eyes to be put out,—a cruel punishment of the innocent, for the misdeeds of the guilty.6 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 riumber, 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 infes✦ 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 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. 8 Dane-gold, Dane-geold, in Latin Dane-geldum. The name was also given to lax 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 Emma. 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.' 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. 9913 13 Malm 69. and they ravage us daily. They devastate and they burn; they spoil, they plunder, and they carry off our property to their ships. Such is their successful valour, that one of them will in battle put ten of ours to flight. Two or three will drive a troop of captive Christians through the country from sea to sea. Nay, often they seize the wives and daughters of our thanes, and cruelly violate them before the brave chieftain's face. The slave of yesterday becomes the master of his lord to-day; or he flees to the ranks of his countrymen and seeks the life of his owner in the earliest battle. Soldiers, famine, flames and effusion of blood, abound on every side. Theft and murder, plague and pestilence, mortality and disease, calumny, hatred, rapine and the ferocity of our enemies dreadfully afflict us." The evils resulting from misgovernment he enumerates at great length: widows frequently compelled into unjust marriages,-the poor betrayed,-children made slaves, and exported to foreign markets. He says that for many years men had been careless of their actions and words. He complains of the prevalence of perjury, contempt of solemn contracts, and various deceits. He describes the nation as consisting of murderers, parricides and priestslayers; of men who betray their superiors, of apostates and assassins. He mentions the promiscuous crimes of the sexes, villanies, peculations, the slaughter of infants, witchcraft, seditions, plots, and the entire neglect of religious observances." This horrid portrait may be a little too highly coloured; but the general outline is corroborated by the various annalists of the time; and as a sketch of the manners and social vices of the age, its truth is unfortunately placed beyond all doubt. In a country so degraded and disorganized, it was vain to expect any firm or effective struggle for independence. Truce after truce was purchased by enormous exactions. In 1007, the Danes obtained a payment of £36,000; and next year the listless king oppressed his subjects with fresh imposts. But the pride of the nation was deeply wounded, and the cessation of hostilities was employed in making preparations against the return of the invaders. By law, every proprietor of eight hydes of land was bound to provide a horseman, armed with hauberk and helmet. Every three hundred and ten hydes were assessed to build and equip one vessel, for the defence of the coast; and as the hydes in England, according to the best enumeration of them which exists, amounted to 243,600, the navy must have consisted of nearly eight hundred ships, and suits of armour furnished for upwards of 30,000 men.15 This assessment of Ethelred may be viewed as the remote origin of the well-known tax of ship-money, so fatal to the despotism of the race of the Stuarts. This vast armament, in addition to the ancient national militia, was sufficient to have driven the Danes for ever from the British shores. But all hopes of its success were disappointed by the factious animosities and dissensions of the nobility. Edric, the new duke of Mercia, had instigated his brother Brightric to prefer an accusation of treason against Wolfnorth, governor of Sussex, father of the famous earl Godwin ; and that nobleman, well-acquainted with the malevolence as well as the power of his enemy, found no means of safety but in deserting with twenty ships to the Danes. Brightric pursued him with eighty sail. 14 See Hicke's Dissertatio Epistolaris, 99-106. but being overtaken by a tempest, his fleet was shattered and stranded on the coast. There he was suddenly attacked by Wolfnorth, who burnt and destroyed all his vessels. The rest dispersed and retired, and thus perished the hopes of England. The feeble Ethelred was little capable of repairing this misfortune. The remainder of his reign presents us with nothing but the sacking and burning of towns, the devastation of the open country, and the ravages of the enemy in every quarter of the kingdom. In 1010, the triumph of the Danes was completed in the surrender of sixteen counties, and the payment of £48,000. This measure did not bring the harassed inhabitants that short interval of repose, which they had expected from it. Disregarding all engagements, the invaders returned next year, levied a new contribution of eight thousand pounds on the county of Kent alone, and murdered the archbishop of Canterbury for refusing to countenance their exactions.16 As a last resource, the English were compelled every where to submit to the Danish monarch by swearing allegiance to him, and delivering hostages for their fidelity." This revolution in the government took place in 1013. Master of the northern districts, Sweyn, committed the charge of them to his son Canute, and immediately commenced a visit of decisive conquest to the south. Oxford and Winchester accepted his dominion, and London only resisted, because Ethelred was in it. But the presence of the enemy and the desertion of his own subjects soon compelled him to fly. He escaped into Normandy, having already sent his queen and his two sons Alfred and Edward before him. In six weeks the death of Sweyn, at Gainsborough, revived the hopes of his party, and a deputation of the clergy and nobility invited Ethelred to return. But the Danish soldiers had appointed Canute for their king, and he was determined to maintain his father's honour and authority by the sword. He was confronted by a powerful force of the English; and in revenge for their opposition, he committed an act at once barbarous and impolitic. Sailing from East Anglia he landed the hostages-all children of the first nobility whom his father had received as pledges for the obedience of the natives at Sandwich-and there he cruelly maimed them of their hands and noses.18 The necessity of his interests and of increasing his army, called him to Denmark, and his return was signalized by fresh depredations. The whole of the southern coast was plundered, and he even extended his incursions into the counties of Dorset, Wilts, and Somerset, where an army was assembled against him under the command of Prince Edmund and Duke Edric. But all these preparations for defence were rendered unavailing by the timidity of Ethelred, who, instead of placing himself at the head of his troops, remained inactive in London under pretence of sickness. This city was now the last fortress of English liberty, and here Edmund determined to make a last stand, but the death of Ethelred threw every thing into confusion. He expired on St George's day, in the year 1016, and in the thirty-fifth of his inglorious and calamitous reign. By his first marriage he left two sons, Edmund and Edwy; the latter was murdered by Canute. The two sons by his second marriage, were immediately on his decease conveyed into Normandy by queen Emma. The reign of Ethelred is a theme displeasing to the historian. He 16 Vita Elfegi, 140. 17 Chron. Sax. 143. 18 Flor. 382. |