Durham, Northumberland, &c. The population was Danish nevertheless, and subjection to an Anglo-Saxon king was a most unwilling yoke. They turned their eyes towards the sea, ready to welcome the first pirate chief who would help them to re-establish their own power in the land.

Such an opportunity was offered in the reign of Ethelred, who came to the throne in the year 978, on the murder of his elder step-brother, Edward, surnamed the Martyr. This crime had been committed by Elfrida, the mother of Ethelred, in order to place the crown upon his brow. It excited universal horror throughout the nation. "No worse deed than this," says the Saxon Chronicle, "had been committed among the people of the Angles, since they first came to the land of Britain."

Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, opposed Ethelred's accession. This Dunstan was an ambitious and powerful priest, who for many years, especially during the reigns of Edwy and Edgar, the predecessors of Ethelred, had more truly ruled the realm than the king who wore the crown. Dunstan tried to persuade the nun, Edgitha, a half-sister of Ethelred, to become queen, but she thought of her murdered brother, and of the short reigns and sad deaths of many a Saxon king, and wisely refused to leave the quiet of the cloister for the perils of a throne.

There was no other heir, and Dunstan was most unwillingly forced to make the young Ethelred king. It is said that, in placing the crown on his brow, the angry archbishop pronounced a curse, instead of a blessing, on the unhappy young monarch. He gave him, also, the nickname of "the Unready." The curse, alas! had its fulfilment, for in this unfortunate prince, the glory of the house of Alfred was for ever lost. He proved himself, also, but too deserving of the nickname of "Unready."

979.

For about thirty years the land had had rest from the Danes, but scarcely had Ethelred been three years on the throne, when the raven banner of the sea-kings was again raised in England. This time the Danish hosts were led by

981.

Sweyn, a prince, and afterwards king of Denmark. And how did the weak King Ethelred repel them? Not as his braver . ancestors had done, by courage and arms, but by bribes of silver and gold. Of course they came again, plundering and burning as before. More money was given them, and

994. the Danegeld (as the gold given to bribe the Danes. away was called) rose from ten to sixteen, and finally to twenty-four thousand pounds. Then the weak King Ethelred tried another means to get rid of the enemy. He married

Emma, "the Flower of Normandy," as she was called. She was the sister of Richard, duke of the Normans, and Ethelred hoped, by the aid of these strangers, to drive the Danes from the land.

The Normans, as one might suppose from their name, were themselves Northmen, of the same race originally as the Saxons and Danes. Nearly a hundred years before the reign of King Ethelred, they had fallen upon France, pretty much as the Saxons had upon England. The French king gave to their leader, Rolfe, or Rollo, a large portion of territory. The invaders settled therein, broke off their connection with their sea-roving countrymen, gave up even the religion and language of their ancestors, and became, in the course of a century, a people as brave as the Saxons, and in some respects more civilized. King Ethelred hoped that by his marriage with Emma of Normandy, Norman soldiers would come over and help him fight the Danes.

1002.

In this hope he was disappointed, and now the third method which he took to rid himself of the enemy, was quite as weak as the other two, and far more wicked. On the 13th of November, 1002, known as the Festival of St. Brice, he ordered the Danes to be put to death. The fearful, treacherous order was obeyed. In one night, this new Danish population, which, during twenty years of invasion, had become mingled with the English, was laid low by the swords of their hosts and neighbors. Among the dead was Gunhilda, the sister of the Danish king. When the tidings reached his ears, Sweyn vowed a fearful revenge.

A larger fleet, a more numerous army than had ever before gathered for the invasion of Saxon England, now assembled. To the natural ferocity of the invaders was added a burning thirst for vengeance. "These choice warriors embarked in lofty ships, every one of which bore the ensign of its separate commander. Some carried at their prow such figures as lions, bulls, dolphins, dragons, or armed men of metal, gayly gilded; others carried on their topmast head the figures of large birds, as eagles and ravens, that stretched out their wings and turned with the wind; the sides of the ship were painted with different bright colors, and from stem to stern shields of burnished steel were suspended in even lines, and glittered in the sun. Gold, silver, and embroidered banners were displayed, and the whole wealth of the pirates of the Baltic lent its aid to this barbaric pomp. The ship that bore the royal standard of Sweyn was moulded in the form of an enormous serpent, the sharp head of which formed the prow, while the lengthening tail coiled over the poop. It was called 'The Great Dragon.' The fearful host landed in England. No Danegeld could make them depart now. Town after town, province after province yielded. At last they drove the weak King Ethelred beyond seas, to take refuge with his Norman brother-in-law, and at the end of ten years of ravage and plunder and warfare, Sweyn, king of Denmark, became king of

1003.

