IX. the Unready. and Northumbria with their depredations. The CHAP. provincials armed to defend their possessions, but Ethelred they confided the command to three chiefs of Danish ancestry, who with fatal treachery fled at the moment of joining battle";-another indication of the discontent of the nobles and the unpopularity of the government. IN 994, the breezes of the spring wafted into the Thames two warlike kings, Olave Tryggva's son, king of Norway, and Svein king of Denmark, in a temporary confederation. They came with ninety-four ships. They were repelled at London; but though their force was unimportant, they were able to overrun the maritime part of Essex and Kent, and afterwards Sussex and Hampshire, with successful outrage. 18 The progress of so small a force, and the presence of two kings accompanying it, may induce the reflective reader to suspect that they did not come without some previous concert or invitation from some part of the nation. But on this occasion, when a small exertion of the national vigour could have overpowered the invaders, Ethelred again obeyed a fatal advice. He sent to offer tribute and provisions, and to know the sum which would stop their hostilities! Sixteen thousand pounds was the sum demanded, by fewer than ten thousand men for the redemption of England. 19 Can we avoid inferring treason in his councils? That the nobles should patronise such a measure looks like a scheme for abasing the power of their ecclesiastical opponents, who still governed the royal mind; or of changing the dynasty, as at 17 Sim. Dun. 162. Sax. Chron. 127. 19 Sax. Chron. 129. Flor. Wig. 366. Sim. Dun. 162. 994. VI. BOOK last took place, from Ethelred to Svein. Infatuation Ethelred without treachery could hardly have been so imthe becile, as to have bought off an invader a second time, when the nation was so powerful, and the enemy so inferior, 20 Unready. 994. 998. OLAVE was invited to Ethelred's court, and, upon receiving hostages for his safety, he went to the royal city, where the king received him with honour. During his visit he received the Christian rite of confirmation, and had rich presents. When he departed for his country in the summer, he promised to molest England no more, and he kept his word. 21 THE army of Svein, on the last capitulation, had wintered at Southampton. After three years' respite, it resumed its hostilities, sailed along Wessex, and, doubling the Land's End, entered the Severn. Wales, and afterwards Cornwall and Devonshire, were infested. Proceeding up the Thamar, they leaped from their ships, and spread the flames as far as Lydeford. The monastery of Tavistock fell amid the general ruin. Their ships were laden with the plunder, and the invaders wintered in security near the scene of their outrage. 22 RESUMING their activity with the revival of vegetation, they visited the Frome, and spread over great part of Dorset. Advancing thence to the Isle of Wight, they made alternate insults on this district and Dorsetshire, and compelled Sus 20 The sermon of Lupus, preached about this time, implies the insubordination of the country, and its enmity to the clergy. He calls the nation "Priest-slayers," and robbers of the clergy, and laments the seditions that prevailed. See it ap. Hickes's Diss. Ep. 99-106. 21 Malmsb. 63. Sax. Chron. 129. Sax. Chon. 129. Sim. Dun. 163. 1 IX. Ethelred. the Unready. 998. sex and Hampshire to supply them with pro- CHAP. visions. 23 But was the powerful nation of England thus harassed with impunity? When its enemies even stationed themselves on its coasts in permanent hostility, was no exertion directed to repress them? The answer of history is, that often was the Anglo-Saxon army collected to punish, but as soon as the battle was about to commence, either some treason or some misfortune prevented. They quitted their ranks, and gave an easy triumph to the half-welcomed Danes. 