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vided court, and an incapable sovereign. England was already prepared to succumb to any foreign enemy; and the misery and confu sion which ensued, and which, in fact, opened the way for the entire subjugation of the country by the Normans, if not occasioned by the very words of Dunstan, were yet extremely enhanced by the effect of his denunciation. Ethelred, deprived of the confidence of his subjects, could not lead them to their own defence; and their distrust of their sovereign involved the whole state in a sort of anarchy.

For a considerable time, England had enjoyed a happy freedom from the depredations of the Danes, who had changed the scene of their piracies to the north of France. The repression of their excursions, like the damming of water, had accumulated an overgrown population at home; and these inherited from their fathers the same inveterate habits of war and plunder. A favourable era had occurred, and the second year of Ethelred's reign was distinguished by the re-appearance of those enemies whom the courage and wisdom of Alfred and his successors had exiled from the English coast. By way of experiment, seven vessels landed near Southampton, where the robbers having laid waste the country, and enriched themselves with spoil, departed with impunity. The leader of this expedition appears to have been Sweyn, the son of the king of Denmark. Banished from home by his father, he was in the full vigour of youth; and the assistance he had at his command rendered him a formidable invader to a country unprepared for defence either in the council-hall or in the field. Next year another detachment of the northern host invaded Mercia; Chester was taken, London was burnt, and the whole coast from the Mersey to the Thames was ravaged by these insatiable plunderers. Still the Danes Idid not act in concert with each other; and their fleets, or rather their squadrons, were frequently very small. Thus Dorsetshire was invaded by three ships; and if we estimate their crews at six hundred men, we shall probably overrate their numbers. Any reasonable degree of vigour would have been sufficient to repel so contemptible a force. The kingdom was flourishing in abundant population; its military strength was entire, and its government was undisputed; but its administration was in weak hands; and, at a time when unanimity was requisite, great dissension prevailed. While the country was smoking with the fires kindled by the invaders, Ethelred was engaged in petty disputes with his subjects. He had quarrelled with the bishop of Rochester, and ravaged the lands belonging to that see, and even laid siege to the town; but, on receiving payment of a sum of money, he desisted from further hostilities. About the same time Alfric, governor or earl of Mercia, a powerful but treacherous nobleman, had engaged in a conspiracy against Ethelred. He was condemned by the Wittenagemot; his property was confiscated, and he himself being outlawed, was banished from the country. The only part of England in which the Danes met with any effectual resistance was in East-Anglia. In 991 a large force, commanded by Justin and Gurthmund, attacked Ipswich, and advanced through the defenceless country as far as Milden. Here Brithnoth, governor of Essex, bravely opposed them with a small body of warriors; but they were defeated, the noble chief himself

Turner's Agl. Sax. Hist. vol. iii. p. 223.

being slain. The spoilers extended their devastation unmolested; so completely had courage and patriotism already departed from England. In this extremity Ethelred, instead of rousing his subjects to increased activity, or marching at the head of a new army, adopted the shameful expedient of buying off the invaders. Siric, archbishop of Canter. bury, and successor of Dunstan, was the adviser of this unworthy and fatal measure. His argument was, that as the Danes only came for booty, it would be wiser to give them what they wanted; and in this pusillanimous opinion he was joined by many of the degenerate nobles. Ethelred accordingly purchased their retreat at the expensive bribe of ten thousand pounds. The effect of this imprudence was such as might have been anticipated. The Danes departed; but they appeared next year in greater numbers off the eastern coast. The bribe that had gratified their own avarice told them that England abounded with gold, but that her warlike spirit was no more. It was like a beacon of attraction planted on her cliffs, encouraging needy adventurers to plunder with impunity, and retire with wealth. This concession laid the foundation of a permanent burden on the country; for, it is noticed by the annalists of the time, as having produced the evil of direct taxation, the tribute of Dane-gelt being raised by assessments on the land. "We now pay (says a chronicler of the twelfth century) that from custom which terror first extorted from the Danes." The impositions were not remitted when the necessity had ceased to exist.

