Online Encyclopedia

island becomes clear and fairly continuous . The gaps are neither broader nor more obscure than those which may be found in the contemporary annals of the other kingdoms of See also:

EUROPE

Europe . The stream of history in this See also:

period is narrow and turbid throughout the See also:

West . Quite as much is known of the doings of the English as of those of the Visigoths of See also:

Spain, the See also:

LOMBARDS, or LANGOBARDI

Lombards, or the later See also:

MEROVINGIANS

Merovingians . The 7th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century was the darkest of all the " dark ages," and See also:

England is particularly fortunate in possessing the Ecclesiastica historia of See also:

Bede, which, though its author was primarily interested in things religious, yet contains a copious chronicle of things See also:

SECULAR (Lat. saecularis, of or belonging to an age or generation, saeculum)

secular .

No Western author, since the See also:

DEATH

death of Gregory of Tours, wrote on such a See also:

scale, or with such vigour and insight . English Territory in 597 Territory oonquered 597.825 See also:

CELTIC

Celtic Territory in 825- _f+::`%L Territory partly occupied but lost again before 825 .. 111. denote. annexed to See also:

HERNIA (Lat. hernia, perhaps from Gr. Epvos, a sprout)

Hernia N.B.- The small names Wessex & Heroic refer to 597, the large names to 825 The See also:

CONVERSION (Lat. conversio, from convertere, to turn or ,change)

conversion of England to See also:

CHRISTIANITY

Christianity took, from first to last, some ninety years (A.D . S97 to 686), though during the last See also:

THIRTY

thirty the ancestral heathenism was only lingering on convey- s;onof in remote corners of the See also:

LAND

land . The See also:

ORIGINAL

original missionary England impulse came from Rome, and Augustine is rightly regarded as the evangelist of the English; yet only a comparatively small part of the nation owed its Christianity directly to the See also:

MISSION

mission sent out by See also:

Pope Gregory . Wessex was won over by an See also:

INDEPENDENT

independent adventurer, the See also:

FRANK, JAKOB (1726-1791)

Frank Birinus, who had no connexion with the earlier arrivals in Kent . The great See also:

KINGDOM

kingdom of See also:

NORTHUMBRIA (regnum Northanhymbrorum)

Northumbria, though its first See also:

Christian monarch See also:

Edwin was converted by See also:

Paulinus, a See also:

DISCIPLE

disciple of Augustine, re-lapsed into heathenism after his death . It was finally evangelized from quite another See also:

QUARTER (through Fr. from Lat. quartarius, fourth part)

quarter, by Irish missionaries brought by King See also:

Oswald from See also:

COLUMBA, SAINT (Irish, Colum)

Columba's monastery of See also:

IONA

Iona . The See also:

church that they founded struck See also:

root, as that of Paulinus and Edwin had failed to do, and was not wrecked even by Oswald's dea*.n in See also:

BATTLE

battle at the hands of See also:

PENDA

Penda the Mercian, the one strong See also:

CHAMPION (Fr. champion, Late Lat. campio from campus; a field or open space, i.e. one " who takes the field " or fights; cf. Ger. Kampf, battle, and Kampfer, fighter)

champion of heathenism that England produced . Moreover, Penda was no sooner dead, smitten down by Oswald's See also:

BROTHER

brother See also:

OSWIO (c. 612-670)

Oswio at the battle of the Winwaed (A.D . 655), than his whole kingdom eagerly accepted Christianity, and received missionaries, Irish and Northumbrian, from the victorious Oswio . It is clear that, unlike their king, the Mercians had no profound See also:

ENTHUSIASM

enthusiasm for the old gods .