24 In the next year the Danish army, almost naturalised in England, approached the Thames, and, turning into the Medway, surrounded Rochester. The Kentishmen assembled to protect their city, but after a furious battle they yielded their dead to the invaders, who, collecting horses, almost destroyed the west of Kent. 25 26 A NAVAL and military armament was now ordered against the invaders. But again the consequences of the national disaffection occurred. The commanders, as if befriending the invaders, interposed wilful delays in the equipment of the force. The fleet, when ready, was merely assembled; day after day drawled on without exertion, and injured only those who had been assessed to provide it. Whenever it was about to sail, some petty obstacle delayed it. The enemy was always permitted to increase and unite his strength; and when he chose to retire, then our fleet pursued. Thus even the very means which, properly used, would have cleared the British ocean of its oppressors, only 23 Sax. Chron. 129. Sim. Dun. 164. 24 Flor. 368. Sim. Dun. 163. 25 Sax. Chron. 130. Matt. West. 386. 26 Flor. 369. VI. Ethelred the Unready. 998. BOOK increased the calamity of the nation. The people were called to labour to no purpose; their money was wasted as emptily, and by such mock preparations the enemies were more encouraged to invade. When the Danish forces retired, the army of Ethelred almost depopulated Cumberland. His fleet set sail to coast round Wales and meet him ; but the winds repelling them, they ravaged the Isle of Man as the substitute. 28 1000. A POWERFUL diversion happened this year in favour of Ethelred; for the quarrel between Svein and Olave attained its height. Assisted by a Swedish king, and the son of Hakon Jarl, Svein attacked Olave by surprise, near the Island of Wollin, with a great superiority of force. The bravery of Olave could not compensate for a deficiency of numbers. His ship was surrounded; but, disdaining to be a prisoner, he leapt into the sea31, and disappeared from pursuit. Popular affection, unwilling to lose its favourite, gave birth to that wild rumour which has so often attended the death of the illustrious, that the king had escaped the fray, and was living recluse on some distant shore. 32 Authentic history places his death in this battle. 33 31 27 Sax. Chron. 130. 28 Flor. 369. Sax. Chron. 130. 29 Sweden was at this time in the hand of many kings: "Isto tempore multi erant Uplandiarum reges, suæ singuli provinciæ imperitantes - Heidmarkiæ imperium tenuere duo fratres-Gudsbrandaliæ Gudrodus; etiam Raumarikiæ suus erat rex; suus quoque Thotniæ et Hadalandiæ nec non suus Valdresiæ. Snorre, vol. ii. p. 36, 37. 30 Theodoric, c. xiv. p. 23. Ara Frode, p. 49. Snorre details the confederacy against Olave, i. p. 334-345. Saxo gives the Danish account, lib. x. p. 191. 31 Saxo, 191. Snorre, 345. 32 Theodoric, 24. The tale must have made impression, for Theodoric declares, he knows not which relation was the truest. 33 Ara Frode dates it 130 years after the fall of Edmund in East 34 IX. CHAP. the 1000. 1002. Massacre Danes. THIS diversion was made more complete by the Northmen also molesting Normandy. But the interval brought no benefit to England. The Unready. Danes returned in 1001, with their usual facility. The same measure was adopted notwithstanding its experienced inefficacy; and twenty-four thousand pounds was the third ransom of the English nation. 35 No measure could tend more to bring on the government the contempt of the people. THE year 1002 has become memorable in the annals of crime, by an action as useless as im- of the becility could devise, and as sanguinary as cowardice could perpetrate. On the day before St. Brice's festival, every city received secret letters from the king, commanding the people, at an ap-. pointed hour, to destroy the Danes there suddenly by the sword, or to surround and consume them with fire. This order was the more atrocious, as the Danes were living in peace with the AngloSaxons. The expressions of Malmsbury imply even an endeared amity of connection; for he says, with correct feeling, that it was miserable to see every one betray his dearest guests, whom the cruel necessity made only more beloved. 36 To murder those we have embraced, was an horrible idea, which exhibits human nature in one of its most dagrading, yet most dreadful, possibilities, Anglia, or in 1000, c. vii. p. 49. The conquerors shared Norway, 34 Sax. Chron. 130. 35 Sax. Chron. 132. Both the MS. Chronicles have 24,000l. 26 Malmsb. 64. The Saxon Chronicle says that Ethelred ordered it, because it had been reported to him that they had a design to murder him first, and then all his witan, and thereupon to possess his kingdom without opposition, an. 1002. See Miss Gurney's translation of it, p. 158. |