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Ethelred, meanwhile, became sensible of his mistake, and when sober reflection had time to operate, the right means of defence were put in action. The Witan, or great council of the nation, had assembled, as being determined to give battle to the enemy; and a powerful fleet was constructed at London, and well-manned with chosen troops. But the wisdom of this measure was again baffled by the treachery of the person selected for the command. This was no other than Alfric, who, during his banishment, had employed every intrigue that could either restore him to his former independence, or prevent every success that might tend to establish the royal authority. If the exile of this turbulent chief was a proof of the rebellious spirit of Ethelred's nobles, his speedy restoration to the government of Mercia was a still greater evidence of the weak and vacillating policy of the court. The English had formed the plan of surrounding and destroying the Danish fleet in harbour, but the whole scheme was foiled by the perfidious Alfric, who privately informed the enemy of their danger, and when, in consequence of this intelligence, they quitted their station and put to sea, he consummated his villany by deserting to them, with the squadron under his command, the night before the engagement. The rest of the AngloSaxons pursued but could only overtake one vessel. Another division however met, and bravely attacked some of the enemy's ships before they could reach the harbour. The capture of Alfric's vessel crowned their victory, but its ruthless master with some difficulty effected his escape, and was again replaced in his honours. This instance of gross perfidy Ethelred avenged by seizing his son Alfgar, and ordering his

Chron. Sax. 126.-Hoved. 245.-Wilk. L.L. Sax.
Hunt. 357.

Chron. Sax. 127.-Malm. 35.

eyes to be put out,—a cruel punishment of the innocent, for the misdeeds of the guilty.

Next year fresh swarms of invaders, from Denmark and Norway, were precipitated on the shores of England, under the renowned kings Sweyn, and Olave or Olaus. Sailing up the Humber, they spread their devastations through Lincolnshire on the one hand, and Northumbria on the other. A numerous army was assembled to oppose them, and a general action ensued, but the English were deserted in the battle by the cowardice or treachery of their three leaders, all of them of Danish extraction, who gave the example of a shameful flight to the troops under their command. From thence the pirates ventured to attack the centre of the kingdom; and entering the Thames in ninety-four vessels, laid siege to London, but the bravery of the citizens compelled the assailants to desist. Though repulsed here, they laid waste Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire; and having procured horses, they were thereby enabled to spread the fury of their outrages through the more inland districts. In this extremity, Ethelred and his nobles had recourse to their former expedient. Instead of meeting them on the field, he sent to know the sum that would stop their depredations. Sweyn and Olave agreed to the terms, and peaceably took up their quarters at Southampton, where sixteen thousand pounds were paid them, literally for the purpose of inviting them to further mischief. Every payment thus made, told them that a repetition of the same aggressions would lead to a similar compliance on the part of the enemy. It was a stipulation in the treaty, that Olave should be baptized; he was invited to Ethelred's court at Andover, where he was treated with honour, and during his visit ne received the Christian rite of confirmation, and was dismissed with rich presents. He here promised that he would never more infest the English territories, and he faithfully kept his engagement."

The army of Sweyn had wintered at Southampton; after three years respite they renewed their excursions. They entered the Severn and having committed spoil in Wales, Cornwall, and Devonshire, sailed round to the south coast to complete the devastation of these two counties. Spreading themselves eastward, they ravaged the isle of Wight, entered the Thames and the Medway, and laid siege to Rochester, where they defeated the Kentish men in a pitched battle. The weakness of the

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king, and the treachery or want of concert among the nobility, frustrated every endeavour to arrest the progress of slaughter and burning. Again they offered to "buy peace," and another precarious truce was purchased for twenty-four thousand pounds, together with the usual condition, more degrading still, of "feeding" these insatiable invaders who wasted and impoverished the country. Fifty thousand pounds had now been paid as Dane-gelt. Each pound, as we learn from a modern writer of antiquarian research, was then equivalent, in weight of silver, to somewhat more than three pounds of our nominal currency. But the intrinsic worth affords no adequate measure of its real value, and the worth of fifty thousand pounds in the reign of Ethelred, will be under

Flor. 366.-Malm. 35,

'Malm. 63.-Chron. Sax. 129.

Chron. Sax. 142.

Dane-gold, Dane-geold, in Latin Dane-geldum. The name was also given to tax levied for the payment of those forces which were raised to resist the Danes.

stood by knowing that this sum would have purchased about one million two hundred thousand acres of arable land, together with such rights and privileges in the common lands and woods belonging to the inclosed lands, as may be considered to have trebled the superficial admeasurement.10

About the year 1000 two circumstances seemed to operate in favour of the spiritless Ethelred. A quarrel had arisen between Sweyn and Olave, and their respective forces came to action near the island of Wollin. But the bravery of Olave could not compensate for his great inferiority of numbers. His ship was surrounded, and disdaining to be taken prisoner, he leapt into the sea, and disappeared from the pursuit : thus giving room for the wild legends of the north to suppose his escape, and cherish him a living recluse on some distant shore." Another diversion which augured well for England, was the departure of the Danes for Normandy, where they had been invited by their countrymen, at that time hard pressed by the arms of Robert king of France. At the same time, with a view of strengthening his interest by foreign alliance, he married Emma sister to Richard II. duke of Normandy.