See also:

Essex, which had received its first See also:

bishop from Augustine's hands but had relapsed into heathenism after a few years, also owed its ultimate conversion to a Northumbrian preacher, Cedd, whom Oswio See also:

LENT (0. Eng. lenclen, " spring," M. Eng. lenten, lente, lent; cf. Dut. lente, Ger. Lenz, " spring," 0. H. Ger. lenzin, lengizin, lenzo, probably from the same root as " long " and referring to " the lengthening days ")

lent to King Sigeberht after the latter had visited his See also:

court and been baptized, hard by the See also:

ROMAN

Roman See also:

wall, in 653 . Yet even in those English regions where the missionaries from Iona were the founders of the Church, the representatives of Rome were to be its organizers . In 664 the Northumbrian king Oswio, at the See also:

synod of See also:

WHITBY

Whitby, declared his See also:

ADHESION (from Lat. adhaerere, to adhere)

adhesion to the Roman connexion, whether it was that he saw See also:

POLITICAL

political See also:

ADVANTAGE

advantage therein, or whether he realized the failings and weaknesses of the Celtic church, and preferred the more orderly methods of her See also:

RIVAL

rival . Five years later there arrived from Rome the great organizer, See also:

ARCHBISHOP (Lat. archiepiscopus, from Gr. apxceatorcoros)

Archbishop See also:

Theodore of See also:

TARSUS (mod. Tersous)

Tarsus, who See also:

BOUND, or BOUNDARY (from O. Fr. bonde, Med. Lat. bodena or butina, a frontier line)

bound the hitherto isolated churches of the English kingdoms into a well-compacted whole, wherein the tribal bishops paid obedience to the See also:

METROPOLITAN (Lat. metropolitanus, Gr. µnrpoiroXtrns)

metropolitan at See also:

Canterbury, and met him frequently in See also:

NATIONAL

national See also:

COUNCILS

councils and synods . England gained a spiritual unity long ere she attained a political unity, for in these meetings, which were often attended by See also:

KINGS, FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS OF

kings as well as by prelates, Northumbrian, West Saxon and Mercian first learnt to See also:

WORK

work together as See also:

BROTHERS, RICHARD (1757-1824)

brothers . In a few years the English church became the See also:

PRIDE, THOMAS (d. 1658)

pride of Western Christendom . Not merely did it produce the great See also:

BAND

band of missionaries who converted See also:

HEATHEN

heathen See also:

Germany—Willi- The h brord, Suidbert, See also:

Boniface and the See also:

REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest—but it excelled churc& the other national churches in learning and culture . It is but necessary to mention Bede and See also:

ALCUIN (Marmara)

Alcuin . The first, as has been already said, was the one true historian who wrote during the dark See also:

time of the 7th-8th centuries; the second became the pride of the court of See also:

Charles the Great for his unrivalled scholarship . At the coming of Augustine England had been a barbarous See also:

COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country; a century and a See also:

HALF

half later she was more than abreast of the See also:

CIVILIZATION

civilization of the rest of Europe . But the progress toward national unity was still a slow one . The period when the English kingdoms began to enter into the See also:

COMMONWEALTH

commonwealth of Christendom, by receiving the missionaries sent out from Rome or from Iona, practically coincides with the period in which the occupation of central Britain was completed, and the kingdoms of the conquerors assumed their final See also:

SIZE

size and shape .

'Ethel-See also:

frith, the last heathen among the Northumbrian kings, cut off the Britons of the See also:

North from those of the West, by winning the battle of See also:

Chester (A.D . 613), and occupying the land about the mouths of the See also:

MERSEY

Mersey and the See also:

Dee . Cenwalh, the last monarch who ascended the See also:

THRONE

throne of Wessex unbaptized, carried the boundaries of that kingdom into See also:

Mid-See also:

SOMERSETSHIRE

Somersetshire, where they halted for a long space . Penda, the last heathen king of See also:

MERCIA

Mercia,determined the size and strength of that See also:

state, by absorbing into it the territories of the other Anglian kingdoms of the Midlands, and probably also by carrying forward its western border beyond the See also:

Severn . By the time when the smallest and most barbarous of the Saxon states—See also:

Sussex—accepted Christianity in the See also:

YEAR

year 686, the political See also:

GEOGRAPHY (Gr. yil, earth, and ypiickty, to write)

geography of England had reached a See also:

STAGE (Fr. 6/age; from Lat. stare, to stand)

stage from which it was not to vary in any marked degree for some 200 years . Indeed, there was nothing accomplished in the way of further encroachment on the See also:

Celt after 686, See also:

SAVE, or SAVA (Ger. Sau; Hungarian Szdva; Lat. Savus)

save See also:

Ine's and Cuthred's See also:

EXTENSION (Lat. ex, out ; tendere, to stretch)

extension of Wessex into the valleys of the See also:

