Cassell's History of England, Vol. 1 (of 8) / From the Roman Invasion to the Wars of the Roses

by Anonymous

The war was renewed in 893. Shortly before this a body of Danes, headed by Hastings, earnestly solicited Guthrum to renew the war in Wessex, but not prevailing, they put to sea, and ravaged the coast of Flanders; and shortly after, another, and no less numerous troop, informed of the great booty the first expedition had met with in Kent, embarked to join them. These two bands, thus united, overran Brabant, Hainault, Flanders, Picardy, and Artois, perpetrating unheard-of cruelties; after which, having again divided into two bodies, one of them sailed back to England, in hopes of plundering the country, where they imagined they should come unexpected. Having landed in Kent, they marched towards Rochester, intending to surprise that city; but Alfred, who, contrary to their expectation, had his army in readiness, hastened to meet them upon the first notice of their arrival, and his approach was sufficient to make them fly to their ships with such precipitation that they left their plunder behind them. His vigilance having prevented their designs upon England, they returned to France, and, rejoining their companions, continued their devastations in that kingdom.

Hitherto the English had acted only on the defensive. Exposed to the continual invasions of the Danes, and uncertain where the enemy would land, they were generally surprised before it was in their power to defend themselves; and the sea-coast being uninhabited, there was nothing to prevent the piratical marauders from landing unopposed. Alfred's first care, therefore, was to equip a considerable fleet, the advantage of which he had already experienced, with which he determined to cruise along the coasts, and attack all Danish ships laden with booty. Sixteen were surprised in the port of Harwich, in East Anglia, part of which were captured and the remainder sunk, and a considerable booty was also obtained.

In 894, the fighting over the south of England was renewed. The Danes, who, under the conduct of their chief, the celebrated Hastings, had ravaged France and the Low Countries, where they acquired immense booty, decided on returning to England, not with the intention of settling there, but led by the thirst of plunder. Dividing their forces into equal parts, they set sail for the island. The first expedition reached the coast of Kent, where they landed, and committed dreadful depredations. The second, under the command of Hastings, entered the Thames, and landed at Middleton, making their way to the Severn, where they were defeated by Alfred's aldermen.

Alfred, who appears to have been in East Anglia at the time of this new invasion, no sooner received the intelligence than he drew together what troops he could; and, after receiving the oaths of the Anglian Danes, marched against the new comers, and defeated another body of the enemy who were laying siege to Exeter. We have no very distinct accounts of the wars which ensued. The Danes, under the command of Hastings, returned to France, perhaps on account of the plague which, about this time, was committing great ravages in the island. The terror which the name of this chief inspired had armed all the sea-coasts of France against him; on discovering which, he resolved to change his course, and steer for the Mediterranean, where he contrived, by an act of sacrilege and deceit, to become master of the town of Luna, on the coast of Tuscany. He pretended that he had merely visited the place in order to gratify his desire of becoming a Christian, and actually received baptism from the bishop. Some little time after he caused the simple prelate to be informed that he was dead, and had left a large sum of money, on condition of his being buried in the church of Luna. By this stratagem Hastings and a considerable number of his followers obtained entrance into the town, under pretence of conducting the funeral, and immediately began to massacre and pillage the inhabitants. The adventurer ultimately settled in the city of Chartres, which Charles the Simple, King of France, assigned to him as the price of peace.

The last battles between Alfred and the Danes occurred in 897, and took place chiefly by sea, but of their details we know very little. On one occasion the Danes having penetrated up the river Lea, Alfred diverted it, and so their ships were stranded. In this year he built a number of large ships, which were a great improvement on his old navy, both in size and swiftness, and they doubtless turned the scale in his favour, for the short remainder of his reign was spent in peace. He was only fifty-two when he died, in 901, but he had lived a life of almost perpetual strife, except during the two brief periods of repose after the peace of Wedmore, and just before his death.

Alfred is one of the most perfect characters in history; not that the information concerning him is very precise, but that the stories all point in the same direction, and embody for us the attributes of a brave, upright, and pious man. He has been accused, but probably unjustly, of not having sufficient insight into the future, and he was, to a certain extent, devoid of originality. A characteristic story told of him is that while he lay concealed in the Isle of Athelney, he made a vow to dedicate to God the third part of his time, as soon as he should be restored to a state of tranquillity. He performed his promise, and allotted eight hours every day to acts of devotion, eight hours to public affairs, and as many to sleep, study, and necessary refreshment. As the use of clocks and hour-glasses was not yet introduced into England, he measured the time by means of wax-candles, marked with circular lines of different colours, which served as so many hour-lines; and to prevent the wind from making them burn unsteadily, it is said he invented the expedient of enclosing them in lanterns.

He also divided his revenues in two parts, one of which was wholly assigned for charitable uses, and subdivided into four portions: the first for alms to the poor; the second for the maintenance of the monasteries he had founded; the third for the subsistence of the teachers and scholars at Oxford; the fourth for poor monks, foreigners as well as English. The other half was divided into three parts: one was expended on his family; another in paying his architects, and other skilled workmen; and the rest was bestowed in pensions upon strangers invited to his court for the encouragement and instruction of his subjects.

As a legislator, Alfred by no means accomplished all that has been attributed to him; indeed, when the facts of his life are considered, the marvel is that he effected as much as he did towards the improvement of the moral condition of his subjects. The statements that he divided England into counties, or that he instituted trial by jury, have long ago been proved to be baseless. What he actually did was to collect and codify the laws of that part of England which was under his sway—Kent, Mercia, and Wessex—preserving on the whole the customs established by previous legislators, like Ethelbert, Offa, and Ina. "I kept," he says, "those that seemed to me good, and rejected those that were not good." Throughout these laws may easily be observed an ardent zeal for justice, and a sincere desire of rooting out oppression and violence. They were indeed mild, if compared with those of later ages, seeing they punished most offences by fines; but the strictness wherewith Alfred caused them to be observed counterbalanced their lenity. If with respect to private persons the rigour of the law was somewhat abated, it was not so with regard to unjust magistrates, for to such Alfred was ever inexorable; and history informs us that he executed four-and-forty judges within the space of one year for corruption.

Alfred was, moreover, himself a scholar, and a lover of learned men. As a scholar, he translated several books from Latin into English, for the benefit of his subjects. As Professor Freeman observes, his choice was limited by the fact that heathen authors were held in great dislike, and he, therefore, did not attempt to acquaint the English people with the beauties of Horace or Virgil. He translated, however, the History of Orosius, the Ecclesiastical History of Bede, the monk of Jarrow, which is our main authority for the century and a half that followed the conversion of England to Christianity, some of the works of Gregory the Great and Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy. This last was a work written by a Roman while under sentence of death, but there is nothing in the work to show that he was a Christian, although every one believed that he was one at the time when Alfred wrote. It is also supposed that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was put into its present shape in Alfred's time, in which case we owe him a great debt of gratitude. To regenerate religion and letters, he drew learned men from other lands, by whose aid the services of the Church were reanimated, schools were founded, and English prose, which Alfred, it should be observed, was the first to write, encouraged. Such men were Asser, who came from Wales, and who afterwards wrote Alfred's life, Grimbald, and John the Old-Saxon, who crossed over from the Continent; while nearer home, in Mercia, he discovered Werfrith and Plegmund who became Archbishop of Canterbury.