It was shortly after this match, on the Mass day,'-November 13th, 1002, that Ethelred gave the fatal order to massacre all the Danes within his dominions that were subject to his power. This wicked act, as useless as imbecility could devise, and as sanguinary as cowardice could perpetrate, arose out of a most mischievous policy. From the reign of Athelstan the kings of Wessex had been accustomed to encourage the resort of Danish adventurers, whom they retained as their own body-guard or household troops. It is said that the kings exerted the prerogative of quartering one of these satellites in every house. This circumstance, while it extended the massacre, rendered its execution more practicable. Secret letters from the king were despatched to every city, commanding the people at an appointed hour, on the day of the festival of St Brice, when the Danes usually bathed themselves, to fall upon them suddenly, and either destroy them by the sword, or consume them with fire. This order was the more atrocious, as the Danes were living peaceably with the Anglo-Saxons, and, as Malmsbury says, it was miserable to see every one betray his guest. The command, horrible as it was, met with a ready obedience. All the Danes dispersed throughout England, their wives and families, even their youngest infants, were butchered without mercy. The rage of the populace excited by so many injuries, sanctioned by authority, and stimulated by example, made no distinction between innocence and guilt, spared neither age nor sex, and was not satiated without the torture, as well as death of the unhappy victims. Even those who had intermarried with the families who received them were not exempted from this inhuman proscription. Gunhilda, the sister of Sweyn, a woman of high spirit and beauty, who had espoused an English earl and embraced Christianity, was by the advice of Edric, earl of Wilts, seized and condemned to death by Ethelred, after witnessing her husband and son slain in her presence. She foretold in the agonies of despair the consequences of the bloody tragedy, and that her murder would soon be avenged by the total ruin

10 Palgrave's Hist. vol. I. p. 287.

"Chron. Sax. 127-129.-Saxo. Gram. 184-189.-Snorre. 334-345.

of the English nation.12 Never was prophecy better fulfilled; and never did barbarous policy prove more fatal to the authors. Strange as it may seem, that a plot so extensive should be planned and executed without discovery, yet this is not one of those stories of atrocity concerning which any scepticism can be indulged. There is no doubting or denying its reality. William the Conqueror afterwards employed 'the murder of St Brice's day,' as a watch-word or incentive to his Norman nobles, in urging them to avenge the blood of their kinsmen The intelligence conveyed to Sweyn was an additional stimulus to renew hostilities; nor did he long delay the provoked invasion. Next year (1003) he appeared off the western coast, and threatened to take ample revenge for the slaughter of his countrymen. Exeter fell into his hands from the negligence or treachery of Earl Hugh, a Norman, who had been made governor by the interest of Queen Einma. He proceeded through the country to Wilts where the Anglo-Saxons met him; but the command of the troops had been intrusted to Alfric, already notorious for his perfidy, and his misconduct again frustrated the chance of success. The instant the battle was about to commence he affected a sudden illness and declined the contest. Disgusted and disappointed at the desertion of their leader, the English fell into disorder and abandoned the field. Alfric soon after died, and was succeeded both in his civil and military capacity by Edric, a greater traitor than he, who had married the king's daughter and had gained a total ascendancy over him. For four years in succession did the Danes repeat their incursions, until the country was reduced to the brink of extreme misery. The wretchedness of the inhabitants was at the same time aggravated by a severe famine, arising partly from the bad seasons, and partly from the decay of agriculture; as the face of the country was every where overspread with "fire, flame, and desolation." The means were far from being exhausted of exterminating the Danish invaders, had the government been competent to put them in action. But the picture of imbecility and misrule exceeds belief. Every annalist and every writer on the period, have laboured to convey to their readers the sad impression which their minds had received from the spectacle of a nation plunged into calamities so unjustifiably. The words of Turketul to Sweyn are short but descriptive: "A country," says he, "illustrious and powerful; a king asleep, solicitous only about women and wine, and trembling at war, hated by his people, and derided by strangers; generals envious of each other; and weak governors, ready to fly at the first shout of battle."13 A sermon has been preserved, preached by an Anglo-Saxon bishop of the time, Lupus, to his unhappy contemporaries, in which he has left a dismal portrait of the condition of England under the reign of Ethelred. As this prelate spake from what he saw and felt, his description is the more valuable, being replete with life and reality, and therefore interesting, far beyond the lamentations of a distant writer. The evils complained of by Lupus, are either those flowing immediately from hostile invasions, those which sprung from bad government, or those arising from the moral depravity consequent on so wretched a state of affairs. Speaking of the Danes, he pathetically remarks: "We perpetually pay them tribute,

1 Malm. 64.-Chron. Sax. 133.-Hoved. 429.

13 Malm 69.

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