871]

DANISH INVASION

31

52. Danish Invasion. When Alfred came to the throne (871) the Danes, or Northmen, as they were often called, were sweeping down upon the country. A few months before he became King, he had aided his brother in a desperate struggle with them. In the beginning, the object of the Danes was to plunder, later, to possess, and finally, to rule over the country. They had already overrun a large portion of England and had invaded Wessex or the country of the West Saxons. (See map facing p. 30.) Wherever their raven flag appeared, destruction and slaughter followed.

53. The Danes or Northmen destroy the Monasteries. These terrible pirates despised Christianity. They scorned it as the weak religion of a weak people. They hated the English monasteries most of all and made them the especial objects of their attacks (§§ 43, 45, 46). Many of these institutions had accumulated wealth, and some had gradually sunk into habits of laziness, luxury, and other evil courses of life. The Danes, who were full of the vigorous virtues of heathenism, liked nothing better than to scourge these effeminate vices of the cloisters.

From the thorough way in which they robbed, burned, and murdered, there can be no doubt that they enjoyed their work of destruction. In their helplessness and terror, the panic-stricken monks added to their usual prayers, this fervent petition: "From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us!" The power raised up to answer that supplication was Alfred the Great.

54. Alfred's Victories over the Danes; the White Horse. After repeated defeats Alfred finally drove back these savage hordes, who thought it a shame to earn by sweat what they could win by blood.

In these attacks Alfred led one half the army and his brother Ethelred led the other. They met the Danes at Ashdown Ridge in Berkshire. (See map facing p. 32.) While Ethelred stopped to pray for success, Alfred, under the banner of the "White Horse," the common standard of the English at that time, began the attack and won the day.

Tradition declares that after the victory he ordered his army to commemorate their triumph by carving that colossal figure of a horse on the side of a neighboring chalk hill, which still remains

so conspicuous an object in the landscape. It was shortly after this that Alfred became "King of the West Saxons"; but the war, far from being ended, had in fact but just begun.

55. The Danes compel Alfred to retreat. The Danes, reënforced by other invaders, overcame Alfred's forces and compelled him to retreat. He fled to the wilds of Somersetshire, and was glad to take up his abode for a time, so the story runs, in a peasant's hut. Subsequently he succeeded in rallying part of his people, and built a stronghold on a piece of rising ground, in the midst of an almost impassable morass. There he remained during the winter.

56. Alfred's Great Victory; Treaty of Wedmore, 878. In the spring Alfred marched forth and again attacked the Danes. They were intrenched in a camp at Edington, Wiltshire. He surrounded them, and starved them into complete submission. They had to confess that Alfred's muscular Christians were more than a match for the most stalwart heathen. The Danish leader swore to maintain a peace, called the Peace or Treaty of Wedmore. (See maps facing p. 32 and p. 38.) More than this, the discomfited warrior sealed the oath with his baptism, an admission that Alfred had not only beaten him but converted him as well.

By the Treaty of Wedmore, 878, the Danes bound themselves to remain north and east of a line drawn from London to Chester, following the old Roman road called Watling Street. All south of this line, including a district around London, was recognized as the dominions of Alfred, whose chief city, or capital, was Winchester. (See map facing p. 32.)

By this treaty the Danes got much the larger part of England (called the Danelaw), but they acknowledged Alfred as their Overlord. He thus became, in name at least, what his predecessor, Egbert (§ 49), had claimed to be, supreme ruler of the whole country, though the highest title he ever assumed was "King of the Saxons or English."

57. Alfred's Laws; his Translations. Alfred proved himself to be more than mere ruler, for he was also a lawgiver and teacher as well. Through his efforts a written code was compiled, prefaced by the Ten Commandments and ending with the Golden Rule.