IV. 849. The bishop may have nurtured or infused that habi- СНАР. tual piety for which Alfred was remarkable; but was unquestionably unfit for the office of literary tutor, as Alfred passed his childhood without knowing how to read. Their successes in France having enlarged the horizon of the Northmen's ambition, every new aggression on England became more formidable than the preceding. In 851, they first ventured to winter in the Isle of Thanet.10 This was a new era in their habits. Their ancient custom had been to pirate abroad in the summer, but to return with the autumn. But Ragnar's success in France had increased their daring, and enlarged their views. They had now formed the daring project of remaining in the countries which they insulted. In the spring they attempted against the AngloSaxons the most serious invasion which England had yet experienced. Their numbers, perhaps the result of a confederation, were superior to any preceding attack. They entered the Thames with 350 ships, plundered Canterbury and London, and marched into Mercia. The names of all their chieftains are not mentioned; but as Ragnar Lodbrog was now in full activity, he may have led or aided the invaders. Mercia had been governed by Withtlaf till 838. His son and wife reached the tomb before him, and he buried them by the side of Etheldritha, the daughter of Offa. She had sheltered him from the pursuit of Egbert, and his grateful feelings were so ardent, that when he heard of her death, his grief confined him to his bed, and it was with difficulty afterwards that he was withdrawn from her grave. His brother Bertulph succeeded, and signalised his 10 Sax. Chron. 74. Asser, p. 5., places the winter residence in Shepey Isle ; but the printed Chronicle dates their first wintering in Shepey in 854. The MS. Sax. Chron. Tib. B. 4. has 855. 852. BOOK IV. 852. reign by favouring the assassination of his brother's The Northmen after this victory turned southward The Earl of Devonshire had already defeated them at Wenbury in that county, and Ethelstan, the subordinate king of Kent, with the earl Ealhere, had enjoyed a similar success at Sandwich, where nine of their ships were taken.14 11 Ingulf, 11. Sax. Chron. 74. Mr. Hume erroneously says that Brichtric governed Mercia at this period, p. 71. 12 Sax. Chron. 74. Flor. Wig. 295. The Mercian succession of sovereigns was now drawing to its close. Beortulf was succeeded in 852 by Burrhed, the last king of Mercia, who in the next year requested the assistance of Ethelwulph against the Britons of Wales.15 Burrhed had already fought a battle, in which Merfyn Frych the British king fell, and was succeeded by Roderic, who has obtained in Welsh history the epithet of Mawr, or the Great.16 But an epithet like this rather expresses the feelings of his countrymen, than the merit of his character. It may be just in provincial history as long as that exists in its local seclusion; but the force of the expression vanishes when the person it accompanies is brought forward into more general history in an enlightened age. He who was great in his little circle or ruder times, becomes then diminutive and obscure; and it is almost ludicrous to apply one of the most splendid symbols of recorded merit, to actions so inconsiderable, and to characters so ambiguous as a petty Welsh prince. The grand epithets of history should be reserved for those who can abide a comparison with the illustrious of every age, like the lofty mountains of nature, which, whether existing in Italy, in Tartary, or Chili, are admired for their sublimity by every spectator, and in every period. Roderic endured the invasion of Ethelwulph and Burrhed, who penetrated with victorious ravages to Anglesey.17 Ethelwulph gave his daughter Ethelswitha in marriage to the Mercian, and the nuptial solemnities were celebrated royally at Chippenham.18 to him the provinces which Egbert had conquered, 37. Ethelstan is mentioned by Fordun to have perished in a battle against the Picts, lib. iv. c. 14. p. 666. In 850 he signed a charter as king of Kent. Thorpe, Reg. Roff. p. 23. Dr. Whitaker supposes him to have been St. Neot, but this is rather a hazarded than an authorised conjecture. 15 Asser, 6. 16 Wynne's Hist. p. 27. 17 Wynne, 27. Asser, 7. Sax. Chron. 75. 18 Asser, 7. Matt. West. 305. Burrhed therefore became Alfred's brother-inlaw. Voltaire calls him inaccurately his uncle. Comme Burred son oncle, p. 473. CHAP. IV. 852. 853. BOOK IV. 853. Alfred sent to Rome. At Rome again in 855. The vikingr appeared again in Thanet. Ealhere, with the armed men of Kent, and Huda, with those of Surrey, overwhelmed the invaders with the first fury of their battle; but the conflict was obstinately renewed, the English chiefs fell, and after many of both armies had been slain or drowned, the pirates obtained the victory. 