Ethelwulf appears to have been in some respects a weak, but by no means a cruel prince. He was very religiously minded, and was led for years, in all religious matters, by Swithin, Bishop of Winchester, and Alstan, Bishop of London. By the advice of the former, he is said to have granted to the Church the tithe of all his dominions. He also sent his youngest son, Alfred, when a mere boy, to Rome, and in 855 visited the Eternal City himself. On his return, he passed through France, where he married Judith, or Leatheta, as she is named in the Saxon Chronicles, the daughter of Charles the Bald, a princess only twelve years of age. During his absence, his son Ethelbald and Bishop Alstan plotted against him, and on his arrival in England he was compelled to resign the kingdom of Wessex to the former to prevent a civil war. The aged monarch survived this partition but two years.
Ethelwulf, by his will, disposed of the kingdom of Kent to his second son, Ethelbert, and the kingdom of Wessex to Ethelbald, Ethelred, and Alfred, in order of seniority, and directed his heirs to maintain one poor person for every tithing in his hereditary lands. He died in 857, having reigned eighteen years, leaving behind him four sons and one daughter, who was married to Burhred, King of Mercia, and died at Pavia in 888. Ethelbald, the eldest son, was already in possession of the kingdom of Wessex; and Ethelbert, his brother, succeeded to Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex, comprised under the name of the kingdom of Kent.
Ethelbald, a prince of but little capacity, reigned not quite three years after his father's death, his brother Ethelbert succeeding him. In the reign of the last-named king, the Danes once more renewed their ravages in England, and penetrated as far as Winchester, from which city they were beaten back to their ships at Southampton by the Aldermen Osric and Ethelwulf.
On their landing, in the autumn of the same year, in the Isle of Thanet, Ethelbert offered them a large sum of money to retire, which they promised to do, but broke faith with him, and commenced ravaging the kingdom of Kent, and carried off their booty in safety. In 866 Ethelbert died, and was succeeded by his brother, Ethelred I.
In this reign the Danish invasions assume a more terrible aspect; and the second period, the transition to which was marked by the wintering in Sheppey, may be considered to have fully begun. During his short reign, Ethelred, who was a brave warrior, was engaged in almost incessant conflict with these savage heathens. The struggle began in 867, when the brothers Ingvar and Hubba, thirsting, according to a not very probable legend, to avenge their father, who had been put to death by Ella, the sub-king of Northumbria, landed in East Anglia, and took York. In the following year they marched upon Mercia. Nottingham fell; but Ethelred and his brother Alfred came to the assistance of the Mercian king, Burhred, and drove the enemy back into Northumberland. This success was, however, only temporary, for, advancing from York in 870, under a leader named Guthrum, they conquered East Anglia, and it became a Danish kingdom. The under-king of East Anglia was named Edmund; he was defeated near Thetford, and taken prisoner. For his refusal to abjure Christianity, the barbarians shot at him with arrows while he was bound to a tree, and at last beheaded him; wherefore Edmund was deservedly honoured as a saint. Over the whole of East Anglia and Mercia hardly a church or monastery was left standing. All were committed to the flames.
With East Anglia as a basis of operations, the Danes extended their advance over parts of England which had as yet escaped. In 871 they penetrated into Wessex; but here their task was not so easy. Nine great battles were fought round Reading; some of them being won by the English, some by the Danes. Of these, the most famous was that of Ashdown, in which Alfred bore the brunt of the fray, while his brother was praying for success. At Easter, King Ethelred died, probably from the effects of a wound. His valour and piety gained for him the title of saint.
The general outlook, when Alfred was chosen king of the English in succession to his brother, must have been terrible indeed. The Danes, already masters of Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia, were in the very heart of the kingdom of Wessex; and, notwithstanding the many battles Ethelred had fought with them, they were in possession of several towns; and not only maintained their position in the island, but had reason to hope they should soon complete the conquest of it. The new monarch had only been a month on the throne, when he found himself obliged to take the field against these formidable enemies, who had advanced as far as Wilton, whither he marched to attack them. Victory for some time inclined to his side, then suddenly changed in favour of the Danes; but Alfred's loss was not so considerable as to make him despair, though the victory certainly belonged to the enemy. He laboured incessantly to put his army in condition to give them battle again, before they should be reinforced; they were astonished at his expedition, and, though victorious, sued for peace, finding themselves unable to continue the war. As they offered to march out of his dominions, on condition he would not molest them in any other part of England, Alfred accepted their offer, and gained by this treaty time to prepare against a new invasion.
The Danes, quitting Wessex, retired to London, which they had taken during the late war. Ingvar was gone back to Denmark, having left the command of the army to his brother Hubba, who, being prevented from attacking Wessex, turned his arms against Mercia. Burhred, its king, knowing he was unable to resist, since Alfred was bound not to send him any succours, thought it his wisest course to buy off the Danes with a sum of money, and save his country from their depredations. Upon the receipt of the money, they marched towards Northumbria, designing to take up their quarters with their countrymen; but their provisions running short, in consequence of the devastations they themselves had made there, they were under the necessity of returning into Mercia.
Before they had left Northumbria, they deposed Egbert, whom they had placed on the throne, and put Recsige, a Danish earl, in his room. Burhred, finding they were come again into his dominions, complained of their breach of faith; but without regarding his complaints, they obliged him to give them another considerable sum to save his country from the destruction it was threatened with; and no sooner was the money paid, than they fell to plundering and ravaging, and Burhred found that even his own person was in danger. The fear of falling into their hands obliged him to abandon his kingdom, and retire to Rome, where he spent the rest of his days in the English college. Mercia being thus left without a king, and Alfred being prevented by his own treaty from lending any assistance, the Danes without difficulty became masters of that kingdom, and raised Ceolwulf, a servant of Burhred, to the throne, till they could otherwise dispose of it. Aware of the slight tenure of his office, the new ruler resolved to make the utmost of his time, and so oppressed the unhappy Mercians that they suffered more from the tyranny of their own countryman than from the rapacity of the conquerors. Meanwhile the Danes were beginning to settle in Northumbria, and Alfred was employing himself in winning victories over them by sea.