TONE, THEOBALD WOLFE (1763-1798)

Tone and the Exe, and See also:

Offa's slight expansion of the Mercian frontier beyond the Severn, marked by his famous dyke . The conquests of the Northumbrian kings in Cumbria were ephemeral; what Oswio won was lost after the death of See also:

ECGFRITH (d. 685)

Ecgfrith . That the conversion of the English to Christianity had any-thing to do with their slackening from the work of conquest it would be wrong to assert . Though their See also:

WARS

wars with the Welsh were not conducted with such ferocious See also:

CRUELTY (through the O. Fr. crualte, mod. cruaute, from the Lat. crudelitas)

cruelty as of old, and though (as the See also:

LAWS

laws of Ine show) the Celtic inhabitants of newly-won districts were no longer exterminated, but received as the king's subjects, yet the hatred between Welsh and English did not cease because both were now Christians . The westward advance of the invaders would have continued, if only there had remained to attract them lands as desirable as those they had already won . But the mountains of See also:

WALES (Cymru, Gwalia, Cambria)

Wales and the See also:

moors of See also:

CORNWALL

Cornwall and Cumbria did not greatly tempt the settler . More-over, the English states, which had seldom turned their swords against each other in the 5th or the 6th centuries, were engaged during the 7th and the 8th in those endless struggles for supremacy which seem so purposeless, because the See also:

HEGEMONY (Gr. i7ye,uovia, leadership, from it-yo-Oat, to lead, the leadership especially of one particular state in a group of federated or loosely united states. The term was first applied in Greek history to the position claimed by different individual

hegemony which a king of See also:

ENERGY (from the Gr. ivipyela; iv, in, ipyov, work)

energy and See also:

GENIUS (from Lat. genere, gignere)

genius won for his kingdom always disappeared with his death .

The " Bretwaldaship," as The „Bret. the English seem to have called it, was the most waldas.” ephemeral of dignities . This was but natural: See also:

con- quest can only be enforced by the extermination of the conquered, or by their consent to amalgamate with the conquerors, or by the garrisoning of the land that has been subdued by settlers or by military posts . None of these courses were possible to a king of the 7th or 8th centuries: even in their heathen days the English were not wont to See also:

MASSACRE

massacre their beaten kinsmen as they massacred the unfortunate Celt . After their conversion to Christianity the See also:

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea of exterminating other English tribes See also:

GREW, NEHEMIAH (1641-1712)

grew even more impossible . On the other See also:

hand, See also:

LOCAL

local particularism was so strong that the conquered would not, at first, consent to give up their natural See also:

independence and See also:

MERGE

merge themselves in the victors . Such amalgamations became possible after a time, when many of the local royal lines died out, and unifying influences, of which a See also:

COMMON

common Christianity was the most powerful, sapped the strength of tribal pride . But it is not till the 9th century that we find this phenomenon growing See also:

general . A kingdom like Kent or See also:

East Anglia, even after long subjection to a powerful overlord, See also:

rose and reasserted its independence immediately on See also:

HEARING (formed from the verb " to hear," O. Eng. hyran, heron, &c., a common Teutonic verb; cf. Ger. Koren, Dutch hooren, &c.; the O. Tent. form is seen in Goth. hausjan; the initial h makes any connexion with " ear," Lat. audire, or Gr. &Kobew very doub

hearing of his death . His successor had to See also:

ATTEMPT (Lat. adtemptare, attentare, to try)

attempt a new conquest, if he See also:

FELT (cognate with Ger. Filz, Du. vilt, Swed. and Dan. fill; the root is unknown; the word has given Med. Lat. filtrum, " filter ")

felt himself strong enough . To See also:

garrison a See also:

DISTRICT

district that had been overrun was impossible: the military force of an English king consisted of his military See also:

house-hold of gesiths, backed by the general See also:

levy of the tribe . The strength of Mercia or Northumbria might be mustered for a single battle, but could not See also:

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

supply a See also:

STANDING

standing See also:

army to hold down the vanquished . The victorious king had to be content with See also:

TRIBUTE (Lat. tributurn, a stated payment, contribution)

tribute and obedience, which would cease when he died, or was beaten by a competitor for the position of See also:

BRETWALDA

Bretwalda .

