and Strath-clyde, and the king of the Scots, became his liegemen. In all his projects he was assisted by the Lady of Mercia, as his sister Ethelfleda was named, who governed Mercia after the death of her husband (912). This able princess headed her own troops, and gained victories over both Danes and Britons. She and the king turned their thoughts to the possession of strong fortified towns as the best means of securing the realm. The Lady fortified Bridgenorth, Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Leicester, Derby, etc.; the king raised works round Hertford, Witham, Buckingham, Bedford, Malden, Towcester, Colchester, Stamford, Manchester, Nottingham, and other towns. On the death of the Lady (920) Edward took the government of Mercia into his own hands. After a prosperous reign of twenty-four years, king Edward died in peace (925).

36

CHAPTER IV.

ANGLO-SAXON SOVEREIGNS OF ALL BRITAIN *. ATHELSTAN. - Battle of Brunnanburgh. EDMUND. EDRED. — EDWY

(the Fair).—Saint Dunstan.—Elgiva.—EDGAR (the Pacific).-Elfrida.—EDWARD II. (the Martyr).-Dunstan's Miracles.—ETHELRED (the Unready). - Massacre of the Danes ;-their Conquests.—EDMUND II. (Ironside).

ATHELSTAN. 925–941. By the will of his father and the choice of the Witan, Athelstan, the late king's eldest son, mounted the throne. He was crowned at Kingston; but a part of the WestSaxons alleging that he was illegitimate refused to recognise him, and a conspiracy to seize and blind him was formed by a nobleman named Alfred. The plot was discovered, but as Alfred denied his guilt, he was allowed, according to Anglo-Saxon usage, to clear himself by oath before a bishop. It was agreed that he should go to Rome and swear in presence of the pope ; he accordingly repaired thither, and before the Holy Father swore that he was innocent. Instantly, it is said, he fell senseless to the ground, and he died within three days.

The first wars in which this able prince was engaged were against the Britons of Cambria and Damnonia, who strove to regain their independence (927). But their efforts were unavailing; the Cambrian princes had to come to Hereford and do homage, and agree to pay yearly twenty pounds weight of gold and two hundred of silver into the hoard or treasury of the “ king of London’; they were to send him every year five thousand beeves, and their best hawks and hounds, and the country between the Severn and the Wye was to become a part of Mercia. The Damnonians, who hitherto had dwelt to the Exe, were

now driven beyond the Tamar, and completely reduced beneath the sceptre of Athelstan.

The king, in the hopes of maintaining peace, had given one of his sisters in marriage to Sihtric, the ruler of the Danes beyond the Humber; but Sihtric dying soon after, the northern chieftains urged his sons Guthfrith (Godfrey), and Anlaf (Olave) to cast off allegiance to Athelstan; “ for in the old time," said they, “we were free, and served not the southern king." War was resolved on. Constantine, king of the Scots, took share in it; but the power of the English king was not to be withstood,—the Danish princes were forced to fly beyond sea, the Scottish king to do homage for his dominions, and give his son as a hostage*.

Guthfrith and Anlaf embraced the life of pirates; the former died early; but the latter, more fortunate, made himself master of Dublin, in Ireland, and became the chief of a powerful piratic force. The king of the Scots, ill brooking subjection, made a treaty with Anlaf; the Britons also of Strath-clyde, Cumbria, and Cambria, readily joined in the league; and when Anlaf entered the Humber (937) with a fleet of six hundred and twenty sail, the whole confederacy took arms. King Athelstan assembled an army without delay, and the hostile forces met at a place named Brunnanburgh. It is said that Anlaf before the battle disguised himself as a minstrel, and entered the English camp. The soldiers quickly flocked about him: the news of the arrival of a strange minstrel was brought to the king, at whose order Anlaf was led to the royal tent, where he played and sang as the king and his nobles sat at a banquet; he was then dismissed with a suitable reward. He retired, having noted everything in the camp;

.

but his pride would not let him retain the money which prudence had induced him to accept, and he buried it in the ground when he thought himself unobserved. A soldier, however, saw him, and on a close inspection recognised him, and then went and informed the king. Athelstan demanded why he had not given information when he might be seized. The soldier made answer, that he had once served and sworn fealty to Anlaf, and if he had betrayed him, the king might justly suspect him of equal treachery to himself. Athelstan praised him, and then, suspecting Anlaf's design, removed his tent to another part of the camp, and the vacant ground was occupied by the bishop of Sherborn, who arrived that evening with his retainers. In the dead of the night Anlaf and his troops burst into the English camp, and making direct for the royal tent, as they thought, slaughtered the bishop and his companions. The tumult spread; at sun-rise a regular battle commenced, and having lasted all through the day, terminated in the utter discomfiture of the invaders. Five Danish kings and seven earls (Iarls) were slain, thė king of Scots lost his son, and warriors without number fell. “ Never," says the poet who sung the battle, “since the Saxons and Angles, those artists of war, arrived, was such slaughter known in England.”

After this great victory the realm of Athelstan was at ease and tranquil. The king of the English, or of all Britain as he styled himself, was highly respected by the princes of the continent; the kings of Norway and Armorica sent their sons to be reared at his court; the son of the German emperor, Charles the Simple king of France, the duke of Aquitaine, and Hugh the Great count of Paris espoused his four sisters; and after the dethronement of

B Charles the Simple, his widow and her son Louis took refuge in England, whence the latter was named when restored D'outremer (From beyond sea).

cause.

EDMUND. 941-947. Athelstan was succeeded (941) by his brother Edmund, then only eighteen years of age. The Northumbrians immediately recalled Anlaf from Ireland to be their king ; and Wulstan, archbishop of York, warmly espoused his

Mercia was forthwith invaded, and Tamworth taken and plundered ; a battle was fought at Leicester,

! after which, by the mediation of the prelates of York and Canterbury, a peace was concluded, by which Edmund was to rule south, Anlaf north of Watling Street*, and the survivor to possess the whole. Anlaf however died the next year, and Edmund then (945) reduced all Northum

, bria. He next turned his arms against the Britons of Cumbria; he defeated and expelled Donald, their prince, and blinded his sons, and then gave the country to Malcolm, king of Scots, in vassalage. Edmund the Magnificent, as he is named, did not long enjoy his power. As the next year (946) he was sitting at a banquet with his nobles, on St. Augustine's festival, he saw at the table one Leof, who had been outlawed. Enraged at his audacity the king sprang up, caught him by his long hair, and dragged him to the ground; but in the struggle Leof drew a dagger, and gave the monarch a mortal wound.

a

EDRED. 947—955.

As Edmund's children were young, he was succeeded by his brother Edred, a prince of delicate frame, but of vigorous mind; his dominion was acknowledged by all the kingdoms of the island. Hardly however had the Northumbrians taken the oaths, when they rose in rebellion, and made a Norwegian pirate, named Eric, their king. Edred speedily invaded and laid waste their country; and as he menaced to return and do still worse, they