England too. He died before his coronation, and the 1013. Danes proclaimed Canute, his son, as king. The Saxon cause was upheld by a son of Ethelred's, Edmund, surnamed Ironsides. After some battles, the kingdom was divided between the two rulers, Saxon and Dane. In a few months, however, Edmund Ironsides died, and Canute the Dane became full king of England. At the end of nearly two hundred years of invasion, a Danish race of monarchs was thus seated on the English throne.

1017.

Canute did not feel very secure in his new kingdom, and cruel were the means he took to render himself more at ease. He said to his Danish warriors," He who brings me the head of one of my enemies, shall be dearer to me than a brother,"

and the head of many a Saxon chief purchased this brotherly affection. The young sons of Edmund Ironsides were sent to Sweden, Canute hoping that the king of that country would The Swedish king did not away into Hungary, where,

cause them to be put to death. murder them, but sent them far beyond the reach of the cruel Dane, they were kindly treated.

There were two other heirs to the English throne. Ethelred himself was dead, but had left two sons at the court of his Norman brother-in-law. Canute could not murder these children, but he entered into treaty with their uncle, Duke Richard, and proposed to make their mother a second time queen of England. And Emma, the heartless "Flower of Normandy," for the glory of a throne, forgot the love and care she owed her children, and became the wife of this strange Danish king, the cruel enemy of her Saxon husband and their

1017.

sons.

When Canute had disposed of all his enemies, he became a milder and a better king, and sought to win the favor of his subjects. He gathered round him the minstrels and gleemen, and delighted in old songs and ballads, and even made verses himself for the people. He made good laws for his kingdom, and becoming a Christian, founded churches and monasteries. One day, disgusted with the flatteries of his courtiers, he caused his throne to be placed on the sea-shore, when the tide was coming in. Then, as the waves rolled on with their resistless might, he commanded them to retire, nor presume to wet the edge of his robe." But, as each succeeding wave broke nearer the royal feet, he turned to his courtiers, saying, "Confess now how vain is the might of an earthly king, compared to that Great Power who alone can say to the ocean, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.""

1035.

To Canute succeeded his sons, Harold and Hardicanute, the latter being the child of the Norman Emma. But though this heartless woman forgot the claims of her Saxon first-born at the court of Normandy, there were those in England who were not unmindful of his rights.

During the reigns of the Danish monarchs, there was a strong Saxon party in England, headed by Godwin, the "Great Earl," as he was called, and his six stalwart sons. On the death of Hardicanute, this party succeeded in bringing Edward, the son of Ethelred, from his long Norman exile, and placing him on the English throne.

This last descendant of the race of Alfred was far

1042. from proving the Saxon king for whom the people longed. He had been brought up in another land; he had learned a foreign language, and could scarcely speak the Saxon tongue; he loved the ways and manners of those among whom he had lived; he was a stranger in his own kingdom. In his reign, the coming event of the great Norman conquest cast a broad shadow over the land. Normans filled the English court. Edward was a most pious king, according to the piety of those days, and won the name of Edward "the Confessor," or "the Saint." He loved to be surrounded by priests and monks, and soon the churches, the abbeys, the monasteries, and the convents were filled with favored Normans. Even the archbishopric of Canterbury was given to a foreign prelate. Norman-French was the language spoken at court and in the halls of justice, and those who sought the royal favor, laid aside their homely Saxon tongue, and studied the language of the strangers. The simple mark of the cross as the royal signature was abandoned, and in its place was used "the great seal." The fashionable, too, imitated the Norman dress. So completely had the court of England become Norman, that when, in the year 1051, William, the young duke of that country, came over to pay Edward a visit, he found himself so surrounded by the people and the customs of his own duchy, that he could scarcely realize that he had crossed the Channel. All these things displeased much the Great Earl Godwin and the Saxon party.

1053.

On the death of Godwin, his son Harold succeeded to his earldom and power, and rose to even a higher place in the affections of the people. King Edward the Confessor had no children, and his life was drawing to its close.