In the ceaseless strife between the old English kingdoms, therefore, it was the See also:

PERSONALITY (from Lat. persona, originally an actor's mask, from personare,1 to sound through)

personality of the king which was the See also:

main See also:

FACTOR (from Lat. facere, to make or do)

factor in determining the hegemony of one state over another . If in the 7th century the successive great ofNer- acy Northumbrians—Edwin, Oswald, Oswio and Ecgfrith thumbria . —were reckoned the See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief monarchs of England, and exercised a widespread See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence over the See also:

SOUTHERN

southern realms, yet each had to win his supremacy by his own See also:

SWORD (0. Eng. sweord; ultimately from an Indo-European root meaning to wound)

sword; and when Edwin and Oswald See also:

fell before the See also:

savage heathen Penda, and Ecgfrith was cut off by the Picts, there was a See also:

gap of anarchy Formation of the kingdoms . before another king asserted his See also:

SUPERIOR

superior See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power . The same phenomenon was seen with regard to the Mercian kings of the 8th century; the long reigns of the two conquerors ./See also:

ETHELBALD

Ethelbald and Offa covered eighty years (716-796), and it might have been supposed that after such a See also:

TERM

term of supremacy Mercia would have remained permanently at the See also:

head of the English kingdoms . It was not so, iEthelbald in his old See also:

AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas)

age lost his hegemony at the battle of See also:

BURFORD

Burford (752), and was murdered a few years after by his own See also:

PEOPLE

people . Off a had to win back by long wars what his kinsman had lost; he became so powerful that we find the pope calling him Rex Anglorum, as if he were the only king in the island . He annexed Kent and East Anglia, overawed Northumbria and Wessex, both hopelessly See also:

FACTION (through the French, from Lat. factio, a company of persons combined for action, facere, to do; from the other French derivative facon comes " fashion ")

faction-ridden at the time, was treated almost as an equal by the See also:

EMPEROR (Fr. empereur, from the Lat. imperator)

emperor Charles the Great, and died still at the height of his power . Yet the moment that he was dead all his vassals revolted; his successors could never recover all that was lost . Kent once more became a kingdom, and two successive Mercian sovereigns, Beornwulf and Ludica, fell in battle while vainly trying to recover Offa's supremacy over East Anglia and Wessex . The ablest king in England in the See also:

GENERATION (from Lat. generare, to beget, procreate; genus, stock, race)

generation that followed Off a was See also:

Ecgbert of Wessex, who had long been an See also:

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap, consul, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

exile abroad, and served for thirteen years as one of the captains of suprem- Charles the Great . He See also:

BEAT (a word common in various forms to the Teutonic languages; it is connected with the similar Romanic words derived from the Late Lat. battere)

beat Beornwulf of Mercia at acy of Wessex .

Ellandune (A.D . 823), permanently annexed Kent, to whose See also:

CROWN

crown he had a claim by descent, in 829 received the See also:

HOMAGE (from homo, through the Low Lat. hominaticum, which occurs in a document of 1035)

homage of all the other English kings, and was for the See also:

REMAINDER, REVERSION

remainder of his life reckoned as " Bretwalda." But it is wrong to See also:

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

call him, as some have done, " the first monarch of all England." His power was no greater than that of Oswio or Offa had been, and the supremacy might perhaps have tarried with Wessex no longer than it had tarried with Northumbria or Mercia if it had not chanced that the Danish raids were now beginning, For these 'invasions, paradoxical as it may seem, were the greatest efficient cause in the See also:

WELDING (i.e. the action of the verb " to weld," the same word as " to well," to boil or spring up, the history of the word being to boil, to heat to a high degree, to beat heated iron; according to Skeat, who points out that in Swedish the compound verb

welding together of England . They seemed about to rend the land in See also:

TWAIN, MARK

twain, but they really cured the English of their desperate particularism, and drove all the tribes to take as their common rulers the one great line of native kings which survived the Danish See also:

storm, and maintained itself for four generations cf desperate fighting against the invaders . On the continent the main effect of the See also:

VIKING

viking invasions was to dash the See also:

EMPIRE

empire of Charles the Great into fragments, and to aid in producing the numberless See also:

PETTY, SIR WILLIAM (1623-1687)

petty states of feudal Europe . In this island they did much to help the transformation of. the See also:

mere Bretwaldaship of Ecgbert into the See also:

