THE "LADY OF THE MERCIANS" FIGHTING THE WELSH. (See p. [46.])

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CHAPTER VI.

EDWARD THE ELDER AND DUNSTAN.

Settlement of the Danes—Edward the Elder and his Cousin—Reconquest of the Danelagh—Edward becomes King of all England—Conspiracy of Alfred against Athelstan—Wars in Northumbria—The Death of Edwin—The Battle of Brunanburgh—The Power of Athelstan—Edwin's Wars with the Danes—Their Submission to Edmund—Rebellion and Reconquest—The Conquest of Cumberland—Death of Edmund—Final Conquest of Northumberland—The Rise of Dunstan—His Banishment—Edgar's Rebellion—His Accession to the Throne—Wars with the Welsh—Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury—His Ecclesiastical Policy—The Reign of Edward the Martyr—Dunstan's Struggles with the Opposition—Death of the King.

By this time the settlement of the Danes in England was complete, and exhausting though the process had been by which it was accomplished, in the end it strengthened the nation through the infusion of a new and more vigorous element. Practically speaking, they occupied, as we have seen, the whole of the district north of the Thames, but in some parts the new colonists must have been exceedingly few in numbers. The Danish population lay thickest round what were called the "five Danish boroughs," i.e. Lincoln, Derby, Leicester, Stamford, and Nottingham. After the first storm of their fury was spent, the Danes mixed readily with the English population, and became converts to Christianity. The fusion was easy, because the language and customs of the two races were very similar. The title, Earl, which at this period is introduced into our language, is of Danish origin; so are the local divisions of Yorkshire, known as Ridings and Wapentakes; so also the names of towns ending in "by" and "holm."

Both parties were weary of war—of mutually destroying each other—and a brief repose was welcome. To the new settlers the retreat of their piratical countrymen was as acceptable as to the English; for the hordes who invaded the island with no other object than obtaining plunder cared very little whose possessions they ravaged; and the consequence was that the Danes suffered at times as much as the earlier possessors of the soil.