chester-le-Street they remained for more than a hundred years. Again the terror of the Danes drove them forth. This time they wandered as far south as Ripon in Yorkshire. Thence again, when peace seemed assured, they set out for their old home at Chester But the bishop and his monks were attracted on their road by the charms of the site at Durham. At Durham they remained, and remain to

this day. The hope of peace was disappointed, but that it was strong at the time is proved by the action of the guardians of the relics. It was still some years before the great Sweyn was to reappear. He was busy at home. But the incursions of the Northmen began again in 997. In that and the two following years they are reported as having ravaged the south and west coasts of England. Cornwall, Wales, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex, and Kent, are mentioned among the places which suffered from them. It was the plunder of these last districts that seems to have stirred up the King and his counsellors to action; but it was action that did more harm than good. After telling us that the Danes, when they had routed the men of Kent, took to themselves horses, and rode whithersoever they would, and laid waste the whole western part of Kent, the Chronicler goes on: "Then it was ordered by the King and his nobles that an army should be gathered together both by sea and land. But when the ships had been got ready, they delayed from day to day, and the unhappy people that manned the ships were sore distressed. And if ever the fleet was about to sail forth, it was always hindered from one time to another, and meanwhile the strength of the enemy increased. For only when the Pagans retreated from the sea coast, then would the fleet go forth. So to the end the fleet served no good purpose, but did only trouble the people, and bring about the losing of much money, and encourage the enemy."

Still the King's fleet and army were not wholly idle.

RAVAGE OF CUMBERLAND AND MAN.

269

Though they could not or did not hinder the ravages of the Danes, they were used against the Celtic kingdom of Cumberland, which for the last fifty years had been subordinate to Scotland. In 1000 A.D., Ethelred "marched into Cumberland, and laid nearly all the whole land waste; and his fleet sailing from Chester sought to meet him, but could not for the winds. Therefore they laid waste the island of Man.” I What Cumberland and Man had done to bring down upon them the anger of the English king is not clear. As to Man, according to one account, it had been harried by Sweyn on his last visit to these islands. But, if this be true, it only makes the matter more obscure. Cumberland is said to have refused the Danegelt, or contribution for preparations against the Danes, or, as was more commonly the case, buying them off. As its sub-king owed whatever tribute to be paid to an overlord in Scotland, he was right in refusing this claim. But it would be rash to say certainly that it was ever made. The Saxon Chronicler simply relates the facts of the expedition.

Still more obscure is a story told of an invasion of Normandy by Ethelred's army in the same year, very near the end of the century. Why it went there, and what it was expected to do, cannot be guessed, except we suppose that the English rulers thought it well to aim a blow at the Northmen through their kinsmen settled in France. The expedition ended in disaster, and even disgrace, though we need not believe the

I

"Man" may possibly mean Anglesea. The name of Mona was applied by the Romans to both islands.

story that the English warriors were struck down by the Norman women. As for the Danes, they came back in the following year in greater force than ever. The Chronicler tells how there were stirred up great troubles throughout the land by the fleet of the Pagans, who ravaged everywhere, and burned houses with fire; how they fought at Alton with the men of Hampshire and defeated them, slaying many nobles, though not without great loss of their own; how they marched from Alton westward into Devonshire, and were joined by a certain Pallig, to whom the King had given much land and gold and silver, but who nevertheless revolted against him. Then we hear of Teinton and more houses than the Chronicler can tell of being burnt. Then comes a treaty, which seems of little avail, for the Pagans march into Somersetshire, and there defeat an English army. Finally, they go eastward again to the Isle of Wight, and make another treaty, which, as the season for fighting was probably coming to an end, they consent to keep.

In the next year (1002) comes a crisis in the conflict. "In this year," says the Chronicler, "it was decreed by the King and the nobles that a tribute should be paid to the fleet [of the Danes], and that peace should be made with the Pagans on the condition that they should cease from their misdoings. Then the King sent Leofig, who, according to the words of the King and the nobles, made peace with them, on condition that they should receive money