MONARCHY (Fr. monarchic, from Lat. monarchia, Gr. uovapXia, rule of one, µbvos, alone, apXi7, rule)

monarchy of all England . Already ere Ecgbert ascended the throne of Kent the new enemy had made his first tentative See also:

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

appearance on the British See also:

SHORE

shore . It was in the reign of Beorhtric, Ecgbert's predecessor, that the pirates of the famous " three See also:

SHIPS

ships from Heretheland " had appeared on the See also:

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

coast of See also:

DORSET, EARLS, MARQUESSES AND DUKES OF

Dorset, and slain the See also:

SHERIFF

sheriff " who would See also:

FAIN, AGATHON JEAN FRANCOIS (1778–1837)

fain have known what manner of men they might be." A few years later another band appeared, rising unexpectedly from the See also:

sea to See also:

SACK

sack the famous Northumbrian monastery of Lindisfarne (793) . After that their visits came fast and furious on the shore-line of every English kingdom, and by the end of Ecgbert's reign it was they, and not his former Welsh and Mercian enemies, who were the old monarch's main source of trouble . But he brought his Bretwaldaship to a See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good end by inflicting a crushing defeat on them at Hingston Down, hard by the Tamar, probably in 836, and died ere the year was out, leaving the ever-growing problem to his son AEthelwulf The cause of the sudden outpouring of the Scandinavian See also:

DELUGE, THE (through the Fr. from Lat. diluvium, flood, diluere, to wash away)

deluge upon the lands of Christendom at this particular date is one of the puzzles of history . So far as memory ran, influence the peoples beyond the North Sea had been seafaring of viking sea powwer. races addicted to piracy . Even See also:

Tacitus mentions sea=p their fleets . Yet since the 5th century they had been restricting their operations to their own shores, and are barely heard of in the See also:

CHRONICLES, BOOKS OF

chronicles of their southern neighbours .

It seems most probable that the actual cause of their sudden activitywas the conquest of the See also:

SAXONS

Saxons by Charles the Great, and his subsequent advance into the See also:

peninsula of See also:

Denmark . The emperor seemed to be threatening the independence of the North, and in terror and resentment the Scandinavian peoples turned first to strike at the encroaching Frank, and soon after to assail the other Christian kingdoms which See also:

lay behind, or on the flank of, the Empire . But their offensive See also:

ACTION

action proved so successful and so profitable that, after a See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short time, the whole manhood of Denmark and See also:

Norway took to the pirate life . Never since history first began to be recorded was there such a supreme example of the potentialities of sea-power . Civilized Europe had been caught at a moment when it was completely destitute of a See also:

war-See also:

NAVY

navy; the See also:

Franks had never been maritime in their tastes, the English seemed to have forgotten their See also:

ancient sea-faring habits . Though their ancestors had been pirates as fierce as the vikings of the 9th century, and though some of their later kings had led See also:

NAVAL

naval armaments—Edwin had annexed for a moment See also:

Man and .Anglesea, and Ecgfrith had cruelly ravaged part of See also:

Ireland—yet by the year Boo they appear to have ceased to be a seafaring See also:

RACE

race . Perhaps the long predominance of Mercia, an essentially inland state, had something to do with the fact . At any See also:

RATE

rate England was as helpless as the Empire when first the Danish and See also:

NORWEGIAN

Norwegian galleys began to See also:

CROSS

cross the North Sea, and to beat down both sides of Britain seeking for See also:

PREY (0. Fr. preie, mod. proie, Lat. praeda, booty, from prae and the root hed—seen in prehendere, prendere, to grasp)

prey . The number of the invaders was not at first very great; their fleets were not national armaments gathered by great kings, but squadrons of a few vessels collected by some active and enterprising adventurer . Their original See also:

TACTICS (Gr. TaeTOc*, sc. TEXvnI, from TavQecv, to arrange in order of battle)

tactics were merely to land suddenly near some thriving seaport, or See also:

rich monastery, to sack it, and to take to the See also:

WATER

water again before the local See also:

MILITIA (Fr. milice, Ger. Miliz, from Lat. miles, soldier, militia, military service)

militia could turn out in force against them . But such raids proved so profitable that the vikings soon began to take greater things in hand; they began to ally themselves in confederacies: two, six or a dozen " sea-kings" would join their forces for something more than a desultory See also:

RAID

raid . With fifty or a See also:

HUNDRED

hundred ships they would fall upon some unhappy region, harry it for many miles inland, and offer battle to the landsfolk unless the latter came out in overpowering force .

