878-960]

ALFRED'S NAVY

33

Referring to this introduction, Alfred said, "He who keeps this shall not need any other law book.”

Next, that learning might not utterly perish in the ashes of the abbeys and monasteries which the Danes had destroyed (§ 53), the King, though feeble and suffering, set himself to translate from the Latin the "Universal History of Orosius," and also Bede's valuable "Church History of England."

58. Alfred's Navy. Alfred, however, still had to fight against fresh invasion by the Danes, who continued to make descents upon the coast, and even sailed up the Thames to take London. The English King constructed a superior class of fast-sailing war vessels from designs made by himself. With this fleet, which may be regarded as the beginning of the English navy, he fought the enemy on their own element. He thus effectually checked a series of invasions which, if they had continued, might have reduced the country to barbarism.

59. Estimate of Alfred's Reign. Considered as a whole, Alfred's reign (871-901) is the most noteworthy of any in the annals of the early English sovereigns. It was marked throughout by intelligence and progress

His life speaks for itself. The best commentary on it is the fact that, in 1849, the people of Wantage, his native place, celebrated the thousandth anniversary of his birth, another proof that "what is excellent, as God lives, is permanent.'

60. St. Dunstan's Three Great Reforms (960-988). Long after Alfred's death, St. Dunstan, then Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the English Church, set out to push forward the work begun by the great King. He labored to accomplish three things. First, he sought to establish a higher system of education; secondly, he desired to elevate the general standard of monastic life; finally, he tried to inaugurate a period of national peace and economic progress.

He began his first work when he had control of the abbey of Glastonbury, in the southwest of England. He succeeded in making the school connected with that abbey the most famous one in the whole kingdom (§ 45). He not only taught himself, but, by his enthusiasm, he inspired others to teach. He was determined

1 R. W. Emerson's "Poems."

that from Glastonbury a spirit should go forth which should make the Church of England the real educator of the English people. Next, he devoted himself to helping the inmates of the monasteries in their efforts to reach a truer and stronger manhood. That, of course, was the original purpose for which those institutions had been founded (§ 45), but, in time, many of them had more or less degenerated. Every athlete and every earnest student knows how hard it is to keep up the course of training he has resolved upon. The strain sometimes becomes too great for him. Well, the monk in his cell had found out how difficult it was for him to be always faithful to his religious vows. St. Dunstan roused these men to begin their work anew. He re-created monasticism in England, making it stricter in discipline and purer in purpose.

Last of all, the Archbishop endeavored to secure greater freedom from strife. He saw that the continued wars of the English were killing off their young men - the real hope of the country. and were wasting the best powers of the nation. His influence with the reigning monarch was very great, and he was successful, for a time, in reconciling the Danes and the English (§§ 53, 56). It was said that he established "peace in the kingdom such as had not been known within the memory of man." At the same time the Archbishop, who was himself a skillful mechanic and worker in metals,1 endeavored to encourage inventive industry and the exportation of products to the Continent. He did everything in his power to extend foreign trade, and it was largely through his efforts that "London rose to the commercial greatness it has held ever since."2 Because of these things, one of the best known English historians, speaking of that period, declares that Dunstan "stands forth as the leading man in both Church and State."

61. New Invasions; Danegeld (992). With the close of Dunstan's career, a period of decline set in. The Northmen began to make fresh inroads (§ 53). The resistance to them became feeble

1 The common people regarded his accomplishments in this direction with superstitious awe. Many stories of his skill were circulated, and it was even whispered that in a personal contest with the Evil One, it was the foul fiend and not the monk who got the worst of it, and fled from the saint's workshop, howling with dismay. 2 R. Green's "English People."

3 E. A. Freeman's "Norman Conquest," I, 65.

1017-1035]

SWEYN CONQUERS ENGLAND

35

and faint-hearted. At last a royal tax, called Danegeld, or Dane money (992), was levied on all landed property in England in order to buy off the invaders. For a brief period this cowardly concession answered its purpose. But a time came when the Danes refused to be bribed to keep away.

62. The Northmen invade France. The Danish invasion of England was really a part of a great European movement. The same Northmen who had obtained so large a part of the island (§ 56) had, in the tenth century, established themselves in France.

There they were known as Normans, a softened form of the word Northmen," and the district where they settled came to be called from them Normandy. They founded a line of dukes, or princes, who were destined, in the course of the next century, to give a new aspect to the events of English history.

63. Sweyn conquers England; Canute1 (1017-1035). Early in the eleventh century Sweyn, the Dane, conquered England (1013), and "all the people," says the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (§ 99), "held him for full king." He was succeeded by his son Canute (1017). He could hardly be called a foreigner, since he spoke a language and set up a government differing but little from that of the English.

After his first harsh measures were over he sought the friendship of both Church and people. He gave the country peace. Tradition reports that he rebuked the flattery of courtiers by showing them that the inrolling tide is no respecter of persons; he endeavored to rule justly, and his liking for the monks found expression in his song:

64. Canute's Plan; the Four Earldoms. Canute's plan was to 、establish a great northern empire embracing Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England. To facilitate the government of so large a realm, he divided England into four districts, Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria, — which, with their dependencies, embraced the entire country. (See map facing p. 38.)

1" Cnut," a shortened form of Canute.

Each of these districts was ruled by an earl1 invested with almost royal power. For a time the arrangement worked well, but eventually discord sprang up and imperiled the unity of the kingdom. After Canute's death two of his sons divided England between themselves; both were bad rulers.

65. Restoration of the Saxon or English Kings; Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). On the accession of the Danish conqueror Sweyn (§ 63), Ethelred II, the English King, sent his French wife Emma back to Normandy for safety. She took her son, Prince Edward, then a lad of nine, with her. He remained at the French court nearly thirty years, and among other friends to whom he became greatly attached was his second cousin, William, Duke of Normandy.

The oppressive acts of Canute's sons (§ 64) excited insurrection (1042), and both Danes and English joined in the determination to restore the English line. They invited Prince Edward to accept the crown. He returned to England, obtained the throne, and pledged himself to restore the rights of which the people had been deprived. By birth King Edward was already half Norman; by education and tastes he was wholly so.

It is very doubtful whether he could speak a word of English, and it is certain that from the beginning he surrounded himself with French favorites, and filled the Church with French priests. Edward's piety and blameless life gained for him the title of "the Confessor," or, as we should say to-day, "the Christian.”

He married the daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the most powerful noble in England. Godwin really ruled the country in the King's name until his death (1053), when his son Harold (§ 67) succeeded him as earl.

66. Edward the Confessor builds Westminster Abbey. During a large part of his reign the King was engaged in building an abbey or monastery at the west end of London, and hence called the Westminster. He had just completed and consecrated this great

2

1 Earl ("chief" or "leader "): a title of honor and of office. The four earldoms established by Canute remained nearly unchanged until the Norman Conquest, 1066. 2 Minster: a name given originally to a monastery; next, to a church connected with a monastery; but now applied to several large English cathedrals.