I.

this northern frontier; and Stamford, Towcester, CHAP. Bedford, Hartford, Colchester, Witham, and Mal- Edward den, presented a strong boundary of defence the Elder. against the hostilities of the East Anglian Danes. 910. The three last places guarded three rivers important for their affording an easy debarkation from foreign parts.

THE strength of Edward was tried by an invasion of Northmen from Armorica, and his military policy was evidenced by its issue. Two chieftains led the hostile fleet round Cornwall into the Se

vern, and devastated North Wales. They debarked and plundered in Herefordshire. The men of Hereford, Gloucester, and the nearest burghs or fortified places, defeated them with the loss of one of their chiefs, and the brother of the other, and drove the rest into a wood, which they beseiged. Edward directed armed bodies to watch the Severn, from Cornwall to the Avon. The enemy endeavoured one night to escape in two divisions, but the English overtook them in Somersetshire. One was destroyed in Watchet; the other in Porlock bay. The remainder sheltered themselves in a neighbouring island, till, urged by famine, they fled to South-Wales, whence in the autumn they sailed to Ireland. 15

THE Anglo-Saxon monarchy received new security from Edward's incorporation of Mercia with Wessex, on Ethelfleda's death.

BOTH Edward and Ethelfleda had many struggles with the Northmen in England; but their triumphs were easy, for they attacked enemies, not in their compact strength, but in their scattered positions. Thus Ethelfleda warred with them in

5 Sax. Chron. 105. Flor. 343.

918.

920.

VI. Edward

BOOK Derby. In assaulting the castle, four of her bravest and most esteemed generals fell; but she the Elder. still urged the combat, and at last mastered the place: she also obtained Leicester, Derby, and even York.

920..

EDWARD endured, and perhaps provoked similar conflicts. The Danes attacked his fortress at Towcester, but the garrison and the provincials repulsed them. In Buckinghamshire, the invasion was formidable, and many districts were overrun, till Edward rescued his people by new victories. In some parts they seemed to copy his policy. They built hostile fortresses at Huntingdon, and at Temesford in Bedfordshire, and assailed Bedford; but the garrison and its supporters defeated them with slaughter."

18

A PECULIAR spirit of hostility seemed in the latter years of his reign to have excited the Anglo-Danes; for scarcely had they experienced the defeats already noticed, before another aggression was attempted, and was punished. The progress of Edward's power endangering their own, may have caused their animosity. But happily for the Anglo-Saxons and Edward, their love of freedom, and the independence of their chiefs, made their kings weak in actual power, and prevented their permanent union under one sovereign. Before they retrieved their former disasters, the king collected a large army from the burghs nearest his object, and attacked them at Temesford. A king, and some earls, perished against him; the 16 Hunt. 353, 354. Sax. Chron. 106. Ingulf says of her: "Ipsam etiam urbibus extruendis, castellis muniendis, ac exercitibus ducendis deditam, sexum mutasse putaris," p.28.

17 Matt. West. 358. Sax. Chron. 107.

18 See Sax. Chron. 108, 109.

I.

920.

survivors were taken, with the city. Pressing on CHAP. his advantages, he raised another powerful force Edward from Kent, Surrey, Essex, and their burghs, and the Elder. stormed and mastered Colchester. The East Anglian Danes marched against Malden, in alliance with some vikingr, whom they had invited from the seas 19; but they failed. Edward secured his conquests by new fortifications; and the submission of many districts augmented his realms, and enfeebled his competitors.20 The East Anglian Danes not only swore to him, "that they would will what he should will," and promised immunity to all who were living under his protection; but the Danish army at Cambridge separately chose him for their lord and patron.22

THESE examples of submission spread. When the king was at Stamford, constructing a burgh, all the people about the north of the river, received his dominion. The Welsh kings yielded to his power. Howel, Cledauc, and Jeothwell, with their subjects, submitted to him as their chief lord 23, and the king of the Scots chose him for his

19 Lezadpode micel hepe hine of East Englum, æzthen ze thær land heper, ze thapa Wicinza che hie him to fultume arpanen hærson. Sax. Chron. 108.