And as their crews were trained warriors chosen for their high spirit, contending with a raw militia fresh from the plough, they were generally successful . If the odds' were too great they could always retire to their ships, put to sea, and resume their predatory operations on some other coast three hundred miles away . As long as their enemies were unprovided with a navy they were safe from pursuit and annihilation . The only See also:

CHANCE (through the O. Fr. cheance, from the Late Lat. cadentia, things happening, from cadere, to fall out, happen; cf. " case ")

chance against them was that, if caught too far from the See also:

BASE

base-fort where they had run their galleys ashore, they might find their communication with the sea cut off, and be forced to fight for their lives surrounded by an infuriated countryside . But in the earlier years of their struggles with Christendom the vikings seldom suffered a See also:

COMPLETE

complete disaster; they were often beaten but seldom annihilated . Ere long they grew so bold that they would stay ashore for months, braving the forces of a whole kingdom, and sheltering themselves in great palisaded camps on peninsulas or islands when the enemy pressed them too hard . On well-guarded strongholds like See also:

THANET, ISLE OF

Thanet or See also:

SHEPPEY

Sheppey in England, See also:

NOIRMOUTIER

Noirmoutier at the See also:

LOIRE

Loire mouth, or the Isle of Walcheren, they defied the local magnates to evict them . Finally they took to wintering on the coast of England or the Empire, a preliminary to actual See also:

settlement and conquest . (See VIKING.) King Ecgbert died long ere the invaders had reached this stage of insolence . IEthelwulf, his weak and kindly son, would undoubtedly have lost the titular supremacy of Wessex over the other English kingdoms if there had been in ofnan progress$ ish Mercia or Northumbria a strong king with leisure to conquest. concentrate his thoughts on domestic wars . But the vikings were now showering such blows on the See also:

NORTHERN

northern states that their unhappy monarchs could think of nothing but self-See also:

defence . They slew Redulf—king of Northumbria—in 844, took See also:

LONDON

London in 851, despite all the efforts of See also:

BURGRED

Burgred of Mercia, and forced that See also:

SOVEREIGN

sovereign to make repeated appeals for help to IEthelwulf as his overlord .

For though Wessex had its full See also:

SHARE (O. Eng. scearu, chiefly in compounds, e.g. land-scearu, a share of land, from sceran to cut; cf. " shear" )

share of Danish attacks it met them with a vigour that was not seen in Suprem- acy of Mercia . Danish invasions . the other realms . The defence was often, if not always, successful; and once at least (at AcIea in 851) ,See also:

ETHELWULF

Ethelwulf exterminated a whole Danish army with " the greatest slaughter among the heathen See also:

HOST

host that had been heard of down to that See also:

day," as the Anglo-Saxon chronicler is careful to See also:

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

record . But though he might See also:

ward off blows from his own See also:

REALM

realm, he was helpless to aid Mercia or East Anglia, and still more the distant Northumbria . It was not, however, till after sEthelwulf's death that the attack of the vikings See also:

DEVELOPED

developed its full strength . The fifteen years (856-871) that were covered by the reigns of his three shortlived sons, ,Ethelbald, /Ethelbert and 'See also:

ETHELRED

Ethelred, were the most miserable that England was to see . Assembling in greater and ever greater confederacies, the Danes fell upon the northern kingdoms, no longer merely to harry but to conquer and occupy them . A See also:

LEAGUE

league of many sea-kings which called itself the " great army " slew the last two sovereigns of Northumbria and stormed See also:

York in 867 . Some of the victors settled down there to See also:

lord it over the half-exterminated English See also:

POPULATION (Lat. populus, people; populare, to populate)

population . The rest continued their advance southward . East Anglia was conquered in 87o; its last king, See also:

Edmund, having been defeated and taken prisoner, the vikings shot him to death with arrows because he would not See also:

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

worship their gods .

