BOOK IV. 876. They attack peace. The three kings, who had wintered at Cambridge, began their hostilities against Wessex. Leaving their positions at night, they sailed to Dorsetshire, surprised the castle of Wareham, and depopulated the country round. Alfred, after a naval victory, weary of battles and seeking only repose, again negotiated with them to leave his dominions; and he had the impolicy to use money as his peace-maker. 15 They pledged themselves by their bracelets, the oath most sacred to their feelings, and which they had never plighted before.16 But Alfred exacted also an oath on Christian relics. We may smile at the logic of the king, who thought that a Christian oath would impose a stronger obligation on Pagan minds, or that the crime of perjury was aggravated by the formalities of the adjuration. But the delusion of his mind in not discerning that the welfare of himself and his country was sacrificed by such treaties is more remarkable; especially as Asser mentions that his natural character was to be too warlike.17 To punish Northmen by the impositions of oaths, or by hostages, which appear to have been reciprocal 18, was to encourage their depredations by the impunity which attended them. It was binding a giant with a rush, an eagle with a cobweb. Accordingly, in a night quickly succeeding the peace-making solemnity, they rushed clandestinely on the king's forces, and slew all his horsemen.19 They used the steeds to His 15 Ethelwerd, 844. Before this treaty Alfred attacked the Danes by sea. ships, meeting six of theirs, took one and dispersed the others. Asser, 27. 16 Asser, 28. Their bracelets were highly valued by them, and always buried with them. See Bartholin. 499-503. Joannes Tinmouth says, they were nobilitatis indicium. Hist. MSS. cited by Dugdale, i. p. 256.; and see Aimon, p. 371. 385. 19 I infer this, because, in mentioning Alfred's complete and final conquest of Guthrun, Asser says, he exacted hostages, but gave none. Ille nullum eis daret, p. 34. He adds that this was unusual. Ita tamen qualiter nunquam cum aliquo pacem ante pepigerant. 19 Asser, 28. mount a part of their army, which rode immediately CHAP. to Exeter, and remained there for the winter.20 VII. 877. The small advantage which the ships of Alfred Alfred's had obtained over a few Danish vessels, induced him naval sucto cause long ships and galleys to be built at the cesses. ports of his kingdom; and, as his countrymen were less competent to navigate them, he manned them with such piratical foreigners as would engage in his service.21 They were appointed to cut off all supplies from his invaders. They met a large fleet of Northmen hastening from Wareham, to relieve their countrymen. They flew to arms with the same alacrity with which they prosecuted all their enterprises. The Northmen, half ruined already by a stormy voyage, waged a fruitless battle; their hosts perished, and of their steeds of the ocean, to adopt their favourite metaphor, one hundred and twenty were destroyed at the rock of Swanwick, on the coast of Hampshire.22 Alfred at last collected his troops, and marched against the Danes in Exeter; but they possessed themselves of the castle before he reached it, and his military skill was unable or unwilling to assault or to besiege it. He contented himself with repeating the illusory policy of exacting new hostages and new oaths, that they should depart from his kingdom.23 The conduct of Alfred, in the first years of his reign, seems to have been imprudent. While acting with his brother, he was energetic and indefatigable; 20 Named by the Britons, Caer Wisc; by the Saxons, Єaxanceartpe. It is, continues Asser, on the eastern bank of the river Wisc, near the southern sea, which flows between Gaul and Britain. 21 Asser's expressions are " Impositisque piratis in illis vias maris custodiendas commisit." P. 29. 22 The printed copy of Asser, besides this defeat, makes 120 also to perish in a storm. I follow Matt. West. 328., who consolidates the two incidents into one. Flor. Wig. 315., Sax. Ch. 83., Ethelw. 845., and Hunt. 350., mention only one loss of 120 vessels. 23 Asser, 28. BOOK IV. 877. but after he became possessed of the crown himself, instead of a system of vigilance and vigour against his enemies, we find nothing but inert quietude, temporising pacifications, and transient armaments. The only plan discernible in the first seven years of his reign, was to gain momentary repose. An interval of tranquillity was certainly obtained; but it was a delusive slumber on the precipice of fate. CHAP. VIII. ALFRED becomes a Fugitive. Misconduct imputed to him. WE now approach the period of Alfred's greatest degradation. The locusts of the Baltic, to use the expressive metaphor of the chronicles, having spread themselves over part of Mercia in the preceding August, and being joined by new swarms, advanced again into Wessex; and in January took possession of Chippenham in Wiltshire, where they passed the winter, and from which they made excursive ravages over the adjacent country. On this decisive invasion, the country found itself so unprotected, from whatever cause, that many of the inhabitants emigrated in penury and terror to other regions. Some fled over sea, and to France; the rest, overawed by the cavalry of the invaders, submitted to their dominion, and Alfred himself was compelled to become a fugitive.1 CHAP. VIII. 878. Northmen enter Wilts. flight. These circumstances, which every chronicler states Alfred's or implies, are so extraordinary, that it is difficult to comprehend them. The Danes invade Wessex, the country falls undefended into their hands, and Alfred preserves his life by such a concealment, that his friends were as ignorant as his enemies both of his residence and fate.2 Such became his distress, that he knew not where to turn 3; such was his poverty, 1 Asser, 30. Sax. Chron. 84. Ethelw. 845. Matt. West. 329. Hunt. 350. Asserii Annales, 166. Alur. Bev. 105. Walling. 537. and others. 2 Quare ergo idem sæpedictus Alfredus in tantam miseriam sæpius incidit ut nemo subjectorum suorum sciret, ubi esset vel quo devenisset. Asser, 32. So Asserii Annales, 166. So Flor. Wig. At rex Ælfredus tactus dolore cordis intrinsecus, quid ageret, quo se verteret ignorabat. Matt. West. 329. BOOK IV. 878. that he had even no subsistence but that which by furtive or open plunder he could extort, not merely from the Danes, but even from those of his subjects who submitted to their government; or by fishing and hunting obtain. He wandered about in woods and marshes in the greatest penury, with a few companions; sometimes, for greater secrecy, alone. He had neither territory, nor, for a time, the hope of regaining any." To find Alfred and the country in this distress, and at the same time to remark, that no battles are mentioned to have occurred between the arrival of the Northmen at Chippenham, and the flight of the king, or the subjection of the country, are circumstances peculiarly perplexing. It is not stated on this invasion, as it is on every other, that Alfred collected an army, and resisted the Northmen; that he retired at the head of his forces, though defeated; that he posted himself in any fortress7, or that he took any measures to defend the country against his enemies. They invade in January; and between that month and the following Easter, a very short period, all this disaster occurred. The power of the Danes may have been formidable, but it had never been found by Alfred to be irresistible; and the events of a few months proved that it was easily assailable. When they attacked his brother, they met a resistance which has been recorded. When they attacked himself in the preceding years, his means of opposition, though not vigorous, are yet Nihil enim habebat quo uteretur, nisi quod a paganis et etiam a Christianis qui se paganorum subdiderant dominio, frequentibus irruptionibus aut clam, aut etiam palam subtraheret. Asser, 30. Flor. Wig. 5 Asser, 30. Hunt. 350. Mailros, 144. Chron. Sax. 84. Matt. West, 329. Sim. Dun. 18. 71. 6 Alured. Bev. 105. This was remarkable, because Odun's defence in Kynwith, and Alfred's subsequent fortification in Ethelingey, show how such a retreat would have protected the country. Hoveden says, that his ministers retired to Kynwith, p. 417. |