20 Sax. Chron. 109. Thus the king went to Pasham in Northamptonshire, and staid there while a burgh was made at Towcester; then Thurferth Eorl and his followers, and all the army from Northampton to the river Weland in that county, sought him to Hlaforde, and to Mundboran. Ibid. 109.

21 Tha hie eall tha polson tha he polde. Ibid. 109.

22 Pine zeceas sýndeplice him to plafonde and to Mundbopan. Sax. Chron. 109.

23 Sax. Chron. 110. The Welsh had previously suffered from the warlike Ethelfleda. She took Brecon and a Welsh queen, and signalised herself afterwards in another invasion. Howel was the celebrated Howel Dha, the legislator of Wales. He held both Powys and South Wales. Clydauc was his brother. Wynne's Hist. 44, 45. Powys and Dinefawr were tributary to the king of Aberfraw. The laws of Howel Dha mention the tribute to the king of London thus:

922.

VI.

Edward

BOOK father and lord. If princes almost beyond the reach of his ambition acquiesced in his superiority, the Elder. it is not surprising that the kings of Northumbria and the Strathcluyd population should follow the same impulse." After these successes, Edward died at Farrington in Berkshire.25

924.

EDWARD the elder must be ranked among the founders of the English monarchy. He executed with judicious vigour the military plans of his father; and not only secured the Anglo-Saxons from a Danish sovereignty, but even prepared the way for that destruction of the Anglo-Danish power which his descendants achieved.

26

IT has been said of Edward, that he was inferior to his father in letters, but superior to him in war, glory, and power. This assertion is rather an oratorical point than an historical fact. Edward had never to struggle with such warfare as that during which Alfred ascended his throne, in which he lost it, and by whose suppression he regained it. Edward encountered but the fragments of that tremendous mass which Alfred first broke.

EDWARD had many children besides Athelstan.

<< Sixty-three pounds is the tribute from the king of Aberfraw to the king of London, when he took his kingdom from him; and besides this, except dogs, hawks, and horses, nothing else shall be exacted." Lib. iii. c. 2. p. 199. Wotton's edition.

24 Mailros, 147. Saxon Chron. 110. Flor. 347. Matt. West. 359. Hoveden, 422. Malmsbury, 46. Ingulf, 28. Bromton, 835. 25 The year of his death is differently stated: 924 is given by Matt. West. 359.; Bromton, 837.; Flor. 347.; Malm. 48.; Mail. 147.; Chron. Petrib. 25.; and by the MS. Chron. Tib. b. i. and also b. iv. The printed Saxon Chronicle has 925, p. 110. Hoveden puts 919, and Ethelwerd 926. The authorities for 924 preponderate. 26 Malmsb. 46. Flor. 336. Ingulf, 28.

I.

the Elder.

924.

He was twice married. His first marriage pro- CHAP. duced two sons, Ethelward and Edwin, and six Edward daughters. Four of the latter were united to continental potentates." His second union 28 was followed by the birth of two more sons, Edmund and Edred, who in the course of time succeeded to his sceptre; and of three daughters. One of these, a lady of exquisite beauty", was wedded to the prince of Acquitain.

EDWARD imitated his father as well in his plan of education as in his government. The first part of his daughters' lives was devoted to letters : they were afterwards taught to use the needle, and the distaff. His sons received the best literary education of the day, that they might be well qualified for the offices of government to which they were born.30

27 Malmsb. 47.

28 His second wife was Eadgifu, whose will is printed in Saxon, with a Latin translation, in the Appendix to Lye's Saxon Dictionary. 29 Edgivam speciositatis eximiæ mulierem. Malmsb. 47. 30 Malmsb. 47. Edward was for some time under an excommunication from Rome, for keeping his bishoprics vacant. The king appeased the pope by filling seven sees in one day. Malmsb.48. Edward was buried in the same monastery where his father and brother Ethelwerd lay. Ibid.