His realm was annexed and partly settled by the conquerors . The See also:

FATE

fate of Mercia was hardly better: its king, Burgred, by See also:

CONSTANT, BENJAMIN (1845-1902)

constant See also:

PAYMENT (Fr. paiement, from payer, to pay; Lat. pacare, to appease, pax, peace)

payment of tribute, bought off the invaders for a space, but the eastern half of his realm was reduced to a See also:

WILDERNESS

wilderness . Practically masters of all that lay north of See also:

THAMES

Thames, the " great army " next moved against Wessex, the only quarter where a vigorous resistance was still maintained against them, though its See also:

capital, See also:

Winchester, had been sacked in 864 . Under two kings named Halfdan and Bacsceg, and six earls, they seized See also:

READING

Reading and began to harry See also:

Berkshire, See also:

Surrey and See also:

HAMPSHIRE (or COUNTY OF SOUTHAMPTON, abbreviated HANTS)

Hampshire . King ,Ethelred, the third son of ,Ethelwulf, came out against them, with his See also:

young brother Alfred and all the levies of Wessex . In the year 871 these two gallant kinsmen fought no less than six pitched battles against the invaders . Some were victories—notably the fight of Ashdown, where Alfred first won his name as a soldier—but the English failed to See also:

CAPTURE (from Lat. capere, to take; Fr. prise maritime; Ger. Wegnahme)

capture the fortified camps of the vikings at Reading, and were finally beaten at See also:

Marten (" Maeretun ") near Bedwyn, where ,Ethelred was mortally wounded . He See also:

LEFT

left young sons, but the men of Wessex crowned Alfred king, because they needed a grown man to See also:

lead them in their Alfred the desperate campaigning . Yet his reign opened in-See also:

Drew. auspiciously: defeated near See also:

WILTON

Wilton, he offered in despair to pay the vikings to depart . He must have known, from the experience of Mercian, Northumbrian and Frankish kings, that such See also:

BLACKMAIL

blackmail only bought a short See also:

RESPITE (O. Fr. respit, modern repit, Lat. respectus, regard, consideration, respicere, to look back at)

respite, but the See also:

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

condition of his realm was such that even a moderate time for reorganization might prove valuable . The enemy had suffered so much in the " year of the six battles " that they held off for some space from Wessex, seeking easier prey on the continent and in northern England . In 874 they harried Mercia so cruelly that King Burgred fled in despair to Rome; the victors divided up his realm, taking the eastern half for themselves, and establishing in it a confederacy, whose jarls occupied the " five boroughs " of See also:

Stamford, See also:

Lincoln, See also:

Derby, See also:

Nottingham and See also:

Leicester .

But the western half they handed over to " an unwise See also:

THEGN, or THANE

thegn named Ceolwulf," who bought for a short space the See also:

PRECARIOUS

precarious See also:

TITLE (0. Fr. title, mod. titre, from Lat. titulus)

title of king by paying great tribute . Alfred employed the four years of See also:

peace, which he had bought in 871, in the endeavour to strengthen his realm against the inevitable return of the raiders . His See also:

WISDOM, BOOK OF, or WISDOM OF SOLOMON (Sept. Io4ia IaXwµwvos; Lat. Vulg. Liber sapientiae)

wisdom was shown by the fact that he concentrated his See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention on the one See also:

DEVICE

device which must evidently prove effective for defence, if only he were given time to perfect it—the See also:

BUILDING

building of a national navy . He began to lay down galleys and " long ships," and hired " pirates "—renegade vikings no doubt—to See also:

TRAIN (M. Eng. trayn or trayne, derived through Fr. from Late Lat. trahinare, to drag, draw, Lat. trahere, cf. trail, trace, ultimately from the same source)

train crews for him and to See also:

TEACH [THATCH OR THACH], EDWARD (d. 1718)

teach his men See also:

SEAMANSHIP

seamanship . The See also:

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

scheme, however, was only partly completed when in 876 three Danish kings entered Wessex and resumed the war . But Alfred blockaded them first in See also:

WAREHAM

Wareham and then in See also:

Exeter . The See also:

FLEET

fleet which was coming to carry themoff, or to bring them reinforcements, fought an indecisive engagement with the English ships, and was wrecked immediately after on the cliffs of the Isle of Purbeck, where more than See also: