BOOK 870. red, either impressed with that dispiriting belief, which men on the eve of great conflicts sometimes experience, that he should not survive it, or preparing his mind for the worst event, and for its better state, and desirous to obtain the favour of the Lord of all existing worlds, waited to say his prayers in his tent, which he declared he would not leave till the priest had finished. Alfred, more eager for the fray, and provoked by the defying presence of the enemy, was impatient at the delay; his indignant courage forgot the inferiority of the division which he commanded; he led up his troops in condensed order, and disdained to remark that the crafty Danes were waiting on an eminence for an advantageous conflict.49 A solitary tree marked the place of combat, and round this the nations shocked with frightful clamour and equal bravery. The exertions of Alfred were unavailing, though he is stated to have attacked like the chafed boar; he had been too precipitate. The English ranks gave way, when the presence of Ethelred, with his battle, destroyed the inequality of the combatants, and re-animated the fainting spirits of his countrymen. The long and dreadful struggle at last ended in the death of the king Bacseg, of the younger" Sidroc, many other earls, and some thousand of the Danes, 49 Asser says he had his account of Alfred's impetuous alacrity from those who saw it, 22. He adds the phrase "aprino more." 50 Asser and the printed copy of the Saxon Chronicle place the deaths of both the Sidrocs in this battle, although it had recorded the fall of one in the preceding battle. The fine MSS. of the Saxon Chronicle in the Cotton Library, Tib. B. 4. p.30., having mentioned the death of one Sidroc at Inglefield, refers the death of the younger Sidroc only to this battle: " and then Siopac re zeonza, and Orbenn eopl, and Fpæna eopl, and Hapals eopl." This MS., though in some respects less complete than those which Dr. Gibson edited, is yet more accurate in others. It is remarkably well written, and seems very ancient. 51 who fled in general rout. The English chased them all night and the next day over the fields of Ashdown till they reached their fortress at Reading. The slaughter of the day gave it a dismal claim to memory." 53 52 FOURTEEN days after this, the Danes collected strength sufficient to defeat the kings of Wessex at Basing. An important accession of allies, newly arrived from the North 54, increased the terrors of this defeat, and augured new miseries to the AngloSaxons. THE last invaders joined harmoniously with the preceding, because their object was the same. Within two months afterwards the princes of Wessex supported another battle with the recruited confederates at Merton"; but the conflict, after many changes of victory, was again unfortunate to the English. Ethelred received a wound in it, of 51 Asser, 23, 24. Flor. Wig. 307. Sax. Chron. 81. 52 The place of this great battle has been controverted. Aston, near Wallingford, in Berks, has good claims, because the Saxon Chronicle (as its editor observed) mentions Æscesdun, on another occasion, as close by Wallingford, p. 135. Dr. Wise, in his letter to Dr. Mead, concerning some antiquities in Berkshire, printed 1738, contends that the famous white horse on the hill was made to commemorate this victory. "He says, "I take Escesdune to mean that ridge of hills from Letcombe and thereabouts, going on to Wiltshire, and overlooking the vale with the towns in it. The town formerly called Ayshesdown, is now called Ashbury; the old name is still preserved hereabouts, the downs being called by the shepherds, Ashdown; and about a mile southward from Ashbury, is Ashdown Park," p. 20. Whitaker prefers the locality of Aston, p. 272. 53 Asser, 24. 54 Quo prælio peracto, de ultramarinis partibus alius paganorum exercitus societati se adjunxit. Asser, 24. 55 Sax. Chron. 81. This position of Meretune is doubtful. Merton in Surrey, Merden in Wilts, and Merton in Oxfordshire, have been suggested. I am induced to venture a new opinion, that it was Morton in Berks, because the Chronicle of Mailros, 144, places the battle at Reading; and, according to the map, Morton hundred joins Reading, and contains both North Merton and South Merton. 529 CHAP. VI. 870. BOOK 870. Ethelred dies. which he died soon after Easter, and was interred at Wimburn.56 56 Bromton, 809. The bishop of Sherborne fell in this battle. Matt. West. 323. The Saxon Chronicle says, that he and many zodpa menna fell in it, 81, whom Huntingdon calls multi proceres Angliæ, p. 349. Ethelwerd, the chronicler, in mentioning Ethelred's death, styles this king his atavus, p. 843., thus intimating his own princely ancestry. CHAP. VII. The Reign of ALFRED, from his accession to his Retirement. CHAP. VII. 871. Alfred THE death of Ethelred raised Alfred to the throne of Wessex. Some children of his elder brother were alive', but the crisis was too perilous for the nation to have suffered the sceptre to be feebly accedes. wielded by a juvenile hand. The dangers which environed the country, excited the earls and chiefs of the whole nation, whom we may understand to have been the witena-gemot, with the unanimous approbation of the country, to choose Alfred for the successor, that they might have a prince who could give them the protection of his abilities. It is intimated that he hesitated3; and indeed, every evil which can abate human happiness, seemed to surround the diadem offered to Alfred. IT was the defeat and death of a brother which occasioned his accession. The victorious enemies, stronger from their victory, promised to be more formidable to Alfred than to Ethelred. All the causes that had produced their former successes were yet in full operation, while the new sove 1 Alfred in his will gave eight manors to Æthelm, his brother's son, and three manors to Athelwold, his brother's son. He also gave some manors to his cousin Osferth. The end of Athelwold will be seen in Edward's reign. 2 Sim. Dun. 126, 127. Asser, 24. 3 Asser's expression is, that he began to reign quasi invitus, as if unwillingly, because he thought that unless he was supported by the divine assistance, he could not resist such enemies. Vita Alfredi, p. 24. IV. 871. BOOK reign's means of resisting them were not increased. According to the natural course of things his reign could not be but calamitous. Alfred chose to endure the threatening contingencies, and by accepting the throne, began a life of severe military labour, of continual difficulty, and of great mental anxiety, shaded for some time with the deepest gloom of misfortune and personal degradation. THE fiercest and most destructive succession of conflicts which ever saddened a year of human existence distinguished that of Alfred's accession with peculiar misery. With their own population, the West Saxons maintained eight pitched battles against the Northmen, besides innumerable skirmishes by day and night, with which the nobles and royal officers endeavoured to check their depredations. Many thousands of the invaders fell, but new fleets of adventurers were perpetually shading the German Ocean with their armaments, who supplied the havoc caused by the West Saxon swords. It was now become a conflict between the Northman nations and the Anglo-Saxons, for the conquest and occupation of England, like that of their own ancestors against the Britons, and of these against the Romans. The Northman mind had taken a full direction to a forcible settlement in England. It was no longer battles for transient plunder or personal fame. It was for lasting dominion; for the land-inheritance of the country; and for the property and liberty of every individual who possessed any. 4 Asser, 25. Flor. Wig. 311. Hoveden, 417. The year 871 is noted as the beginning of Alfred's reign by Asser, the Saxon Chronicle, Mailros, Hoveden, Sim. Dun., and some others. But Ingulf, 25., Malmsb. 42., and Petrib. 21., place his accession in 872. |