and, on the advice of their nobles, united for their CHA P. mutual defence and the general safety." THE invaders, though in many bands, like the 1 Grecian host before Troy, yet submitted to the predominance of Ingwar and Ubbo, two of the sons of Ragnar. Of these two, Ingwar was distinguished for a commanding genius, and Ubbo for his fortitude; both were highly courageous, and inordinately cruel." In the next spring, the invaders roused from their useful repose, and marched into Yorkshire. The metropolis of the county was their first object; and, on the first of March, it yielded to their attack. Devastation followed their footsteps; they extended their divisions to the Tyne, but, without passing it, returned to York. 8 OSBERT and Ella, having completed their pacification, moved forwards, accompanied with eight of their earls, and, on the 12th of April, assaulted the Northmen near York. The Danes, surprised by the attack, fled into the city. The English pursued with the eagerness of anticipated victory, broke down the slight walls, and entered, con=flicting promiscuously with their enemies; but, = having abandoned the great advantage of their superior discipline, the English rushed only to destruction. No nation could hope to excel the 6 Hunt. 349. Asser, 18. So Sim. Dun. 14. 7 Hunt. 348. Ubbo is called chief of the Frisians by Sim. Dun. 70. Adam of Bremen describes Ingwar as the most cruel of all, and as destroying Christians every where in torments, p. 14. He is also called Ivar. 8 Sim. Dun. 14. In this year Ealstan died, the celebrated bishop and statesman. Asser, 18. 9 Asser remarks, that York had not at this period walls so firm and stable as in the latter part of Alfred's reign, 18. VI. 867. IV. 867. BOOK Northmen in personal intrepidity or manual dexterity; from their childhood they were exercised in single combat and disorderly warfare; the disunited Northumbrians were therefore cut down with irremediable slaughter. slaughter. Osbert and Ella, their chiefs, and most of their army, perished. 10 The sons of Ragnar inflicted a cruel and inhuman retaliation on Ella, for their father's sufferings. They divided his back, spread his ribs into the figure of an eagle, and agonised his lacerated flesh by the addition of the saline stimulant." AFTER this battle, decisive of the fate of Northumbria, it appeared no more as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom. The people beyond the Tyne appointed Egbert as their sovereign, but in a few years he was expelled, and one Ricseg took the shadowy diadem. In 876 he died with grief at the distresses of his country, and another Egbert obtained the nominal honours, 12 But Ingwar was the Danish chief, who, profiting by his victory, assumed the sceptre of Northumbria from the Humber to the Tyne. 13 A DISMAL sacrifice had been offered up to the manes of Ragnar, yet the invaders did not depart. It was soon evident that their object was to conquer, 10 Asser, 18. Sim. Dun. 14. The place where they fell was in Bromton's time called Ellescroft. Bromt. 803. 11 Frag. Isl. 2 Lang. 279. Ragnar Saga, ib. The Scalld Sigvatr. ib. Saxo Gram. 177. This punishment was often inflicted by these savage conquerors on their enemies. See some instances in Stephanius, 193. 12 Sim. Dun. 14. Matt. West. 326, 327, 328. Leland's Collect. ii. p. 373. 13 The language of the Northern writers is, that Ivar obtained that part of England which his ancestors had possessed. Ragnar Saga, in Torfæus Series Dan. Olaff Tryggv. Saga, ib. 375. This adds that he reigned a long while, and died without issue, 376. So Frag. Isl. 2 Langb. 279. VI. in order to occupy; desolation followed their vic- C H A P. tories, because Northmen could not move to battle without it; but while plunder was the concomitant of their march, dominion became the passion of their chiefs. THE Country was affected by a great dearth this year, which the presence of such enemies must have enhanced. Alfred had now reached his nineteenth year; he was raised by his brother to an inferior participation of the regal dignity, and he married Ealswitha, the daughter of a Mercian nobleman. 