19 In the fifth year of Alfred's age, his father, although he had three elder sons, seems to have formed an idea of making him his successor. This intention is inferred from the facts that Ethelwulph sent him at this time to Rome, with a great train of nobility and others; and that the pope anointed him king, at the request of his father.20 It is expressly affirmed, that the king loved Alfred better than his other sons.21 When the king went to Rome himself two years afterwards, he took Alfred with him, because he loved him with superior affection.22 The presumption that he intended to make Alfred his successor, therefore, agrees with the fact of his paternal partiality. It is warranted by the declaration of Matthew of Westminster, that one of the causes of the rebellion which followed against Ethelwulph was, that he had caused Alfred to be crowned, thereby, as it were, excluding his other children from the chance of succession.23 In Alfred's journey through France, he was very hospitably treated by Bertinus and Grimbald.24 When 19 Asser, 7. Ragnar's Quida mentions one of his exploits at an English promontory, where the English noble Walthiofr fell. See before, note 48. 20 So Florence, 296.; Sim. Dun. 139.; Rad. diceto. 450.; Chron. Mailros, 142.; Matt. West. 307.; and Chron. Joan. Taxton, MSS. Cotton. Lib. Julius, A. 1., affirm. As St. Neot the son or brother of Ethelwulph went, about this period, seven times to Rome, his journeys or his advice may have had some connection with this project. 21 Cum communi et ingenti patris sui et matris amore supra omnes fratres suos. Asser, 15., Matt. West. 307., Sim. Dun. 141., Flor. Wig. 297., express the same fact. 22 Filium suum Ælfredum iterum in eandem viam secum ducens eo quod, illum plus ceteris filiis suis diligebat. Asser, p. 8. 23 Causa autem bifaria erat, una quod filium juniorem Ælfredum quasi aliis a sorte regni exclusis, in regem Romæ fecerat coronari. Matt. West. p. 308. 24 Vita Grimbaldi. Lel. Collect. i. p. 18. Alfred arrived in the course of nature at the royal dignity, he remembered Grimbald's services and talents, requited them by a steady friendship, and obtained from them an important intellectual benefit. СНАР. IV. 855. wulph's In 855, Ethelwulph, with the sanction of his witena Ethelgemot, made that donation to the church which is donation of usually construed to be the grant of its tithes. But the tenths. on reading carefully the obscure words of the three copies of this charter, which three succeeding chroniclers have left us, it will appear that it cannot have been the original grant of the tithes of all England. These words imply either that it was a liberation of the land which the clergy had before been in possession of, from all the services and payments to which the Anglo-Saxon lands were generally liable 25, or that it was an additional gift of land, not of tithes, either of the king's private patrimony, or of some other which is not explained. The reason for the gift which is added in the charter strengthens the first supposition 26; but the terms used to express 25 Ingulf, Malmsbury, and Matt. West. profess to give copies of the charter. The king (in Ingulf's copy), after reciting the depredations of the Northmen, adds, with some confusion of grammar and style, "Wherefore I, Ethelwulph, king of the West Saxons, with the advice of my bishops and princes, affirming a salutary counsel, and uniform remedy, we have consented that I have adjudged some hereditary portion of land to all degrees before possessing it, whether male or female servants of God, serving him, or poor laymen; always the tenth mansion: where that may be the least, then the tenth part of all goods should be given in perpetual freedom to the church, so that it may be safe and protected from all secular services and royal contributions greater or smaller, or taxations which we call wynterden; and that it may be free from all things; and without the military expedition, building of bridges, and constructions of fortresses." Ing. Hist. p. 17. Malmsbury's copy corresponds with this; but for "then the tenth part of all goods," it has "yet the tenth part," omitting the words, "of all goods," and changing "tum" into "tamen." p. 41. Matt. West., p. 306., gives it a different aspect: he makes it like an absolute hereditary gift, but converts the general term “land,” used by the others, into my land." Thus, "I grant some portion of my land to be possessed in perpetual right, to wit, the tenth part of my land, that it may be free from all offices, and secular services, and royal tributes," &c., adding the same reason as above. The natural force of Matthew's words limit the lands given, to the king's own lands, which were only a small part of the kingdom, but gives a proprietary right more expressly than the others. I think there is no reason to believe that tithes were then first granted, but that this charter was meant to have the operation mentioned in the text. 66 ་ 20❝That they may more diligently pour forth their prayers to God for us without ceasing; as we have alleviated their servitude in some part, eorum servitutem |