14 The earnestness with which Alfred in his Boetius speaks of conjugal affection, implies that this union contributed greatly to his felicity. THE Northmen having resolved on their plans of occupation and conquest, began to separate into divisions. One body rebuilt York, cultivated the country round it, and continued to colonise it. 15 It may be presumed that Ingwar headed these. Other bands devoted themselves to promote the ambition of those chieftains who also aspired to royal settlements. THIS army passed the Humber into Mercia, and established themselves at Nottingham, where they wintered. Alarmed by their approach, Burrhed, 14 Ethelred, surnamed the Large. The mother of Alfred's queen was Eadburh, of the family of the Mercian kings. Asser frequently saw her before her death, and calls her a venerable woman. Her daughter's merit as a wife leads us to infer the excellence and careful nurture of the mother, 19. 15 Sim. Dun. Vita St. Cuthberti, 71. 16 Its British name was Tiguo Cobauc, the house of caves. Asser, 19. Ty, is a house in Welsh now; and cwb, a concavity. In the charter of 868, it is called Snothryngham, the house of Snothryng; which in the days of Ingulf had become changed to Nothingham, p. 18, 19. 867. Alfred's marriage. 868. IV. 868. BOOK the king, and his nobles, sent an urgent embassy to West Saxony for assistance. Ethelred, with judicious policy, hastened to his wishes. He joined the Mercian with Alfred and the whole force of his dominions; and their united armies marched towards the frontier through which the invaders had penetrated. THEY found the Northmen in possession of Nottingham; the Danes discerned the great superiority of the allied armies, and remained within the strong walls and castle of the town." The Anglo-Saxons were incapable of breaking through these fortifications, and their mutual respect, after an ineffectual struggle, occasioned a pacification, advantageous only to the Danes. The invaders were to retreat to York, and the kings of Wessex, satisfied with having delivered Mercia, and not discerning the danger of suffering the Northmen to remain in any part of the island, returned home. 18 THE Northmen retired to York with great booty. 19 In this year two of the most terrible calamities to mankind occurred, a great famine, and its inevitable attendant, a mortality of cattle, and of the human race. 20 The general misery presented no temptations to the rapacity of the 17 Pagani munitione fortissimorum murorum et areis validissimæ confidentes. Ingulf, 20. Burrhed in a charter to Croyland, dated Aug. 1. 868., states himself to have made it at Snothryngham before his brother's friends, and all his people assembled to besiege the pagans. 18 Asser, 20., mentions no conflict; the Saxon Chronicle asserts, that an attack was made on the intrenchments, but disgraces the Anglo-Saxons, by adding, that it was not severe, p. 79. The monk of Croyland praises the young earl Algar, for his prowess in the affair, p. 18. 19 Ingulf, 18-20. 20 Asser, 20. Northmen, and they remained a year in their C HA P. Yorkshire stations. 21 WHEN spring arrived, they threw off all disguise, and signalised this fourth year of their residence in England by a series of hostilities the most fatal, and of ravages the most cruel. They embarked on the Humber, and sailing to Lincolnshire, landed at Humberstan in Lindesey." From this period, language cannot describe their devastations. It can only repeat the words plunder, murder, rape, famine and distress. It can only enumerate towns, villages, churches and monasteries, harvests, and libraries, ransacked and burnt. But by the incessant repetition, the horrors are diminished; and we read, without emotion, the narration of deeds which rent the hearts of thousands with anguish, and inflicted wounds on human happiness and human improvement, which ages with difficulty healed. Instead, therefore, of general statements, which glide as unimpressively over the mind as the arrow upon ice, it may be preferable to select a few incidents, to imply those scenes of desolation, which, when stated in the aggregate, only confuse and overwhelm the sensibility of our perception. AFTER destroying the monastery, and slaying all the monks of the then much admired abbey of Bardeney, they employed the summer in desolating the country around with sword and fire. 23 About Michaelmas they passed the Witham, and entered the district of Kesteven24 with the same dismal ministers 21 Sax. Chron. 80. Asser, 20. 22 Lindesey was the largest of the three parts into which the county of Lincoln was anciently divided. 23 Ingulf, 20. 24 Kesteven was another of the three districts into which Lincolnshire was anciently divided. VI. 870. |